50 Cent Says Roc Nation Tried To Block Him From Super Bowl Until Eminem Stepped In
Eminem threatened to bail on the Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show if 50 Cent wasn’t part of the performance, according to the G-Unit rapper. 50 Cent said Roc Nation opposed his participation in the star-studded event in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter.
“They wanted to leave me out of it,” he noted. “They didn’t want me there.”
Roc Nation produces the Super Bowl Halftime Show in partnership with the NFL. Jay-Z’s company booked Dr. Dre, Eminem, Kendrick Lamar, Mary J. Blige and Snoop Dogg to perform at the Super Bowl in California in 2022. 50 Cent and Anderson .Paak also performed, but the two weren’t announced before the event.
“Eminem wouldn’t do it without me,” 50 Cent said. “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, so you just lost Eminem because you didn’t bring 50? Damn. All right. Bring 50 then.’ But if it was up to them, they would not have me there. I’m the surprise. I’m not on the bill at all. But they couldn’t get Em to do it without me.”
50 Cent won an Emmy for his role in the Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show. The victory didn’t quell his frustrations with the Television Academy, which has never nominated his show Power or any of its spinoffs for awards.
“It does not make sense,” he told The Hollywood Reporter. “The easiest way to point it out to the public is the actual facts. When the show is clearly No. 1 in African American households, if you don’t want to acknowledge it, you don’t want to acknowledge African Americans and Latinos. It’s a choice. I don’t know if it’s OK, but it’s a choice.”
50 Cent is preparing to host the first Humor & Harmony festival in Shreveport, Louisiana on August 8-11. Shreveport is the new home of G-Unit Studios.