Want to be a Great Investor? Become 50 Cent or Die Tryin'

For a second, I thought 50 Cent had become the new Jim Cramer. For all of 50 Cent's business tenacity, the article tries very hard to sweep his rap history under the rug as though it's just a coincidence to his success. If you ask any random person on the street "Who is 50 Cent?" a large majority of answers will be "a rapper" as opposed to "investor".

Many artists use their name as a brand to get endorsements:

His shoe line has generated over $70 million in revenue for Reebok -> Endorsement

His apparel line created in collaboration with Mark Ecko generates around $100 million in revenue -> Endorsement

Yes, he made a ton of money off of the Glaceau investment. What more was there about Glaceau that appealed to him? I think any serious investor understands that brand recognition and not hanging out with wankstas are key, but the article doesn't go beyond it. Also, not everyone gets to(or will, for that matter) hang out with Warren Buffet and Peter Thiel.

From the title of this article in particular, I thought they were actually going to rip him a new one. I kept waiting for some snarky comments or a "GOTCHA!" and was disappointed to find none.

The fact is that "fitty" convinced a group of unsophisticated Twitter followers to gamble in the market by buying a highly speculative stock that they don't understand. He shouldn't be praised for getting a 240% return for that. He's a smart guy, but this H&H thing is a terrible example of investing to inspire an article.

I'm the author of the article and would just like to explain a couple things before discussing the article in more detail:

1. 50 Cent did not "pump & dump" this stock, as far as we are aware. We would certainly not condone that type of behaviour, as not only is it unethical but also illegal.

2. None of the members of the Vuru team nor any associated parties own any shares in HNHI.OB.

@artmageddon

We weren't trying to sweep his rap history under the rug. The title of the article calls him 50 Cent... What we were attempting to achieve was paint him as more than just a rap star with an entrepreneurial streak. In our opinion, he's more an entrepreneur with a musical streak.

Even in his music, he's focused on producing mass market rap. The type that rings up millions in sales. He's not as focused on the art aspect of it. Compare him to Kanye West who is certainly more focused on the art of music. 50 follows a specific formula to create hits and encourages all artists on his label to do the same. He's about the money.

@andyparkinson

We are working on some Value Investing goodness and I'm glad that you do follow us for our insights.

In relation to the Twitter debacle, the article's focus is on the rules 50 Cent follows in achieving strong investment results. While we'd agree that uneducated investors shouldn't buy stocks nor should any investors buy pink sheets, we think it's unfair to crucify 50 for pushing a stock that he believes in.

As Jesse Eisenberg questioned, "Is what 50 Cent did really that different from what happens all day long on CNBC when professional money managers take to the airwaves to praise the stocks of companies they already own?" We believe that they are similar situations, assuming 50 didn't know any bad non-public information about the stock and touted it anyways.