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Rapper 50 Cent will trace his roots in a VH1 “Rock
Docs” documentary called “The Origin of Me,” to air May 23 at 9 pm.

The show follows 50 Cent to South Carolina, where his family lived before migrating
to New York City in the 1950s. He visits relatives, investigates his roots at the
Edgefield County Archives and meets the descendants of slave owners.

From the press release: “50 also learns that in the years following the Civil War,
his ancestors faced the infamous ‘Redshirts,’ the precursors to the KKK, giving him
a new perspective on the violence he encountered as a young man in Queens.”

VH1 promises to show a different side of the hard-edged rapper, whose albums include Get
Rich or Die Tryin’ (2003) and Before I Self-Destruct (2009).

Born Curtis James Jackson III in the South Jamaica neighborhood of Queens, New York
City, he was 12 when his mother was murdered, he served prison time for drug-related
charges and he survived being shot nine times at close range.

Read
more about the show and 50 Cent on VH1’s blog.