Rapper 50 Cent arrested over weapons

NEW YORK (LA Times) - Rapper 50 Cent - tipped to be one of the biggest stars of 2003 - has been arrested by police in New York after guns were found in his vehicle, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The rapper, real name Curtis Jackson, was arrested before 2am local time after his SUV was searched when it had been left in a no-parking zone, the paper said.
It added that police found a .25-calibre handgun and a .45-calibre pistol in the vehicle, and officers said both guns were loaded.
Five men were arrested during the search and all have been charged with two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, the newspaper reported.
The 27-year-old had been due to appear at the Copacabana nightclub in New York.

Top of poll

The club's promoter, James Mangan, claimed the search was totally unjustified, saying: "I think they're trying to get him... to connect him to things that he has nothing to do with." No details have been given as to when 50 Cent will have to appear in court.
The rapper, a prot�g� of the Detroit star Eminem, has been tipped for massive success since the late 1990s. He recently came top of a BBC poll of music experts to find the stars of 2003. But his career has been dogged by controversy. In 1999 he was shot, and he has since been stabbed in disputes.

His first album, Power Of The Dollar, was expected to be a huge seller - but was pulled by label Columbia in because they thought it had been heavily bootlegged.
He has since recorded dozens of track and was recently given $1m (�650,000) to sign to Eminem's label, Shady Records.