50 Cent doesn’t play about his money or his image, so it’s no surprise that the hip-hop mogul is suing a jeweler for using his likeness without permission.
On Thursday, the artist born Curtis Jackson boss filed a lawsuit against Maksud Trax Agadjani, known in the music industry as TraxNYC, for trademark infringement and violating his right of publicity. This comes after the popular jeweler was seen on social media promoting chains that are similar to a chain that 50 Cent owns. Jackson also claims the posts are misleading consumers into thinking that he’s affiliated with these “knock-off” pieces.
According to The Wrap, the lawsuit reads: “Defendants, who are in the jewelry business, willfully and knowingly created imitations of an original necklace designed exclusively for Jackson; used Jackson’s name, image and other intellectual property rights to mislead consumers into believing Defendants’ reproductions are affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Jackson; and continue to use Jackson’s name, image and other intellectual property rights for commercial gain.”
It continues, “Jackson did not purchase his necklace from Defendants and Jackson has never authorized Defendants to capitalize on his goodwill and reputation in order to promote their goods and services.”
Here’s one of the videos TraxNYC posted on social media promoting the pieces:
Before filing the lawsuit, 50 Cent warned the jeweler on social media. “This was a bad idea,” he commented on one of the posts. “You will regret doing this I promise.”
Since Thursday, 50 has not let up on Trax NYC addressing him in several posts on Instagram telling him to stop selling the chains.
In one post he wrote, “This fool took my custom piece, copied it, then posted this 7 hours ago using my likeness to sell them. He must don’t know how this works, if he talks to a lawyer they would tell him this is not good.”
In another one, he reshared a video of TraxNYC asking for the rapper to drop the lawsuit, asking 50 Cent to “forgive and forget.” In the caption, the “Power” creator wrote, “Let me think about it. Nah you tried to play with me! You know the vibes by Monday.”
As the biggest and pettiest troll in hip-hop, 50 Cent is usually willing to go the distance to make a point.