Is 50 Cent "Getting Exposed"? (Also, A Message)

For such a long time (realistically, since about 2003), 50 Cent has been such an intimidating presence in hip hop. He's made some of the heaviest and hardest hitting hip hop songs to date, songs which detailed the life of growing up in the hood, selling drugs, and getting shot. 50 has made his lifestyle apparent even today, getting into constant feuds with just about everybody under the sun. For what reason this may be remains to be seen; does 50 constantly have a need to prove his masculinity to people?  Or does 50 just hate that many people?  A point could be made that 50 just likes to give his controversial (and somewhat disrespectful, at times) opinion whenever he sees fit, but another point could also be made that 50 tries as hard as he possibly can to stay in the limelight for as long as he can without making music. A few things have happened with 50 recently that have peaked my interest about the South Jamaica, Queens, New York rapper. Is 50 Cent a fraud?  You be the judge, but allow me to supply you with some facts of the recent situations 50 Cent has been getting into.

So in case you haven't heard, back in January 50 got into an Instagram beef (ha-ha to this, seeing as it's mostly the only way rappers express their problems and opinions nowadays) with Murda Inc. founder Irv Gotti over the rehashed feud they had back in the day that also ended up including Aftermath, some Shady Records Artists (including Eminem, Obie Trice, etc.) and the original member of the beef with 50, Murda Inc. rapper Ja Rule. Meek Mill had originally tagged Irv in an Instagram post, asking "Can you clarify that he told on y'all? We need answers!" Of course Gotti happily clarified with the post below.

It's understandably easy to take Irv's words above as "promo" for himself, a way to get some easy publicity, but when you see the first picture above of the "order for protection" put out by Curtis Jackson (50's real name), you start to wonder about 50. Why would he put on like that and claim so confidently to this day that he won the beef against Irv, Ja Rule and Murda Inc.? The real heads that were watching the beef go down and heard about the details on every diss track put out back and forth between Ja Rule and 50 (who also had Eminem, Dr. Dre, Obie Trice, and the rest of G-Unit backing him up) would think that 50 put Ja to sleep and essentially ended the run of Murda Inc.'s success. But, it'd also be easy to misconstrue the assumption that 50 "won" his beef against Irv, Ja and Murda Inc. seeing as the above document gives off the assumption that 50 was actually, truly scared of Irv, Ja and Murda Inc., and feared for his life. Of course 50 then responded with an outrageously disrespectful Instagram post, saying to Irv, who's 82 year old dad was celebrating a birthday, to "Tell yo daddy I said hurry up and die punk. Let's get to it no more IG." Considering how left field 50 had to go to respond to Irv, this definitely gave off the assumption that what Irv was saying was true, and that 50 felt rattled, and beaten.



Recently, reclusive rapper Jay Electronica hosted a live session on Periscope in which he made headlines for dissing 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar. Jay had much to say about 50 Cent; "50 Cent, at once, he was a good rapper. Right now he got the potential to be a rapper, but he's on some sucker shit... and we will slap 50 Cent's eyeballs loose from his scalp." 50 (as usual, entertaining the bull, though it can be entertaining, somebody grab me some popcorn) responded on Instagram to a fan who asked him about Jay Electronica's comments. 50 Cent wrote in a response, "who is that? I don't even know a song from him LMAO". Because of this, Jay Elec released the song above and tweeted to 50 yesterday, "don't make me expose you as a coward." It will certainly be interesting to see how this 50 and Jay Elec beef will carry on, do you think Jay Elec can hold his own against 50?

Anyways, it's amazing to see that all of this hoopla can keep somebody in the limelight the way that it does 50 Cent (also others who seemingly cant help but offer their 2 cents on any and every situation, such as Kanye West, and the struggling to stay relevant Azalea Banks). It's a lost art to act mature in hip hop these days. It's a sad sight to see, especially when you know 50 Cent at one time was a great rapper who has put out classic albums, and was in the news because of how good his music was, and not because he was popping off on any and everybody who said something about him. It's not always the most entertaining on social media, but it says a lot about one's (rappers specifically) character when they can take all of the allegations, the flack, and the hate, and use it as fuel to inspire and create great music. Kendrick Lamar's message on his "Control" verse is slipping, but it still holds relevance to the ones who still like to actually rap, and competitively at that. Maybe some of these guys should take notes.