The 50th Law

From a friendship between rapper 50 Cent and Robert Greene came a book on strategy and fearlessness built on one principle: fear nothing. Greene's The 48 Laws of Power had long been a staple of hip hop, and 50 Cent asked his manager to set up a meeting with its author. The result is partly autobiographical, tracing 50 Cent's rise as a young hustler and then as a musician. Each of its 10 chapters explains one element of fearlessness and begins with how 50 Cent learned it in Southside Queens, and the book sets his stories beside examples from figures such as Malcolm X, Sun Tzu, Machiavelli, Miles Davis and James Baldwin. It became a New York Times best seller.

Ryan Holiday recommended it in a list of life-changing biographies, noting that while it is not strictly a biography, its stories of many lives stay with the reader. Charlamagne Tha God put it on a list of books he recommends listening to on Apple Books.