50 Cent is probably overly concerned about every last one of his moneymaking endeavors now that a New York grand jury has ordered him to cough up $5 million in a civil suit. Not to mention the other financial hardships he said he's experiencing in a recent bankruptcy filing.
So don't go messing with his hit TV show Power.
The rapper is accusing AT&T of being racist in Twitter and Instagram posts because the cable-providing arm of the telecommunications company is not including the Starz network in its channel lineup. Power airs on the Starz network and has a predominantly black cast and black viewers.
50 Cents tweeted Sunday about how it sucks that approximately half a million people who wanted to watch Power couldn't because they have AT&T as a cable provider and therefore don't get the Starz network.
https://twitter.com/50cent/status/622764701370462209
On Instagram he encouraged people who have AT&T to change providers, lamenting that it's sad that in 2015, "these people are still racist," since they're "dropping all channels that are considered urban friendly."
Meanwhile, AT&T released a statement suggesting that it's more concerned about the bottom line, and that concern is influencing the company's pending negotiations with Starz, not the fact that Starz has black TV shows.
"Starz and their paid talent can spin up whatever they like, but the bottom line is we're NOT going to negotiate a deal that is bad for customers," the AT&T statement read. "In these negotiations, our customers are all that matter to us."
Starz also released a statement explaining that it hopes to reach a middle ground with AT&T: "Starz has enjoyed a strong and mutually beneficial relationship with AT&T until now. We are hopeful AT&T will negotiate in good faith and that we will reach a fair agreement."
50 Cent can't leave one stone unturned when it comes to ensuring that Power gets every possible eyeball. More access to the Starz network means more subscriptions to the network and more eyeballs for Power, which presumably means more money for one of the show's top producers, one of whom goes by the name of 50 Cent.
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Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele is a staff writer at The Root and the founder and executive producer of Lectures to Beats, a Web series that features expert advice with scarily insightful people. Follow Lectures to Beats on Facebook and Twitter.