Curtis Jackson: The Divide in Hip-Hop?

When the recent issues between Beanie Sigel and Jay-Z started to surface, I was extremely disappointed about watching one of the last rap families I saw growing up finish falling apart, but couldn’t say I was too surprised it happened. As both parties’ grievances were coming to light, the one thing I remained confused about was where the hell 50 Cent got involved in this whole mess. Amongst rumors of Beans signing to G-Unit Records, and Curtis’s album date creeping closer and closer, it became clear to me that there was something else going on. 50 never seems to stray too far from any beefs going on, whether or not they involve him. This same factor seems to contribute to the music we listen to, whether they affect the actual content, the collaborations or in the case of Rocafella, Dipset, Terror Squad, etc., the future existence of record labels and crews.

A few years ago, 50 tried to shoot a couple shots the way of Lil Wayne’s camp, right in the mist of Weezy’s reign at the top of the mixtape game and right before the release of Curtis. When asked why he would go after Wayne at this point of their careers, 50 responded that Weezy started their war by continuingly collaborating with artists that he had issues with, such as Ja Rule on the single off of Ja’s The Mirror [“Uh Oh”] or DJ Khaled and Fat Joe from the Terror Squad camp [“We Taking Over”, “I’m So Hood”]. Ironically, that same logic is what 50 says started the beef between himself and Fat Joe and Jadakiss, the two collaborators on Ja Rule’s popular anthem “New York”. The same could be about shots has taken at R. Kelly and Nas. This strategy further contributes to dividing hip hop from getting together from potentially working with each other.

In early October, 50 Cent put together a whole day of performances at New York’s Governor’s Island featuring a lot of artists he had taken issue with such as Jadakiss’s The Lox, Joe Budden’s Slaughterhouse and the Diplomats, amongst others. This day, called the ThisIs50 Music Festival, was put together under the premise of unifying hip hop. 50 Cent will never be confused with being a moniker of peace and such was the issue that fellow New York rapper Fabolous took issue with on Twitter. Fabolous brought up the issue by saying, "It's interesting to see 50 Cent unite with NY artists when he's one of the reasons NY hip hop became so isolated & crumbled… Do u agree NY??"

Such sentiment resides amongst fellow rappers, and further pushes the idea that 50 Cent has become the border and division within hip hop. So when you look see 50 Cent become involved in what appears to be the finishing touches of the crumbling of the Rocafella dynasty, you should no longer be confused. 50 Cent is well aware of where he stands, and it just appears to be part of the plan.