Robert Greene, That 48 Laws Of Power Guy, Talks With 50 Cent

Robert Greene, author of multiple books including The 48 Laws of Power, writes on his blog about a recent "private meeting" with 50 Cent.  As it turns out, this is his second meeting and he's meeting Busta Rhymes next week:

In the hour and a half I spent with him, he talked about his various beefs with other rappers, the music business, his film career, his drug-dealing days, on and on. But it wasn't so much the content that interested me; instead, it was his perspective, which oddly enough reminded me of my own. He likes to break everything down, see things as a game, analyze the maneuvers of the various players in his life, take apart their attempts to gain an advantage over him. Like myself, he is obsessed with warfare and stories of great generals. He is intensely competitive and I would not want to cross swords with him, and I won't, I promise. But despite the thug image he cultivates, he strikes me as a strategist. Perhaps the Muhammed Ali of rappers. He is smart and calculating, and if you know me, you know I have a great affection for such qualities.

I'm assuming these are consultation style meetings since, due to his years in the film biz, Greene professes to not being so into celebrities.  But, clearly, these two would have a lot to talk about!

Greene will have more to say at a future date and I'm very curious about what he will come up with since I think it will have a lot of relevance to both business and personal strategy.  I've actually been checking Greene out recently.  When I first heard about his book on seduction, it really came across as rather f*cked up.  But I later checked out more of what he had to say about what he was doing and found that, past first impressions, he has a lot to offer.

Recently I've appreciated his thoughts on what the Democratic Party needs to do as laid out in How to crush Karl Rove and the Republicans in Five Easy Steps, very much the kind of thing that I wanted to explore with Brand Destruction Research.

I'll keep an eye out for his followup because I think it will be quite an interesting look at 50 Cent, who remains one of the hip hop business figures I find most of interest.

Related ProHipHop Coverage:
50 Cent and the Violence of Money

Available from Amazon by Robert Greene:
The 33 Strategies of War
The 48 Laws of Power
The Art of Seduction

Comments

[Hashim]

always found that guy to be kinda warped. I read the blog, and it seems he is still warped.

[Clyde Smith]

I can understand that, Hashim. But, given my own experiences, I'd say he's just more upfront about where he's at than most people and he's willing to look at things dispassionately.

I guess that is warped, given the general mindstate of our time.

[OUTTHERE]

That 48 laws book is a monster. It's distrubing but very eye opening.

The music biz is a good place to see that kinda behavior.

[Clyde Smith]

Yeah, Greene got a lot of this from his adventures in the movie industry so its not surprising his work relates so well to the music business.

He cuts through a lot of nonsense.