East Coast rapper Curtis Jackson, known better by his stage name, 50 Cent, has revealed that he has spent approximately $23million (£18.9million) in legal fees since the beginning of his career at the turn of the millennium.
The topic was brought up during an interview the rapper had with YouTube personality Brian Roberts. 50 Cent mentioned the mind-bending figure while discussing the huge sum conspiracy theorist Alex Jones will owe to the families of the victims of the Sandy Hook school shootings in damages and the potential lawsuit Kanye West faces from George Floyd’s family after he falsely claimed his death was caused by fentanyl as opposed to police brutality.
“I spent over $23 million in legal fees since I had success in 2003,” 50 Cent told Roberts. “So when you say you successful or that you rich in a different way, that money was just written off as expenses of business. You in it and I’m going, ‘What?’ I’m looking at it myself, ‘That’s how much you really spent on that?’ I was like, ‘Wow!’”
“The only thing someone in America can do is sue someone. They’re gonna sue, and there always gonna be pro bono or say, ‘We’ll defend you in exchange for 30 per cent of what we receive off of this because we do see a case.’”
As well as surviving nine gunshot wounds, 50 Cent has been involved in several lawsuits throughout his career. He sued an engineering firm over the cost of repairs to his Connecticut mansion in 2009 and has also been involved in countless legal battles over music copyright matters, most recently a five-year copyright infringement case against Rick Ross (which 50 Cent lost). To many people’s surprise, he also filed for bankruptcy in 2015.
In September, he filed a lawsuit against a Florida-based plastic surgeon for allegedly implying he had been a client for penis enhancement surgery. His attorneys argued that this “exposed [him] to ridicule” and damaged his “professional and personal reputation.”
Elsewhere, 50 Cent’s TV series exploring the murders of fellow rappers, titled Hip Hop Homicides, premiered earlier this month. He recently discussed the role of social media in the changes to violence within hip-hop communities, stating: “I think it’s the same energy, but we’re in a different period so it looks different. It’s gonna happen where everyone can take a look on camera.”
