Similar to BBC’s original Who Do You Think You Are? series, VH1 Rock Docs will premier a new documentary on Monday, May 23 entitled 50 Cent: The Origin Of Me. In the film, set to document the Queens bred emcee’s journey as he searches his family’s painful past taking him all the way to Edgefield, South Carolina, the artist born Curtis James Jackson will come face to face with the brutality of slavery and how it affected members of his family, over 200 years ago – watch the trailer below.
Born in Queens and schooled on the street, 50 Cent’s incredible death-defying story of survival and success does not just begin with him. Like all African Americans, he is the product of a greater journey, one that began thousands of miles away and hundreds of years ago — in slavery.
The birthplace of noted segregationist Strom Thurmond, “Bloody Edgefield,” as the town was known, bears the scars of a violent and racist past. This is the town where 50 Cent — born Curtis Jackson III — sets out to track his roots. With help from local genealogists and census data, 50 manages to find his great-great-great grandmother Jane Jenkins, who lived and worked as a slave in the mid-1800’s.
Along the way, 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. As America commemorates the 150th anniversary of that war this spring, the film provides a moving testament to the lines that still divide us. –VH1
[via Miss Info]
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