50 Cent nearly died as a teen due to his poor choice of cars

50 Cent has never had much luck with cars - the rapper, who famously survived a drive-by shooting, twice almost died behind the wheel as a teenager.

The Candy Shop hitmaker purchased a charcoal gray Toyota Land Cruiser in 1994 after making a load of cash selling drugs in his native New York, but the 19 year old immediately returned the vehicle to the dealership after he was mistaken for a notorious Big Apple gangster, known as Black, who had recently bought the same car.

He tells Forbes magazine, "(I asked the dealer), 'Why the f**k did you sell (Black) the same color truck as me? I almost got killed last night."

The hip-hop star, real name Curtis Jackson, then traded in his set of wheels for a white Mercedes-Benz, but the flashy car attracted too much attention and he was ambushed by armed robbers outside his grandmother's home in Queens.

Jackson again escaped unscathed, but his stroke of bad luck didn't end there - in 2000 he famously cheated death in the backseat of his friend's automobile, where he was struck by nine bullets, and last year (12) he was involved in a terrifying road accident with a truck. The rapper/actor suffered only minor injuries, although the crash likely would have been fatal if the car hadn't been bulletproof.