Although 50 Cent is known to be the top troll in hip-hop, he can be the nice guy sometimes.
During his recent interview with Billboard, the G-Unit boss shared the words of encouragement he gave to Drake following the release of “Not Like Us,” which for many, deemed Kendrick Lamar the winner of their epic rap beef.
When asked if he had advice for the Toronto artist, he said, “I was telling him, it’s not him. I’m listening on the outskirts, it’s not you. Don’t let yourself think that for a second. On some real s**t, I said, ‘They said you lost, okay. Well what did you lose?’ What exactly did he lose, if he got $300 something million on his last tour? You didn’t lose a motherf**king thing, man. If that’s the moment, you keep your creative energy in the right place, and keep creating.”
He continued, “If you slow down because you feel, ‘What the f**k?’ The resistance will make you feel like your material isn’t good. Then you gotta figure out how to keep pushing, how to keep creating — because that’s what it feels like to you at the moment. That s***t was good for hip-hop. It made both of them create quality material faster.”
The “Power” creator also gave props to Drake’s creativity in the battle, including the decision to release a video for “Family Matters.” He stated, “The f**king [good kid, m.A.A.d city] car in the video. That s**t was a mystery. Everything was tied to something. I was like what the f**k? That wasn’t in hip-hop before that. Before that battle, I do not remember this was the car from this and that was this. Everything that was a part of it was some other s**t. It was almost encrypted.”
He’s referring to the “Family Matters” video, which shows a van, that looks similar to the one Lamar used on the deluxe cover of “good kid, m.A.A.d city,” being crushed.
Although 50 Cent does give props to Lamar in the interview, saying “I love Kendrick,” he went out of his way to highlight the release of Drake’s diss tracks and not K. Dot’s during the height of their beef.
When the Toronto artist dropped “Push Ups,” he wrote on X, “All you [ninja emoji] got smoked by a light skinned Ni66a. LOL YALL BETTER GET HIGH AS A MOTHER FVCKER AND COME UP WITH SOMETHING!”
He did the same with “Family Matters.” So it’s interesting to 50 Cent and other veteran hip-hop figures reflect on how the battle played out months later.