“If I could talk to my teenage self, I’d tell him to focus on music with a stronger intensity,” 50 explained to The Big Issue. “He could still have this career without going through all the things I went through. And thinking about relationships– I think back to when I was with someone and that person could have been the person I was going to be with for the rest of my life but I didn’t have the references yet to know there was something special there,” he added.[jwplatform YR9zoyUk]
Someone who did have the wherewithal to have that knowledge? Well, in 50’s opinion, Jay did, however, he had a really disparaging way of saying it. “Some people have been better at that than me,” 50 said. “If I look at Jay Z, I’d point out he capitalized on people better than I did.” If we didn’t know better, we’d think 50 was trying to say Jay “capitalized” on his now-wife, Beyonce in order to get ahead. Sure sounds an awful lot like that.
Elsewhere in the interview, 50’s introspection continues– and not at the risk of insulting his peers! “If I could go back to any time, I’d go back to when the sales figures for the first week of Get Rich or Die Tryin’ came out,” 50 said. “I went to sit at the back of the tour bus and just thought, ‘wow.’ I couldn’t believe it. When I got those sales I knew that from now on, I didn’t have to wait for someone else to say it was okay, I could say it was okay myself.”
So, what do you think of 50’s comments, HollywoodLifers? Was he slamming Jay or was he just complimenting him, one rap legend to another?
— Casey Mink