50 Cent’s Video “In Da Club” Hits A Billion Views On YouTube
50 Cent’s 2003 video for “In Da Club” featuring Eminem and Dr. Dre has entered into legendary territory.
According to Universal Music Group, the visual has surpassed a billion views on YouTube, putting it into an extremely small group of pre-YouTube era music videos to do so.
“In Da Club” hit the milestone, the label revealed in a press release, this year amidst a global pandemic — ironically while people were encouraged to stay as far away from any club to prevent spreading the COVID-19 virus to others. The statement revealed that the video has amassed 400,000 views per day so far in 2020.
To celebrate the achievement, the video was “restored from the original film” and can now be watched in 4K on 50 Cent’s YouTube channel. This was made possible by a joint venture announced by YouTube Music and Universal Music Group in 2019 to restore iconic music videos into the highest possible video and audio qualities.
50 joins Eminem, the rapper-turned-music mogul partially responsible for his success as a musician, in the billion view club. Eminem’s “Without Me” was the first rap song to hit this milestone. He is also the second Black person to fit the 10-digit mark on YouTube. The first was Whitney Houston with her iconic “I Will Always Love You
“In Da Club” was the first single from the South Jamaica rapper’s 9X platinum debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin' and reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and was nominated for a GRAMMY® for Best Male Rap Solo Performance and Best Rap Song in 2004.
50 Cent took to Twitter to celebrate the milestone with a Tweet, writing “Not bad for a kid from South Side. LOL.”
“In Da Club” joins Eminem’s “Without Me” as being the only pre-YouTube era hip-hop videos to hit YouTube’s one billion vew mark. with the only video ahead of it being Eminem’s “Without Me.”
Other artists to do so from this era are Nirvana, Guns N’ Roses, Queen, The Cranberries, A-ha, and Whitney Houston, who was recently inducted into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame and was previously the only black artist of the time to join the billion view club.
“In Da Club” debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart when it dropped in 2003. Its video won Best Rap Video at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards.
Check out the 4K version of the classic video up above.
