50 Cent made news in 2010 when he tweeted photos of himself looking emaciated. The usually buff rapper revealed that he had gotten down to 160 pounds for a role in the film All Things Fall Apart, a film set to be released next month.

50 Cent spoke on the film at the Miami Film Festival in March. “I hope people get a chance to get to see how excited I am about challenging myself in different ways,” he said. “Because it’s not an action film — it’s a family drama — I was advised not to do it.”

In the movie, 50 Cent plays a star running back diagnosed with cancer on the eve of the NFL draft. According to his site, he lost nearly 64 pounds in just nine weeks on a liquid diet.

Over the course of production, the film experienced some controversy over the title, originally Things Fall Apart, when Nigerian writer Chinua Achebe took the filmmakers to court of its similarity to his classic novel. A compromise was made last year with the addition of the word “all.”

The film co-stars Mario Van Peebles and Ray Liotta and aired previously on BET in December. It will be in theaters this Valentine’s Day.

Follow Donovan X. Ramsey on Twitter at @idxr