Songfacts®:

• "Many Men (Wish Death)" recounts the seminal moment in 50 Cent's life when he was shot nine times in a drive-by on May 24, 2000. At the time, he was making a name for himself in the New York City rap scene, best known for his song "How To Rob." He also had a song called "Ghetto Quran (Forgive Me)," which taunts various street hustlers in the area. Apparently, that marked him for death.
  
  A hitman named Darryl Baum was the shooter, apparently on orders from a drug deal named Kenneth "Supreme" McGriff, whom 50 dissed in "Ghetto Quran."
  
  Despite being punctured with nine bullet wounds, including one in the jaw, he and his friend Curtis Brown, who was shot in the hand, drove to the hospital, where 50 underwent surgery. He lived, but his label, Columbia Records, dropped him. After months of recovery, 50 got back in the game with a tale to tell of how he survived the hit. His flow was different because of the shot he took to the jaw, but his street cred was off the chart.
  
  He released a mixtape called Guess Who's Back? in 2002 that set off a bidding war for his services. Interscope Records was the winner, putting him on their subsidiaries Shady and Aftermath, run by Eminem and Dr. Dre, respectively. "Many Men (Wish Death)" landed on his debut album, Get Rich Or Die Tryin', in 2003.
• The track is built on a sample of "Out Of The Picture," a 1977 R&B tune from the group Tavares.
• The song was produced by Darrell "Digga" Branch, who wrote the song with 50 Cent and Luis Resto. Branch was Cam'ron's producer for a while, and he also produced the song "Open Off My Love" on Jennifer Lopez' debut album, On The 6. Resto is one of Eminem's main collaborators.
  
  Freddie Perren and Keni St. Lewis, the writers of "Out Of The Picture," are also credited as songwriters because of the sample.
• "Many Men (Wish Death)" wasn't released as a single but it did get an elaborate music video that's shot like a movie depicting 50's shooting and the aftermath. Before the song starts, we see him get shot, with Mekhi Phifer in the role of his assailant. (Phifer stars in Eminem's movie 8 Mile and gets a shout-out in the song "Lose Yourself.")
• The line, "Hommo shot me, three weeks later he got shot down" is a reference to 50's shooter, Darryl Baum, who was nicknamed "Hommo," as in "homicide" (an objectively cool nickname for a hitman). Baum was indeed killed three weeks after he shot 50 Cent. In this section of "Many Men," 50 evokes the bible, figuring it must be God's will that he lived while Hommo died.
• The song never charted because it wasn't pushed as a single, but it held up well, and in 2023 50 Cent included it in the setlist to his The Final Lap tour.
• "Many Men (Wish Death)" soundtracked many tributes to Donald Trump after he was shot in the ear at a campaign rally on July 13, 2024 in an assassination attempt. The song is on the nose, with a message of defiance as Trump urged his supporters to "fight" right after he got shot at the rally. There's even a mention of "Don" in the lyrics:
  
  I'm like Paulie in Goodfellas, you can call me the Don
  
  The song surged in streams, and 50 got into the action by Tweeting a photo of the Get Rich Or Die Tryin' album cover with Trump's face replacing his. "Trump gets shot and now I'm trending" he captioned.
• 50 Cent performed "Many Men (Wish Death)" during Chris Eubank Jr's ring walk for the Eubank v Benn fight at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London on November 15, 2025. The rapper accompanied Eubank out of the tunnel and delivered the song live as part of the pre-fight spectacle.
  
  It didn't work out well for Eubank, who lost in a unanimous decision.