50 Cent Explains How Tupac’s Mike Tyson Recording Shaped His “Street Fighter” Music

50 Cent traced his “Street Fighter” music to a Tupac Shakur recording made for Mike Tyson, saying he wrote his own version after hearing the late rapper’s boxing-inspired track.

At the film’s Los Angeles premiere, he told “Extra” that Tupac had made a version of “Ambitionz Az a Ridah” for Tyson. When the conversation turned to the movie’s theme, 50 Cent described how he built on that material: “I wrote a version of it.”

Tupac’s Tyson recording had already appeared in the film’s promotion. When the official trailer arrived in April, distributor NOS identified its music as a previously unreleased version of “Ambitionz Az a Ridah” created for Tyson in the 1990s. That gave the fighting film a musical link to an actual heavyweight champion.

50 Cent’s involvement went beyond the trailer’s use of Tupac.

In July, he disclosed plans for music with Eminem and unreleased Tupac recordings during a “TODAY” interview. He said Tupac’s estate had approved the use of the material and rejected the suggestion that the vocals were generated by artificial intelligence.

His connection to Tupac’s recorded work began long before this film. 50 Cent featured on “The Realist Killaz,” which appeared on the 2003 “Resurrection” soundtrack from Amaru Entertainment.

The music is one part of his work on the film.

He plays Balrog, the boxer from the Capcom games, and getting the character’s look right left him with a problem off the set.

In the premiere interview, 50 Cent recalled having no facial hair and an uneven hairline. He described suggestions to let some stubble grow and use hair dye to make the result look more like a regular haircut.

“But I went home with a hat on. That hairline was crazy,” he said.

The physical work had started well before that. On “TODAY” last week, he said he trained with a professional boxing coach in Australia, used massage and cryotherapy, lifted weights and added late-night cardio when he could. He had boxed from about age 12 through his teens, but preparing for Balrog meant returning to the sport with a demanding new routine.

The film opens in U.S. theaters October 16.