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The Rapper 50 Cent, Adjusted for Inflation

https://50centadjustedforinflation.com/
247•gaws•1h ago

Comments

2OEH8eoCRo0•1h ago
I'm in my Lambo maggot
defraudbah•1h ago
these harry potter fans are weird man
2OEH8eoCRo0•24m ago
I don't get it. I posted 50 Cent lyrics
defraudbah•1h ago
awesome website!

looking forward to see websites for $uicideboy$, C-Note, 2 Chainz, maybe Lil $1

defraudbah•1h ago
damn, it wasn't sarcasm, people are dumb here
thenthenthen•48m ago
bbno$?
observationist•1h ago
https://archive.is/68cAI

(In case you can't see the official link for firewall purposes.)

CaptainOfCoit•1h ago
... Is the term 50cent commonly blocked in firewalls, or am I missing some joke?
observationist•1h ago
It's a newly registered website, gets classified as a risk by some organizations "Newly-Registered-Domain". After 30 or 60 days, it's no longer flagged and blocked.
CaptainOfCoit•1h ago
Thanks! Funny I one minute before your comment, commented on when the domain was registered. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45619354
rx_tx•1h ago
> Based on 50 Cent's name being coined

I see what they did there.

srameshc•1h ago
the images at the top is the best part, we get a little over 2 50 Cents. Makes it so much easier to understand inflation
Rendello•1h ago
I love it. If you track your mouse over the graph, the image of 50 Cent expands with inflation.

It reminds me of another great interactive rapper graph: "rappers, sorted by the size of their vocabulary":

https://pudding.cool/projects/vocabulary/index.html

defraudbah•57m ago
yeah, no wonder cunninglinguist was pretty high in that list :)
HPsquared•50m ago
And "0 Cent" before June 1994 :)
codyb•43m ago
Using the first 35,000 words is a bit unfair for a rapper such as Lil Wayne who's been releasing work since he was 14.

Also I wonder if this is including proper nouns and other references. (I'd think it should, but it's hard to account for the fact that referencing seven different Chris's would be counted as one token used seven times. Similarly, many words have many meanings, and those are all being lumped together as well, so no accounting here can probably ever be perfect).

If you had all the lyrics for all the rappers I think I'd - aggregate word counts - combine variations - remove most commonly used words in each language (I, I'm, You, You're, etc)

Then see who came out ahead. You shouldn't get penalized for releasing more.

You could probably do a bunch of cool analysis with that data.

edit: Oh no, there's actually a Genius API isn't there. No no no no. I have no time!

1970-01-01•1h ago
1994? The artist 'made it' in 2003.

88 cent in 2025.

Not great, not terrible.

sgt•42m ago
So before 2003 he was less than 50 cent? When was he a dime?
gdsdfe•1h ago
I miss the era when the internet was more fun like this
CaptainOfCoit•1h ago
Seems the creation date of the domain was 2025-10-08, so you're in luck, this particular fun exists and was created in this era!
mk_stjames•1h ago
I would argue that valuation of '50 Cent' (real name Curtis James Jackson III) was essentially flat leading up to immediately before the release of Get Rich or Die Tryin', his debut album released February 6, 2003.

Which, undeniable, is an * all-time banger * that substantially increased the valuation of 50 Cent to something far surpassing US dollar inflation.

Seriously, go listen that that album again; total game changer. Top cut: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D3crqpClPY

cma256•1h ago
If you're into AI music I leave this without comment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4GrSKMzQg0
mk_stjames•52m ago
I was prepared to be absolutely fucking disgusted by such a comment but I.... shit. I mean... this is.... this is wild

I gotta go contemplate 'where we're at' again it seems. If that is truly a straight generative audio diffusion model.... wait, how did they get the same verse by verse chord progressions to match? this has to be professionally post-produced, right? AI models aren't able to do this end-to-end yet, right?

conception•28m ago
Probably not end to end, no. But you can make something similar to just about any pop song on suno.com now.
treetalker•1h ago
Since 50 Cent worked with Robert Greene to co-author The 50th Law, maybe now he and Peter Thiel can co-author Zero to 109 Cents.

Or, you know, something about rap and the Antichrist.

lanewinfield•1h ago
hi, i made this. thank you for posting.

unfortunately due to the government shutdown, the BLS inflation data for September 2025 is delayed from October 15 (as it normally is) until October 24[1], so please check back then to see if he is >109 Cent.

assuming future stability, the site will automatically update on the 15th of every month.

[1] https://www.bls.gov/bls/092025-cpi-reschedule-notice.htm

karmakaze•58m ago
It would be fun to have currency conversions too.
earlyriser•51m ago
Conversions to Nickelback, Poundz, Los Pesos, DJ Euro and Yen.
Rochus•58m ago
Where is the inflated music?
jerf•42m ago
1. Go to, let's say, a video like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qm8PH4xAss [1] Start it playing.

2. Copy and paste this into your browser location bar: javascript:void(document.getElementsByTagName("video")[0].playbackRate = 50/prompt("Inflation-adjusted 50 Cent value:"))

3. Enter the inflation-adjusted 50 Cent value, which as we are talking about this today, is 109.

Et voila, inflation-adjusted 50 Cent music, and anyone finding this later can adjust it to their current inflation-adjusted value.

I believe there are limits on how slow the browsers will playback video. This code is not guaranteed to work past any possible hyperinflations or massive deflations that may occur in the future.

If you're curious how that may sound with a more careful job done then the browsers will do with stretching, consider Beethoven's 9th symphony stretched to 24 hours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSJ9Bkhb1Q4&list=PLMEcbs3sHQ... Some of you may well legitimately love this. Obviously the frequency profile of doing this to a 50 Cent piece will be quite different but it at least gives the idea.

[1]: It is sheer coincidence that this video ID ends in "Ass". This is "50 Cent - In Da Club (Official Music Video)" for those wondering.

femiagbabiaka•55m ago
You're doing a public service, thank you.
mckeed•43m ago
Curious how you set it up. Do you have to manually update it when inflation data comes out, or is it automatic?
lanewinfield•36m ago
it's on a scheduled workflow with github actions that rebuilds the site on the 15th, 30 minutes after the data is released.

cron: '0 13 15 * *'

CSMastermind•1h ago
A currency being worth half it's value in 25 years is absurd. The US despreately needs to make it's money a stable unit of measure.
joshuamcginnis•1h ago
We're $38.8 trillion in debt and still printing. https://www.usdebtclock.org/
kristofferR•58m ago
Inflation is just what you want when your debt is denominated in the currency that is being inflated, though. The more inflation the easier it will be to service the debt.
BartjeD•56m ago
That's why everyone sane is fleeing into gold and silver.
mothballed•44m ago
They're probably too late, it's already priced in. Gold is up like 30% in 3 months.
nonethewiser•32m ago
Being up doesnt show that it's priced in.
mothballed•30m ago
Of course not. It being known to the market is what causes it to be priced in.
nonethewiser•59m ago
In some sense it's absurd. But historically its normal.

And to be more precise, 25 years to halve is actually less inflation than the historical average of 3.29% from 1914-2025. At that rate it would take 21-22 years to halve.

Actually there is a surprisingly good trick to be able to calculate this called the rule of 72. Take the inflation percentage (2, 3 %) and divide 72 by it. Thats how many years it will take to halve. Not completing accurate but actually very close.

But yeah, inflation is a bitch over long time horizons. It makes me laugh when people say stocks are risky. Say you are 20 years old and want to save $2M USD for your retirement by 65. Expect that to be more like $470k.

mothballed•55m ago
If you move to before the central bank was created in 1913, the dollar remained remarkably stable in relation, although it did oscillate, it never deviated more than 50% from the starting point until after creation of the fed.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Dollar_v...

woodruffw•37m ago
It seems difficult to draw any inference from this, given how different the US’s economy and global position is in 2025 versus 1913.
mothballed•33m ago
... I was directly addressing GGP using 1914 as a cutoff. Now you object to the cutoff I didn't introduce only when someone introduce data on the other side of it? Funny how that magically ends up being the case.
woodruffw•21m ago
To be clear, I think it’s also hard to make inferences after 1913. But it’s easier (and particularly after 1945, 1971, etc.) because the US’s geopolitical status after those periods is at least analogous and a matter of econometric research.
mothballed•6m ago
The period from 1776-1913 arguably had as many changes as the period from 1913 to 2025.

In the first 130 years of the US, the value of the dollar didn't change, as far as I can tell, more than 50% from the starting point.

From 1913 to 2025, the dollar lost 96+% of its value. The difference between a ratio of 2:1 and a ratio of more like 30:1.

gbacon•21m ago
Lots of topics that we discuss on HN require careful thought and other difficult efforts but somehow do not extinguish our curiosity. Going back to the ancient Romans, an ounce of gold has always been able to purchase a suit of clothes. As the market becomes more efficient at producing goods and services, we should expect prices to decrease, not inflate. In some sectors, we do see this outcome but not in others. Yes, the analysis required to explain why is difficult, and perhaps more difficult is having to face conclusions that challenge one’s priors.
woodruffw•15m ago
There’s a big gap between curiosity and making inferential leaps.

> As the market becomes more efficient at producing goods and services, we should expect prices to decrease, not inflate.

Yes, that’s why the cost of clothes has decreased in real terms.

somenameforme•24m ago
What is the source of data that image is using? It seems odd. A datum I quite like is the Campbell's Tomato Soup Inflation Index. [1] Since their introduction in 1897, Campbell's has sold the same tomato soup in the same size container. Its price remained quite stable until 1971 at which point it went into loony land, like many other data. [2]

The point is that even after the central bank was introduced, the US remained on a literal or defacto gold standard, of varying sorts, until 1971. That's when Bretton Woods ended and the value of the USD became based on absolutely nothing and the government granted themselves the power to 'print' arbitrary amounts at their discretion.

[1] - https://theglitteringeye.com/the-tomato-soup-index/

[2] - https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/

mothballed•14m ago
It's from a variety of sources due to the large time period and discontinuity in government and 3rd party measuring apparatus over 250 years. Refer to Table 5 for the non-BLS period sources.

https://www.measuringworth.com/docs/cpistudyrev.pdf

rkowalick•38m ago
The correct calculation isn’t too hard either.

If currency halves in purchasing power in 25 yrs, that means inflation is 100% in 25 years, so

    (1 + r)^25 = 2
    r = 2^(1/25) - 1 ~ 2.8%
nonethewiser•33m ago
In terms of being able to do it in your head, its a lot harder.
sudo_gopnik•33m ago
Historically - it's actually NOT normal. Link and quote below that examines this with graphs but, the crux is that we have accepted higher inflation in order to achieve stable inflation that is predictable.

"For the pre-Fed period (1790-1913), the average annual inflation was 0.4 percent with a coefficient of variation of 13.2. During the period 1941-2016, these figures changed to 3.5 percent and 0.8, respectively. If we look at the post-Volcker era (1988-2016), annual inflation was 2.2 percent on average with a coefficient of variation of 0.4." -

Source: https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional-economist/s...

Also recommend Debt: The First 5000 Years (David Graeber) and Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Thomas Piketty) which cover this and more on how current concepts of finance and capital post-1914 are incredibly different from the majority of human civilization.

I think a broader historical/anthropological approach is helpful here to understand why those tradeoffs were made.

Aurornis•7m ago
> "For the pre-Fed period (1790-1913), the average annual inflation was 0.4 percent with a coefficient of variation of 13.2. During the period 1941-2016, these figures changed to 3.5 percent and 0.8, respectively. If we look at the post-Volcker era (1988-2016), annual inflation was 2.2 percent on average with a coefficient of variation of 0.4." -

Citing an average number is misleading since the chart of the value of a dollar during that time looks like a zig-zag with some massive swings in both directions. This means periods of severe deflation, too, which can be very bad for people.

It definitely was not flat or consistently near zero, though citing an average number is a great way to give that impression.

gbacon•29m ago
Your starting point of 1914 is strangely specific. Why did you choose it?
mothballed•58m ago
Get a brokerage account that has a sister bank account. Put money in, buy TIPS/gold/equities, pay the 30% tax or whatever on the inflationary difference, then buy your stuff. The point is to force you into buying more stable units of account and then taxing the inflation as a "capital gain."

Pretty genius because it can be framed as taxing greedy capitalists when literally they're just taxing fractional inflation.

silisili•56m ago
We tend to target 2% inflation. Half in 25 years is under 3%, so on target.

That said, I feel like this number is way off, personally, based on changes in housing and food prices between the two times.

nonethewiser•44m ago
Certainly a lot of that inflation was in the last ~8 years. I certainly know what you mean.

Groceries are one of the more discretionary items. Your mortgage is fixed, demand for gas is inelastic, etc. But groceries you respond to the price. And so many staples have become 2,3,4X times more expensive compared to pre-covid. I remember the cheap beef (chuck roast) was about $4/lb and decent steak (ribeye) was about $9/lb. Now its about $10/lb and $22/lb.

So psychologically, now your "splurging" just gets you the "cheap" stuff.

Wages have risen a bit. But 1) not nearly as much as inflation 2) these are very asymetric and 3) the way they rise doesnt feel like wage inflation. Even those who saw wages rise due to inflation probably felt like it was other things. Such as simply changing jobs. Or just normal yearly review. Or maybe they havent switched jobs and have some "unrealized gains" awaiting them still. No one one saw their wages incrementally rise month by month.

silisili•32m ago
I think wages are a great way to look at it too, rather than just comparing prices.

Said another way, I think making 100k in 1995 would make one feel way, way richer than making 200k today.

lotsofpulp•20m ago
How you feel is also very geographically dependent, and quality of life dependent.

The government published nationwide inflation measures are completely irrelevant to anyone who had a goal of buying land in a tier 1 metro, or in the higher end suburbs of tier 2 metros. And you will feel very different based on if you have kids or not.

Land, healthcare, and education pretty much eclipse everything else.

pinkmuffinere•56m ago
Why??? My (very limited) understanding is that we like a small amount of inflation, to incentivize reinvestment into the economy/R&D/etc. If there’s no inflation, you incentivize dragon-hoarding behavior
jsbg•38m ago
that's why no one every buys TVs
nonethewiser•1h ago
I wonder how the data is updated. I dont see any network calls so I guess it's provided on build. The latest datapoint is August. Do we just not have data for the last few months? I suppose you could have github action or whatever to pull in the latest and republish on change.

edit: i see elsewhere in the comments the author explains this. github action indeed.

lanewinfield•18m ago
you bet. I pull it straight from the BLS.
nly•1h ago
It's remarkable how over this time frame how inflation in the UK and the USA has been so similar.

https://www.rateinflation.com/consumer-price-index/uk-histor...

https://www.rateinflation.com/consumer-price-index/usa-histo...

Both approx +110%

Yet over that time UK GDP per capita is up only 46% compared to the US which is up a massive +223%. Depressing.

jhallenworld•16m ago
They don't say that the currencies are pegged, but I'm pretty sure they're defacto pegged. Same deal with the Euro.
borisjabes•1h ago
2.6% per year inflation. Fed did a decent job.
deadbabe•1h ago
Chamillionaire was another rapper who pivoted into tech investing and venture capitalism and did 50x to his net worth. I think he still posts here.
t1234s•1h ago
Didn't he make more money from his stake in Vitamin Water being acquired by Pepsi or CocaCola than from rap?
defraudbah•58m ago
not really, he has a lot of businesses, this was one of them which turned out to be very successful. He was a very famous rapper back in the days, and he invented mixtapes :)
ops•55m ago
He absolutely did not invent mixtapes.
fair_enough•59m ago
How many 2025 dollars will it cost me to take a nice lady to the candy shop?
chriswalz•43m ago
A lot less than in da club that’s for sure
fair_enough•13m ago
I don't care if there are some special privileges unlocked at higher "karma" levels, I hope my "karma" stays at 69 forever because of this thread.
chistev•41m ago
It wouldn't matter because she can't get a dollar out of you.
david927•45m ago
The full chart

https://wtfhappenedin1971.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/2j0...

mothballed•41m ago
Imagine how much worse that chart would look were it not for deflationary pressure from science/technology introduced efficiencies.
undebuggable•34m ago
I'm tired of using technology, boss.