On this day, 15 years ago, 50 Cent’s Curtis squared off against Kanye West’s Graduation in a hip-hop battle for the ages.
Graduation ended up outsellingCurtis, 957,000 to 691,000, earning a huge personal victory for Mr. West. But it also should have marked the end of 50’s solo career, if he were a man of his word.
SOHH released never-before-seen footage of an interview with 50 Cent taken ahead of their album release showdown where he vowed to never release another solo project if Kanye moved more units than him. “I don’t get trophies, I get the checks. He [Kanye] gets the trophies,” 50 said at the 2:12 mark of the video above.
50 Cent has one Grammy, compared to Kanye’s 24 trophies.
“They’d like to see Kanye West give me a problem because I’ve worked myself into a space where I’ve become the favorite,” 50 Cent continued. “Everybody roots for the underdog when he goes against the favorite, but let’s raise the stakes. If Kanye West sells more records than 50 Cent on Sept. 11, I’ll no longer write music.”
50 Cent later clarified that his wager only impacted his own career, not the artists in his own camp. “I won’t put out any more solo albums,” he explained.
50 released two more solo albums after losing his wager: 2009’s Before I Self Destruct and 2014’s Animal Ambition.
The two interacted with one another on social media over the weekend when Kanye reached out to 50 Cent after he reacted to an alleged fake post about Kim Kardashian’s diarrhea problem.
