MANU’S MOMENT
Manu Crooks can remember the first time he tried to rap. He was in Ghana, where he grew up before moving to Australia at the age of 12, and 50 Cent’s debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin’ had just been released.
“They would play ‘In Da Club’ on the radio,” he explains, “and I would get my cassette out and try to record it. I’d get the lyrics down and go from there.”
It took Crooks several tries but he was able to jot down every line of the song that made 50 Cent a household name. Fast-forward 14 years. The EP may not have sold nine million copies the way did, but it was a game-changer in its own way.
