Before becoming one of the biggest names in entertainment, 50 Cent failed to secure a deal with Def Jam Records, a moment he talked about on the latest episode of Omari Hardwick's POETICS podcast series. The G-Unit founder said he was working with Jam Master Jay's production company when Irv Gotti, who was working as a Def Jam A&R exec at the time, rejected his submissions. 50 also pointed out that all of this occurred years before he began beefing with Irv, Ja Rule, and the Murder Inc. crew.
"Me and Irv didn't even have run-ins with each other or anything at that point. But he was like, 'Nah, he kind of remind me of [JAY-Z],'" 50 recalled.
He went on to explain that Jam Master Jay had played Irv one of his songs that sampled Nas' "Represent"—specifically the line, "Somehow the rap game reminds me of the crack game." 50 claimed that shortly after Irv and Jam Master Jay's meeting, Hov came out with a track that sounded very familiar to his own cut.
"It was a song on JAY-Z's next album that had the direct comparisons of 'somehow the rap game reminds me of the crack game.' It was the same concept. Same song," 50 said. "Now I'm going, 'Yo [Jam Master Jay], did you play it for that n***a?' He was like, 'Nah, no. [JAY-Z] wasn't there.'"
50 didn't seem too pressed about the similarities. In fact, he said it confirmed his potential as rap's next big star.
"For [Jam Master Jay] it was confirmation. He's like, 'Yo, I got a n***a here that's writin' the same shit JAY-Z's writing,'" he said. "So, now he's like, 'Nobody's producing records for him, but me. Because it's going to be good.' It was confirmation that I was writing the right thing."
Omari Hardwick, who works with 50 Cent on the Starz series Power, shared why he was excited to get Fifty on the podcast. "In keeping with the title of our podcast POETICS, there is nothing more poetic than being able to sit down with a boss, a colleague, a teammate, friend, and brother... and be able to go even deeper than we have all these years together. A ton of fun equally. It was a true pleasure interviewing Fif on POETICS the podcast. This episode is another example of what makes POETICS unique as a podcast. I think it’s the raw, vulnerability of the artist’s journey and attention to the art of storytelling, combined with a comfort provided guests in talking to one of their peers, in me... that makes POETICS special.”
You can check out the exclusive clip above. The full interview drops at today at 12 p.m. ET on the Luminary podcast app.
