50 Cent is a fiery character, to say the least, so it’s no surprise that when radio personality Ebro Darden pointed the finger at the rapper for the current state of New York rap, he did not take it lying down.
Many hip hop heads see current New York rap as an absolute basket case. Why? Because unlike places such as Miami, Atlanta and LA, New York seems unable to produce any rappers who can successfully cross into the mainstream. Arguably, until the emergence of G-funk, New York had a monopoly on hip hop music. However, that monopoly has slowly dissipated over the years and is definitely non-existent today.
During the 1990s, LA and New York were equally as prolific with regard to the artists they were producing, but many people cite the early 2010s as the last time a quality artist came out of New York. For some, the Harlem renaissance was the final flurry of artists who could have made it. However, almost all of those artists faded back onto the underground. Artists such as Princess Nokia, Azealia Banks, Joey Bada$$, and others were undersupported and unappreciated upon their emergence and (with their alternative hip hop sonics) were cast aside in favour of trap music.
During the interview, 50 Cent claimed that, as the station’s former programme director, Darden was responsible because he did not play records of New York artists. However, Darden came straight back and said that the rapper (real name Curtis Jackson) was responsible, saying, “You pulled it apart, you had everybody beefing with you, anybody that did a record with [Fat] Joe or Ja [Rule] was beefing with you. You pulled it apart! At a time when we could have had unity, the marquee artists did not wanna work together.”
He continued: “Fifty, you like to operate from a place of everybody having problems with you. Even when you came in this building, you was like, ‘this feels uncomfortable’ because you like being banned from somewhere!” The interview most definitely got heated and is a must-watch.
You can view the entire interview in the video below.
