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50 Cent has a plan to reclaim his hip-hop throne.

On his new single "Get Up," he raps, "Now who they gone blame, when I'm back at No. 1 on Billboard again."

No. 1 feels a bit ambitious for this song, but it did jump this week from No. 42 to No. 27 at urban radio.

On December 9, 50 will release a new album and movie on the same day.

And to make it easier for his fans, the album and movie, both titled Before I Self Destruct, will be packaged together. From the looks of online pre-order options, the 90-minute film will be enclosed for no additional charge.

In the movie, written and directed by the artist, 50 plays a character named Clarence, who takes on a life of crime in order to support his younger brother after their hardworking single mother is murdered.

Since the past year has not been 50's best in terms of his rap career, you have to wonder if "Get Up" is a strong enough single to drive people to purchase the combo album.

"Get Up," a knocking, club track, is on par with last year's hot mix show record "I Get Money," but does not compete with 50's hits from his 2003 debut Get Rich Or Die Tryin'.

And our exclusive trailer from the straight-to-DVD movie captures 50 in one of the film's more uneventful moments.

We will see what type of hype the single and promos will generate by December 9. But 50 has a lot of damage control to do to restore the faith of those dismayed by the subpar music projects he's released over the last year.

By comparison to his previous efforts, 50's Curtis album and G-Unit record performed so poorly that it is almost as if his nemesis Ja Rule had a 50 Cent voodoo doll. It's like Ja Rule sought revenge for 50 ruining his career with the series of lyrical attacks that exposed Ja as a fake gangster rapper.

The release date for last year's Curtis was pushed back so many times that 50 lashed out at his label in the press, even suggesting that he might leave the company. Still the album's four set up singles "Amusement Park," "Straight To The Bank," "I Get Money," and "Ayo Technology" featuring Justin Timberlake failed to catapult Curtis to the six and five time platinum heights his first two albums Get Rich Or Die Tryin' or The Massacre reached respectively.

Curtis did make an impressive debut in September 2007, selling 691,000 copies during its first week on sale. However, that feat was immediately overshadowed by the 957,000 records sold by Kanye West that same week. West happened to win--by more than 250,000 records sold--his and 50's heavily publicized first week sales battle. It didn't help that a confident 50 not only predicted that he would win but that if he didn't he would retire. I'm sure Kanye has a gold watch with Curtis Jackson engraved on it.

G-Unit member Young Buck followed the Game as the second protégé served with Donald Trump-like executive exit from the building. While it was shocking and funny hearing the internet clips of a crying Young Buck pleading with 50 Cent to forgive him for making slanderous comments about the commander in chief, losing Buck didn't help the group. He was actually my favorite.

And in case anyone is wondering when the G-Unit's post-Buck sophomore album, TOS (Terminate On Site), will be released, I have good news for you. It's been out for three months. Please go pick up a copy. (Or email me, I'll send you one of my 10 promo copies.)

All is not bad for 50. In fact, his past year was still incomparably better than most of ours. In August he ranked No. 1 on Forbes' 2008 Richest Rapper List, pulling in $150 million dollars, almost twice as much as Jay-Z, who placed No. 2 with $82 million.

Plus, 50 is rumored to be dating my favorite superhero R&B chick Ciara.

Based on his line in "Get Up," his hip-hop ego wants him to again sell millions of records.

But 50 isn't hurting. He's beyond rich and didn't have to die tryin'.