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50 Cent has revealed that there is an easter egg buried in plain sight in his recent cover photo for The Hollywood Reporter.
On the cover of the issue dated July 31, 2024, Fif is seen sitting on a stack of U.S. currency, with additional bundles of cash arranged around him on the floor. The cover makes note of the fact that, “he brought his own $3.5 million to the shoot.”
During an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert shared to YouTube on Thursday (September 5), the G-Unit boss explained that the concept behind the photo was on homage to Muhammad Ali.
“Stephen, I was trying to mirror a photo that I had seen that Muhammad Ali took,” 50 Cent explained, referencing Ali’s appearance on the February 1964 cover of Sports Illustrated, which saw the boxing legend in a bank vault sitting on and holding what is, presumably, $1 million in cash.
When the talk show host joked that, thanks to modern technology, the Queens native could have recreated the moment without having to use real money, Fiddy quipped, “I like how you act like you don’t have a lot of money, Stephen. You’re on Season 10, bro! He’s posturing himself in this way so he doesn’t have to give his relatives money.”
As they continued talking about the authenticity of the props in the photo, 50 Cent offered a narrative-shattering gem.
“When you watch a movie and it’s, like, a bank robbery, that’s not real,” he offered after being asked what $3.5 million in cash weighs. “When they put the money in the bag and then you see them run out? They’re not running. It’s about 77 pounds. So you walk it out. No machine gun, none of that. You just go walk out and if they didn’t get me, I made it. I just wanted to make the picture good.”
50 Cent has been on a press run for the past few days to promote his new novel, The Accomplice, which was released on Tuesday (September 3).
In the midst of it all, the “In Da Club” rapper inadvertently sparked a war with Dame Dash, throwing shade at the Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder for downplaying the $1 million deal he signed with Dr. Dre‘s Aftermath Entertainment and Eminem‘s Shady Records in 2002.
Appearing on Gillie Da Kid and Wallo‘s Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast last week, he said: “The only person that pointed out that a million dollars was no money was Damon Dash, and he has no money now.”
Doing his best Dame impression, 50 recalled the mogul telling him: “That ain’t no money. After you get a watch, a chain, you look out for the homies and you do this, that and the third… it’s nothing.
“And I was like, ‘N-gga, I’m from 134th Street. A million dollars is a lot of money.’ I’m thinking I hit the lotto! How you gonna say it’s no money? I just never forgot that because of how it felt.”
The day after his book hit shelves and online stores, Dame challenged 50 to a “CEO war” involving their respective television networks, America Nu and 50 Cent Action.
“Somebody definitely sent me that cute shit 50 said about me not having no money. Because of that, I feel like now me and 50 should have a battle,” Dash said. “No gangster shit — I’m 53 years old, that would be wack and corny for the culture — but he’s in the television network business now.”
Dash went on: “Let’s do CEO war. You drop your television network today — you should be able to do that because you have power, you have the resources and you know, you’re getting money. And because I’m ‘broke,’ this should be easy work.”
The Harlem native also challenged 50 Cent to release an original movie on his network to go up against his own America Nu film The Prince of Detroit, letting fans decide which one is better.
“You should have it on deck,” he said. “You’re a CEO, you should be prepared for this. But I guarantee you you’re not […] I need you to show up for this battle, 50.”
