50 CENT - SHERIDAN HOPES 50 CENT MOVIE HELPS RAP

The director of 50 CENT biopic GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN' has been keen to make a rap movie since he moved to New York City in the 1980s, because he hates the way it is marginalised as a black sub-culture.

Irishman JIM SHERIDAN stunned fans by agreeing to collaborate with the rap badboy, but he insists he has huge respect for the musical genre and has always dreamed of helping it become mainstream entertainment.

He says, "I've loved rap since the 1980s.

"I remember all these Jamaican artists in New York. It was all Caribbean-influenced initially, or reggae. As I wasn't a very good singer and I had a band, I used to like narrative music, like OSCAR BROWN JR and CAB CALLOWAY, so when the rap music came in, I really liked it.

"I realised that rap was like the movies that weren't being shown in Hollywood. It was all the stuff that wasn't being expressed in mainstream movies.

"I even like the anger in the rap. Obviously I found the misogyny a little bit hard to take at times. But I kind of understood where it came from.

"I think it's because the kids think the rappers are telling the truth and they don't believe the media."