Credit: Alex Const

50 Cent has been taking jabs at Jay-Z ever since he was named in a sexual assault lawsuit with Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, with a woman claiming the two rappers raped her when she was 13 years old. But their history goes far beyond that, dating back to 50 calling out Hov on ‘How to Rob’ and getting a response on ‘It’s Hot (Some Like It Hot)’.

The pair have always competed as leading figures in hip-hop, but Jay allegedly attempting to block him from performing at the Super Bowl with Dr Dre in 2022 was another thing altogether.

“He would do funky stuff like the Super Bowl, like it was not okay for me to be at the Super Bowl,” he said on the Flagrant podcast.

The rapper continued: “He didn’t want me, like they worked to make it [seem] like there was an issue with me and the NFL that doesn’t exist. [Like], ‘It’s them.’ Then Em says, ‘I’m not gonna do it if you’re not there.'”

When asked about his real issue with Jay, he said, “It’s just competitive stuff. This is what I’m saying, when it gets past actual art, actual music, and you trying to block something in business, it feels weird. It feels like we should be having beef.”

He continued, “You go, ‘He said that to you?’ They’ll speak to your temperament, like, ’50’s a little a crazy. You see what saying anything did to Kanye.’ [Em said], ‘If he’s not coming, I’m not coming.’ And then that changes the whole thing, ’cause he really is the biggest. They can say what they want, but when we go to the stats, he’s the biggest one.”

Sitting down with Cam’ron on his new show Talk with Flee, 50 admitted he was confused as to why Jay appears to be competing with him away from the music.

“I think it’s just… our culture’s competitive, but I think when it goes past the music itself to blocking things in business, then I don’t understand that,” he said. “Right now, he’s not even competing for a slot. He doesn’t have a new song out that he wants to be top 10 and he’s still competing. It don’t make sense. What are we competing for? What’s the goal?”