50 Cent wins $1 billion lawsuit against former drug kingpin
Rapper 50 Cent has won a $1 billion lawsuit against a former drug kingpin. The suit has surrounded his hit series Power, about which Cory ‘Ghost’ Holland claimed that 50, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, had stolen the plot from his own life. It has been a long-running feud that now seems to have found a legal conclusion.
Power has become one of the most influential TV shows in recent years, elevating the work of 50 Cent from music mogul and businessman to a multi-media machine.
The show focuses on James ‘Ghost’ St Patrick, who operates a double life, working as both a successful nightclub owner and a major player in the drug trade of New York City. The series looks at the usual themes you may expect in such a show, with loyalty, betrayal, and the pursuit of power as all consistent themes. For Holland, he believed the narrative to be too close to his own life story.
Holland filed the lawsuit back in 2021 against co-creator Courtney Kemp, STARZ, Jackson and Lionsgate, arguing that he had offered the details of his life story on a 2007 CD called Blasphemy, which had been sent to Kemp’s father. However, this claim has now been put to bed.
According to Holland, he had hoped that the CD would find him a new avenue to leave the drug trade. As the lawsuit rolled on, Judge Analisa Torres took sides with Jackson and said that because Power does not ever mention Holland by name, she could not consider it to be guilty of defamation, also noting that a number of facets of the show’s story are mere coincidences.
Holland wasn’t done there, though, as he also filed another lawsuit, one that accused Jackson and his colleagues of harassing and threatening him by showing up near his home to play a song on loudspeakers, thereby teasing him.
A letter sent to Jackson from Holland with a warning not to threaten him again had been acquired by AllHipHop. It stated, “If a motherfucker gets killed because your motherfucking client threatened me and my family, file a motherfucking motion for that.”
The letter continued, “I ain’t playing with your motherfucking client no more; next time he or anyone he sends pull up, fuck the litigation.” The second lawsuit also lost, with Judge Torres again handling the case.
She stated in her verdict, “There is no indication that this conduct constituted a threat, much less an ‘imminent threat of harmful contact’ as required for an assault claim.” The lawsuits have now been dismissed, and Jackson is looking around $1 billion richer.
In another recent 50 Cent news article, the legendary rapper claimed that Jay-Z’s Roc Nation banner tried to keep him out of the Super Bowl halftime show in 2022, telling The Hollywood Reporter that they didn’t want him there. “Eminem wouldn’t do it without me. That’s how I ended up on the show, because he was not coming if I didn’t do it. When that happens, you go, ‘Damn, you just lost Eminem because you didn’t bring 50?’. Damn. All right. Bring 50 then.”