FARMINGTON, Conn. (AP) — There she was, ready to schmooze with 50 Centand his celebrity friends, and Robin Condon was beyond embarrassed. Just as shewas taking in the half-dressed dancers, wall-to-wall Gucci leather room andin-house casino, Condon saw her friend’s father picking up his pant leg to showoff tall, white socks. “I couldn’t believe it. I was like, ‘You are standingnext to Slick Rick, for God’s sake. Stop it!'”
Condon, 33, was among the lucky few who received a personal invite to a50 Cent party in this upscale town, population 24,000, which is home to anall-girls’ boarding school, private 18-hole golf course and country club …and 50 Cent’s mansion.
Even in the hardcore rap genre he’s among the hardest, a former drugdealer whose posse traded gunfire recently with another artist from his ownrecord label.
But in Farmington, 50 Cent is all good.
“We want to have prom at his house,” said a beaming Liza Dionne, an18-year-old student at Farmington High School. “We left a letter in hismailbox, but haven’t heard back yet.”
The rapper’s chef is also a regular at the fancy Santilli’s EpicureMarket, where she comes in every Friday to pick up filet mignon, fresh tuna andswordfish, and “lots and lots” of spring water.
”It’s only the best forhim,” said Remo Santilli, the market’s 57-year-old owner.
50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis James Jackson III, bought his mansionin September 2003 for $4.1 million. The sprawling estate has been owned by bothMike Tyson and Colonial Realty founder Benjamin Sisti, who served time inprison for bankruptcy fraud and other crimes.
The rapper has boasted that his 48,500-square-foot mansion includes 18bedrooms, 37 bathrooms and five whirlpool baths. Town records show a man-madepond, boathouse and separate servants’ quarters. Two samurai warriors(supposedly left by Tyson) stand guard at the entrance.
Last month 50 hosted a bash that was filmed by MTV for an hour-longprogram to promote the rapper’s chart-topping sophomore CD, “The Massacre.”
“You know how we do it: Real big,” 50 said on the program.
So big that he was not available to comment for this story. So big, infact, that a liquor store needed a cargo van to deliver his order of Bacardifor his party. And it would have to be Bacardi, as you might know from his hitsong “Da Club”: “We gon’ sip Bacardi like it’s your birthday.”
50 says he’s home a lot, and neighbors have caught him jogging andriding his all-terrain vehicle. Still, some Farmington residents say theyrarely see him.
“I’ve been looking,” said college student Nicole D’Amico, 19.
That doesn’t stop fans from driving up and down his street, hoping tocatch a glimpse of the rapper. Maybe they should look up: He often travels by ahelicopter from New York City. A guard sits in front of the gated yellow house,shooing away people who stay for too long and even threatening to call thepolice.
So how did Condon get inside those gates? She’d been visiting a friendwho lives on the same street when 50’s manager knocked on the door, carrying ahuge glossy invitation and a magnum of champagne.
That night, Condon and her crew rubbed elbows with the likes of rappersBusta Rhymes and Foxy Brown, model Tyson Beckford , and of course 50 Cent’sG-Unit clique.
Although the neighbors admit sticking out among the Hollywood-types, the28-year-old rapper gave them all VIP access.
”There were definitely afew people there who you wouldn’t normally see at a 50 Cent party,” said localradio DJ Buck. “But I guess he just wanted to prove to them that ‘I can have agood time and there won’t be any trouble.'”
