"Things Fall Apart" Pushes 50 Cent to Drop 50 Pounds (SHOCKING PICTURES)

(CBS) What's behind rapper 50 Cents' shocking weight loss?

According to the website ThisIs50.com, the 34-year-old musician-turned-movie-star lost more than 50 pounds, dropping from 214 to 160, to portray a cancer patient in the movie "Things Fall Apart."

He did it with with a liquid diet and three-hour-a-day treadmill walks for nine weeks. Now, he's ready to eat again (I'm starving," he says) and ready to rock. His "The Invitation" tour resumes this weekend with dates in Chicago and Detroit. The rapper, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, also will perform next month in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, Atlanta, New York and Boston before heading to Brazil in July.

Directed by Mario Van Peebles, "Things Fall Apart" was filmed in Michigan earlier this year and is due in theaters in 2011. In it, 50 Cent stars as a promising college football player who is diagnosed with cancer. It also stars Ray Liotta as a doctor. The rapper co-wrote the screenplay with Brian A. Miller.