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50 Cent and Drake
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50 Cent is siding with Drake in the Canadian superstar’s petition against Universal Music Group. On Monday (Dec. 16), during Andrew Schulz’s “Flagrant” podcast, the New York rap legend said he believes every claim laid out in the recent legal action with UMG.
“Everything he said they did in that lawsuit, they did it,” 50 Cent said before drawing a parallel to his own experience with G-Unit — previously home to Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo and Young Buck — and Interscope Records, a UMG subsidiary. “At Interscope, they delivered [marketing for] G-Unit and G-Unot,” the “21 Questions” hitmaker shared.
Notably, The Game spearheaded a G-Unot boycott campaign after being dropped from G-Unit in the 2000s. According to the West Coast MC, 50 Cent and Jimmy Iovine paid him $1 million to stop using the phrase after he trademarked it.
“They’re looking at it like a business completely, not personalizing each individual. They’re just selling music,” 50 Cent told Schulz while discussing UMG’s practices. “They don’t care about [personal relationships]. You’ll [take it] personally because you feel like you made them so much money. They’ll go, ‘No, it’s not personal at all.’”
In November, Drake filed two petitions against UMG. The first alleged that the music conglomerate used bots, payola and other illegal methods to artificially prop up Kendrick Lamar’s “Not Like Us” streams. The second legal action was over the company distributing the aforementioned record despite knowing that it “falsely” accused him of being a pedophile.
Elsewhere in the sit-down, Fif discussed why he rides so hard for the “God’s Plan” hitmaker despite Lamar being connected to his circle by way of Dr. Dre. “You see how [Drake is] lashing at everybody? That doesn’t feel like 50 Cent? That’s what that experience [comes from],” the rap mogul said.
He went on to suggest that the legal actions against UMG are an attempt to block Lamar from performing “Not Like Us” at the Super Bowl LIX in February 2025: “If it’s for what I think it’s for, then I understand it. [Drake is trying] to prevent the song from being played at the Super Bowl because it would do further damage.”