50 Cent, it seems, is always stirring the pot. Just this weekend, in the midst of Megan Thee Stallion’s Tory Lanez trial, he compared the rapper to Jussie Smollett. This came not long after he likened Madonna to an alien.
For sure, the rapper is familiar with controversy and has had a lot of it during his storied career. These are some of the more notable moments:
1999: Feud with Ja Rule
For years now, 50 and Ja have had beef. It began in 1999, when one of 50’s friends robbed Ja. Later that year, 50 blatantly dissed Ja on “Life’s On The Line.” In 2000, the two got into a scrap at an Atlanta nightclub. Also that year, 50 was stabbed by rapper and Ja Rule associate Black Child in an altercation.
There’s more to the story than that, but perhaps the most amusing moment came in 2018: 50 noticed that tickets to a Ja concert were available for $15 each on Groupon, so he bought 200 seats “in the front so they can be empty.”
1999: “How To Rob”
In the summer of 1999, 50 released “How To Rob,” a song on which he details… well, how he would rob a number of rappers, including Jay-Z, Diddy, Will Smith, and many others. 50 later said of the response to the track, “That song had momentum. It had impacted where the hip-hop culture was aware of it, and me, based on it… A lot of people didn’t [respond to] it. The ones who had the egos had to respond. Because they weren’t used to somebody openly putting them out there, and who was I to say it? They all battled with each other, had stuff to say about people subconsciously. They always wrote subliminal sh*t. That’s the sucker way to do it. Just say it, if you got an issue.”
1999: “Ghetto Qur’an (Forgive Me)”
Power Of The Dollar was set to be 50’s first major label album in 2000, but after he was shot, the project was shelved and never officially released. (“How To Rob” was meant for the album.) On album cut “Ghetto Qur’an,” 50 raps about people from his formative years, including 1980s drug gang Supreme Team. An affidavit from IRS agent Francis Mace later revealed it was believed that the shooting was in retaliation to the song’s lyrics.
2005: Attempted ban from Canada
In 2005, 50 was scheduled to perform a set of shows in Canada. Ahead of that, though, Canadian politician Dan McTeague asked Immigration Minister Joe Volpe to ban 50 from entering the country. This came after multiple incidents of gun violence at 50 shows in Canada. In 2003, a man was shot at a Canada Day concert in Toronto, and the next year, another man was shot after 50’s show in Montreal. When he ended up playing in Toronto in December 2005, the show was “under the surveillance of a special police task force” but went off without incident.
2016: Mocking a teen with autism
In 2016, 50 shared a video of himself mocking 19-year-old Andrew Farrell, who was a janitor at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. He claimed Farrell, who has mild autism and social anxiety, was on drugs. In the video, 50 says, “Look at him, what kind of sh*t you think he took before he got to work today? He high as a motherf*cker, pupils dilated, everything.”
50 later donated $100,000 to autism advocacy group Autism Speaks and said in a statement, “I want to turn this misunderstanding into an understanding. There are people that are ignored, mistreated, and neglected with disabilities that need our support. I am calling on my fellow musicians, actors, entertainers, and all others who may not have fully considered this cause to join together to help in any way they can.”
Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.