50 Cent owns a record label and clothing line, acts and writes books, and now he is adding film production to his multimedia empire — promoting his new venture this week at the Sundance Film Festival.

50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, has launched Cheetah Vision, and he told Reuters at Sundance, the top U.S. independent film festival, that he was not concerned about starting a new business during the global financial crisis.

“I don’t think it will affect me as much as it will the other people that are out there because I’m not afraid to finance some of these things myself if I have to,” he said.

The rapper, who takes his name from a “stickup kid from Brooklyn,” was ranked No. 26 on Forbes 2008 list of top 100 richest celebrities with estimated earnings of about $150 million between June 2007 and June 2008.

50 Cent had a stake in Glaceau, which makes Vitaminwater, and the bulk of his earnings came from the sale of the company to Coca-Cola Co. Forbes estimates the rapper banked about $100 million after taxes from the deal.

He said Cheetah Vision had already bought eight scripts and among the first to be produced would be “The Dance,” starring himself and Nicolas Cage.

“(The script) was previously passed around a little bit but both me and Nicolas Cage had an interest in the film so it will still happen. He plays the founder of a boxing program, and I play a fighter who goes to state prison,” 50 Cent said.

“They are all different types of movies that I bought the rights to, and we’re developing projects. You will see different things from me in the future,” he said.

The rapper, who was a teenage drug dealer in the New York City borough of Queens, also makes his debut as a director this year, giving away his feature film, “Before I Self Destruct,” free with his latest album of the same name, which is due to be released in late March.

“It’s an opportunity to make sure my fans get to see my first piece,” he said of the film, which he also wrote and produced. “It actually allowed me to show cause and effect to some of the actions that I wrote about on the album.”

“Because I have three minutes to create a song its not enough time for me to give an explanation for a person doing these things. It’s just saying the action and not giving a description of the circumstances they are under,” he added.

The film, in which he also stars, tells the tale of an inner city youth whose mother is shot to death so he takes up a life of crime in order to support his younger brother.

While 50 Cent has sold more than 30 million albums worldwide, he also has picked up steady film roles since appearing in 2005’s semi-autobiographical “Get Rich or Die Tryin’,” also the title of his 2003 debut album.

Later this year, he will be seen in “Streets of Blood” with Val Kilmer and Sharon Stone, and he is also due to start filming “13″ with Mickey Rourke.

50 Cent, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino all starred in 2008’s “Righteous Kill,” and the rapper said he may work again with Robert De Niro.

Rap star Kanye West was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport on Thursday after scuffling with photographers and smashing a camera, an airport spokesman said.

West’s bodyguard also was taken into custody after he grabbed a television camera and threw it to the ground, said celebrity Web site TMZ.com, whose cameraman was involved.

Los Angeles airport spokesman Alberto Rodriguez said West, 31, and his bodyguard were booked on suspicion of felony vandalism. The bodyguard also faces a possible charge of battery.

They were released on bail. Prosecutors have not yet decided whether to press charges.

“We will wait for the police to complete their investigation,” said Jane Robison, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s office.

Rodriguez said the two were arrested on Thursday morning outside the passenger security screening area.

TMZ, which caught much of the incident on camera, said West rushed toward a photographer and grabbed his camera. A struggle followed and West took the camera and threw it to the ground.

His bodyguard then ordered the TMZ cameraman to stop taping and to hand over his camera.

“The assistant then grabbed the camera, ripped off the mic and viewfinder and smashed it to the ground,” TMZ said.

50 Cent has more than 1 million friends on MySpace, but if the rapper ever decides to leave the social network, he’ll be leaving behind those friends, too. So like a growing number of artists, he’s started his own social networking site.

On Thisis50.com, fans can create profiles and friend lists just like on MySpace, but 50 Cent has direct access to the site’s users and their e-mail addresses.

More and more acts, from Kylie Minogue to Ludacris to the Pussycat Dolls, are launching their own social networks, which are becoming a sort of next-generation version of artist Web sites.

The social networking component gives fans a reason to hang out on a site and visit more often than they would a standard Web site. And artists can sell advertisements on their sites and offer downloads and merchandise for sale — options they don’t have on MySpace or Facebook. Plus, they own the content and data on how fans use their site, which they don’t get on other social networks.

“The thing that separates Thisis50 from MySpace is we control the e-mail database,” says Chris “Broadway” Romero, director for new media at G-Unit Records, which handles Thisis50. “We can e-mail members if we want to.”

Thisis50 isn’t meant to be a fan club, but rather a platform for 50 Cent to showcase his music and music he likes, and comment on news and user profile pages. Ludacris’ WeMix.com, on the other hand, is more of a hub for aspiring artists to upload their music.

The artist networks aren’t meant to replace MySpace or Facebook, which tend to attract a broader audience and more users.

“(Artists) think about MySpace and Facebook as funnels for their own social networks,” says Gina Bianchini, CEO of Ning, a company that provides social networking tools for Thisis50, Sara Bareilles and others. “They take and use services where they don’t know the users, don’t have access and don’t have full control, and funnel those fans to something they do control.