50 Cent Defends "Gangsta Rap"

Rapper Speaks Out On Alicia Keys' Blender Interview

(CBS)  By The Showbuzz's Melissa Castellanos

When it comes to "Gangsta rap" 50 Cent doesn't play around.

He's not happy about comments Alicia Keys was quoted as making in a recent interview with Blender, even though the R&B songstress later said the quotes were "misrepresented" by the magazine.

"'Gangsta rap' was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other," Keys was quoted as saying. "'Gangsta rap' didn't exist."

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Photos: Celebs Speak

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According to the Associated Press, Keys issued a statement later saying that her comments were "misrepresented" and that she isn't a "conspiracy theorist" or "a racist."

"We stand by our story," Blender spokeswoman Kate Cafaro told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Regardless of Keys' explanation, 50 Cent wasn't too thrilled with the comment.

2"I don't like Alicia Keys no more though … the same reason why I said that I don't like Oprah Winfrey," 50 Cent toldTheShowBuzz.com. "I'm prejudice(d). I don't like people who don't like me. If you don't like the content that I write because of my experiences; I am being who I am when I am writing it. I fall into that 'label' as far as you considering artists creating 'Gangsta music,' we fall into that.

"If she don't like that, (then) I don't like that classical music s--- she be doing. At some point she's playing some s--- that don't relate to me. … We listen to it and try to figure out why people actually enjoy it. I am trying to enjoy it. That statement changes my perception of Alicia Keys totally. But the magazine is standing behind it, which means they probably have a tape of her in conversation saying it. It's just not really a bright comment anyway."

A multiplatinum artist ("Get Rich or Die Tryin" and "The Massacre") and business mogul, 50 Cent made a fortune from using rap to share his story of growing up hustling in the streets since the age of twelve.

He believes that hip-hop as an art form is often misjudged.

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Photos: Stars Behind Bars

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"I think hip-hop is so competitive, that the competitive nature, the art form makes it a competition," 50 Cent said. "I don't think that a lot of people who judge hip-hop actually enjoy it as an art form. They aren't into it enough to understand what they are listening to and they just hear disrespectful lyrics going back and forth and just say 'oh they're fighting' … so it's got to be negative if it's fighting. To just make reference to what hip-hop was from the very beginning was just two artists battling. Battling turned into beefing after Biggie and Tupac passed because unfortunately that turned into real incidents in the street."

50 Cent, who knows this way of life firsthand, said his mother (who was a cocaine dealer) was killed when he was 8 years old.

"Those things happen in that kind of lifestyle," he said.

50 Cent said that his "reference of nice things died with her." His grandparents, who took him in, had nine children, which meant finances were strained and times were tough.

Although 50 Cent was successful, Columbia Records let him go after he was shot 9 times on May 24, 2000. The rapper was in his car outside of his grandmother's house in South Jamaica, Queens when a gunman pulled up and shot him at close range while he was sitting in the car. He was shot in the hands, legs, chest, hip and left cheek.

He managed to redeem himself in the music biz once he healed and stopped hustling. He may be scarred, but he seems unscathed by the incident today.

"When you get shot, you just get up and go back to doing what you were doing and music was what I was doing," 50 Cent said.

[olebd]

And yet, no word on Paul Davis passing???? For you youngsters, he made real music. Had some great songs such as ''65 love Affair, I Go Crazy, Sweet Life, Cool Nights. Died of a heart attack at 60 years old just a couple days ago.

[syderella]

Do you think if these people could get a decent job or educational opportunities and live the "good life" they would choose to live like this? Give me a f#*king Break! A$#h*les I%u2019d give you 1 day in the hood, just 1, and you would be bumping 50 cents like a mother$%#@!&, because THEN, you would get "It". 50 Cent is a Legend, SUCKKERRS! He made it out the Hood, even if it doesnt last forever, He''s RICH B.I.T.C.H.E.S. and I know money doesnt guarantee happiness, but id bet my ghetto rent money that he''s probably happier than all you haters! PEACE. (signed by a bonafide Hood Chick/with a Master''s Degree) and please do not try to comment about any spelling or grammar errors here, because this is not a spelling bee contest, quite frankly I DONT CARE!

[syderella]

how naive, self-righteous, selfish, sanctimonious, self-sufficient, ignorant, inconsiderate, unfeeling, insensitive and indifferent some people can be. I guess if you dont understand it, its a piece of ***, Right? I bet none of you know what its like to live in or grow up in the "hood" (short for neighborhood/slang term used by blacks and Latinos referring to the ghetto in which they are forced to live, not by choice; due to years of inequality and injustice in this country...that''s my definition...dont try to check me i dont care... its so because i said so *** it) Do you know what its like to be a single mother or father living in the ghetto, struggling to get by on minimum wages, not having the same opportunities that some notorious others were born with; like a gold spoon in their mouths, while everyone else around you is living the same struggle, being forced to live a life which leads to inevitably to drugs and violence? It%u2019s called survival you a$$h*les, who do you think gives a *h!t about etiquette, when you have no food in the fridge or the cupboard, no lights in the house, or no bed to sleep on. These people were born as decent people, they want better for themselves and they want to do better, every single last one of us. However, when you dont have it like that IT IS NOT EEEASY OK! I see kids dieing from gunshots all the time, i see streets filled with crack heads and dope addicts every day. ***!

[lil_d3vil]

50" and his garbage isn''t worth a plug nickel in my book, the poor guy must be the typical high school dropout.

It says much of people who would hold this guy up as some type of person to aspire too. He may have millions but I feel sorry for the guy.

[navyjimfl]

this forum sounds like a class I took recently on race relations.....15 white guys and a white professor putting down blacks, latinos and aisans.....

[mandylou4u]

I actually find myself feeling sorry for these folks. I don''t usually comment on this forum, but ever since rap has been around there has been more crime and hate and anger. This is about as much art as that guy that thinks letting a dog starve and documenting it is art. It''s c.r.a.p. if you ask me. There is nothing wrong with a black entertainer. There are plenty of good r&b artists and songs out there. This ganster rap is about as useless as t.i.t.s. on a boar hog. Grow up 50 cent, there are alot better ways to make money on this earth. Your money doesn''t mean anything in the end and have you ever seen a luggage rack on a hurst?

[inventagod]

This P.O.S. scams inner-city kids to the tune of $23 mil/year - of course he will defend doing so...

[nomorewars]

That clown name 5-0 is the reason why rap and the music industry in general''s in total sad shape, *** him, never liked him from the whole beginning, Alicia keys is the truth.

[dylanxxv]

What a piece of ghetto trash...You would think the maggot would turn his life around after one of his fellow "artists" tried to kill him, but no, he doesn''t even have the brains to do anything else but bellow out hate filled filth...

[lloydbest1]

Another case of "keepin'' it real" gone bad.
If only hip-hop could speak to "what could be" instead of "what is"....

[hypnotoad72]

gameoverdems - not a bad argument, but the word you refer to is "drivel". Still, it''s so banal, even a person who does nothing more than dribble could scribble it out. :)

[hypnotoad72]

50''s comments aren''t even worth 2 cents.

The only rap I''ve heard recently is on MTV or a radio station. The "music" is so simplistic, the pre-recorded fodder on a $40 electronic keyboard at a discount store has a more complex rhythm, and the lyrics are swear words, prostitutes, and killing. That''s art? So is the heavy metal band t-shirt from 1987, worn by kids in school, whose slogan was "Metal up your ***", complete with picture of a dagger-wielding fist coming up out of a toilet. Is that art too? No way. It''s degenerate. Period.

I''ll acknowledge real artists. "Fear of a Black Planet" from Public Enemy had a real style in its music, had lyrics that (save for two songs) were not about glorifying destruction (and even in the other two, I can understand the anger behind the lyrics, today''s lyrics have no substance!). But that''s for a different article; that''s pre-gangsta.

Let me know when Cyndi Lauper and Madonna get shot by rival pop artists. Knowing that, doesn''t it seem a real waste that Tupac and others were murdered?!!

[generey]

Punk cant even speak proper english.

[rational_1]

"When you get shot, you just get up and go back to doing what you were doing and music was what I was doing," 50 Cent said.

Ya, I''ve heard a lot of electricians, schoolteachers, mechanics and doctors say the same thing. The shootings do slow you down a bit, but you just have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, have the bullets removed and get on with things. That last statement of his nicely illustrates just how degenerate this gangsta culture really is. Hey kids, everyone idolize 50 Cent and maybe you too can get shot 9 times if you''re lucky.

[pmizzle1]

*** everybody who is stereotypical on this website. i dont understand why people can just appreciate or acknowledge the artwork of different artists and different genres of music. i dont care for country or any of that pop that is going on now but i still acknowledge the artists and respect them and their art form. if u dont undestand hip-hop then that doesnt mean u have to disrespect it and make comments like the ones ive just read.

[likeitis5050]

Can any of you use proper grammer or spelling. You all sound like a bunch of ignorant white trash Klansmen!!! No one is forced to listen to rap so don''''t if you don''''t like it.
Posted by Nastyboy16

The irony is just too obvious to even crack on...poor guy.

[mrfresh22]

lol talking about spelling, its grammAr not grammEr

[irliberal]

50 cent? What kind of freaky name is that? LOL

[nastyboy16]

Can any of you use proper grammer or spelling. You all sound like a bunch of ignorant white trash Klansmen!!! No one is forced to listen to rap so don''t if you don''t like it.

[inventagod]

Anyone who aspires to be a convict is an idiot, regardless of how many cows are in his herd...