By Jane Prendergast
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Hundreds of rap lovers packed an Over-the-Rhine nightclub Tuesday night to see 50 Cent, the country's hottest rapper.

50 Cent's debut CD - Get Rich or Die Tryin', produced by Eminem and Dr. Dre - has sold better than any other debut since the industry started keeping track 12 years ago.

It was released early to foil bootleggers, and sold more than 872,000 copies in its first four days.

Patrons started lining up outside The Next Level about 6 p.m., 3 hours before the doors opened and the $35 tickets went on sale. There were also tickets priced at $50 and $100.

50 Cent was to perform around midnight, and he was ushered into the club about then, police said.

"He's the No. 1 artist on the planet right now," said Farrah Jackson, a manager at the club.

"This is a huge event for us."

By midnight, the club was full. Capacity is 1,250. Earlier, hundreds had lined the sidewalks waiting to get in.

"He's tight," said Kristen Thompson, 19, of Golf Manor, one of those in line early. "He keeps it real."

She said she bought the CD the day it came out last week.

"He's got cool tattoos, too," she added.

Etta Williams, who came to the show with her daughter and two nieces, said, "He comes from a life like some of us come from. You know, drugs and shootings. And he's gotten out of it."

50 Cent's lyrics talk about sex, Smith & Wessons and drugs.

He was arrested on New Year's Eve in New York City after police said they found two guns in the SUV he was sitting in outside a nightclub.

He told a reporter for Newsweek that he started selling crack at 12 because he didn't want to ask his grandmother to buy him things. She raised him after his mother, a drug dealer, was killed when he was 8, according to reports.

Jackson and Jimmy Cool, another Next Level manager, said they hope the concert boosts the nightclub's reputation by showing that it attracts a diverse crowd that loves dancing, hip-hop and other music.

The Police Department has monitored the club off and on for months after shootings nearby.

Neighboring bars complained this summer about traffic problems that they blamed on drivers cruising past The Next Level.

Two representatives of the Black United Front, the Rev. Damon Lynch III and Juleana Frierson, passed out leaflets to the crowd Tuesday asking for a moratorium on violence. The city's Human Relations Commission had 34 monitors on hand monitoring the crowd.

Cecil Thomas, director of the Human Relations Commission, said monitors were there "mainly to defuse any kind of situation that looks like it's getting out of hand."

Police closed off Main Street at Central Parkway at about 10 p.m. because of traffic congestion and a crowd of about 500 people who stayed outside the club even after the doors opened.

E-mail jprendergast@enquirer.com