50 Cent has been embroiled in several high-profile beefs throughout his career, including feuds with fellow rappers Jay-Z, The Game, and Ja-Rule. However, his feud with Rick Ross, though less widely discussed, has been equally intense. The two rappers clashed in the late 2000s and continue to harbor animosity towards each other.
The origins of the beef is complex but it fully began to play out in the public eye at around 2008. 50 Cent was at the height of his fame and success, while At the time, Ross was a relatively new artist, but he was quickly gaining popularity following the success of his 2006 debut album “Port Of Miami” and his 2008 sophomore album “Trilla.”
Although there’s no proof backing this, the first seismic shift in their relationship occurred at the BET Awards in 2008. Rick Ross claimed 50 Cent gave him a dirty look when they crossed paths at the ceremony. Recognizing the potential career boost, Ross initiated the feud, leading to the release of his track “Mafia Music” in January 2009, targeting 50 Cent and referencing a controversial incident where 50 Cent allegedly burned down a house with his baby mama inside after she requested rent for a home he had bought for her.
“I love to pay ya bills, can’t wait to pay ya rent. Curtis Jackson baby mama I ain’t asking for a cent/Burn the house down n-gga, you gotta buy another,” Ross raps on Mafia Music. “Don’t forget the gas can, jealous st-pid motherf-cker.”
50 Cent has been known to handle his beefs and five days later, he responded with the scathing “Officer Ricky (Go Head, Try Me),” where he exposes Rick Ross’ past as a corrections officer. He also went at DJ Khaled and Lil Wayne who were all friends with Rick Ross.
“Officer Rickyyy, radio for backup/See ya ass anywhere you know I’m gon’ act up/You want play with me, when I don’t want play/Have my n-ggas whip the skin of your ass in broad day/Screaming ‘Boss!’ n-gga you ain’t a boss/P-ssy n-gga you lost. Listen officer Ross.”
In an attempt to downplay 50 Cent exposing his past as a corrections officer, Ross calls into Angela Yee’s Lip Service radio show on Shade 45 the next day to call the record “weak” and issued a 48-hour ultimatum for a better response.
50 Cent obliged, but rather than put out another diss song like Ross requested, he put out an ominous video instead called “Warning shot.” In the clip shared on his Thisis50 channel, he addressed Ross’ earlier claims that he disrespected him at the BET Awards. 50 Cent alleges he doesn’t remember seeing Rick Ross at the ceremony, and expressed his willingness to engage in a beef if that’s what Ross wants to do.
“You see me at the BET Awards you see me by myself. Everybody at the BET Awards saw me. I don’t remember seeing this n-gga that’s the illest sh-t, I don’t remember passing this n-gga. You’re so unimportant that I don’t remember walking past the n-gga or anything.”
“It’s an opportunity to create excitement for their upcoming record and I understand it may be more attention than you usually get, but it would bring the kind of attention that when it goes away, you go away completely,” 50 stated.
He continued, “your company might actually feel like it’s a good idea for the moment, until they realize that I won’t stop. There’s nobody here controlling me, I do what I wanna do,” he said with a devilish grin. “So, I’m deciding to f-ck your life up. Rick Ross ima f-ck your life up… for fun!”
The feud intensified with videos, diss tracks, and even a cartoon series titled “Officer Ricky,” where 50 Cent delved into Ross’s alleged fraudulent lifestyle.
He followed that with a video interviewing one of Rick Ross’ baby mama Tia, where she would expose Rick Ross’ fraudulent lifestyle, claiming that nothing he says his real and that his properties are all rented.
“His cars are being leased… and it’s just sad. I just wanna prove the facts.” She also confirmed Rick Ross was a corrections officer when she and her son moved in with him.
As tensions mounted, Rick Ross released another diss record called “Kiss My Pinky Ring” to a lackluster response. The song contained racial and homophobic undertones and was poorly executed. Ross also involved other members of G-Unit into the beef when he claimed Lloyd Banks wrote the hook for “In Da Club.”
A website later surfaced called Thisiscurly.com, which was supposed to be a mockery of 50 Cent’s website Thisis50. The website added another layer to the beef when it featured the head of 50 Cent’s son photoshopped onto the body of a monkey.
G-Unit members Tony Yayo and Lloyd Banks got involved in the beef after Rick Ross called them. They clapped back at the Philly native with a diss track called “I’ll Be The Shooter” in which they threatened to murder Rick Ross and also threaten to shoot up Rick Ross’ mother’s house. “Maybach Music”, y’all niggas want trouble? I run up on that C.O. snap his ass in a bubble,” raps Tony Yayo.
Ross fired back with another diss track called “Push ‘Em Over,” where he alleges 50 Cent was an informant.
“Damn you ratted Preme/Damn near ratted on queens/Dont a ma’fucka love you/Its hard to find out your father was your uncle,” he raps over Eric B and Rakim’s “Juice” beat. “This snitch infested with incest/Sold ten mill still not in the 10 best/And all you niggas look gay.”
As tensions escalated, 50 Cent released provocative content, including a video titled “A Psychic Told Me, where he revealed personal details about DJ Khaled including the clothing store where his mother works at. 50 even had footage of Khaled’s mother sleeping on the job.
“I got this new poem I wrote for DJ Khaled. Check this shit out right, it’s called I just wanna tell you what a psychic told me. Your car tires got stabbed out, now you know I know where you be. I just wanna tell you what a psychic told me, I know where your mama house at. Now look, you can see [showing clips of the house]. But I just wanna tell you what a psychic told me, I know where your mama work at, now look she’s sleep.”
“I just wanna tell you what a psychic told me. I’m not the kind of n-gga you should f-ck with. I’m special. I have less compassion than the average human.”
50 Cent maintained his relentless pressure on Ross, responding the next day with another diss track titled “Tia Told Me.” In this track, he further exposed Rick Ross as a fake gangster and revealed damaging information shared by Ross’s baby mama, Tia.
“Let me tell ya what your baby told me/You ain’t got a street bone in your whole body/Your not, who you think you are/With your gun and your badge you think your hard/Actin like your movin blow in the streets/N-gga where I’m from we gotta hustle to eat, and you the police.”
On the same day, Lloyd Banks unleashed his own diss track targeting Rick Ross, titled “Officer Down.” In this ruthless track, Banks verbally dismantles Rick Ross. However, Ross remained undeterred and released his own diss track, “What Goes Around Comes Around,” aimed at 50 Cent. He followed this up with a video declaring the end of 50 Cent’s career and offering $100,000 to Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo to join his team.
Approximately a week later, Tony Yayo responded with his own diss track, “Somebody Snitched,” directed at Rick Ross. In this scathing track, Yayo mercilessly attacks Ross’s character and threatens to silence him permanently. “Your life is a fabrication, what drugs are you moving? Homie, ask E-Class, I’m known for shooting.”
The beef took a darker turn when 50 Cent leaked a compromising video of Ross’s other baby mama, Lestonia, leading to legal consequences and ongoing animosity. This was a particularly low blow, and it reportedly caused a great deal of emotional distress for Lestonia.
In October 2011, Rick Ross experienced two seizures. When 50 Cent was asked for his thoughts on the matter, he surprisingly expressed concern for Ross’s well-being, advising him to take care of himself. Ross learned of 50 Cent’s words of support and expressed gratitude.
Despite this apparent truce, 50 Cent had other plans. He was not ready to let the feud die down.
At the 2012 BET Awards, MMG affiliate rapper Gunplay was assaulted and robbed of his MMG chain. While the identity of the attackers remained unclear, 50 Cent was spotted bowling while wearing the stolen chain, confirming his involvement in the incident. He was also seen wearing the chain in the music video for “Major Distribution.”
However, 50 Cent vehemently denied that the chain was the original one, claiming it was merely a replica.
In January 2013, Rick Ross’s car was shot up in a drive-by shooting, causing him to crash into a building. 50 Cent seized this opportunity to ridicule Ross, taking to Twitter (now X) to write, “Hahaha Fat boy hit the building? It looks staged to me. No holes in the car.”
He continued to mock the situation with two more tweets, stating, “Ok it was just firecrackers but whoever lit them is in trouble cause that man damn near had a heart attack. That boy was spooked. I ride like Obama, level 6 bulletproof bombproof you already know.”
In November 2013, during an interview with The Breakfast Club, Rick Ross downplayed his beef with 50 Cent, calling it mere “buffoonery” and claiming he took nothing personally. However, he recanted this statement just a week later in a video dissing 50 Cent and Eminem.
In a shrewd move, 50 Cent took aim at two of his rivals in March 2014, by Instagramming a pic-stitch of Diddy, and Rick Ross, as well as ex-record exec, Steve Stout, in a seemingly compromising position, giving the illusion that all three were involved romantically. The Instagram photo, which he deleted very quickly after posting, is made up of two photos: one of Steve and Diddy hugging in pink shirts, and the other of Diddy and Ross looking like they’re about to kiss thanks to the awkward angle of the photo. Fifty captioned the pic very cheekily, writing, “I ain’t saying nothing, but something ain’t right. Lmao #smsaudio.”
In July 2015, the feud took a new turn as legal battles erupted over 50 Cent’s unauthorized release of Lestonia’s sex tape in 2009. He was ordered to pay a staggering $5 million for violating her privacy rights. In an apparent attempt to evade payment, 50 Cent filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, creating the impression that he was financially destitute.
Later that month, Rick Ross released a song titled “The Wingstop” remix, where he mocked 50 Cent’s perceived financial woes. In the song’s first verse, he raps: “50 financial woes I never speak of them/Years ago pimpin’ curly we know we ethered them.”
Two days later, the court ordered Cent to pay Lestonia an additional $2 million in punitive damages, bringing the total payout of the lawsuit to a hefty $7 million. 50 Cent was pissed.
Desperate for retribution, 50 Cent sought any opportunity to retaliate against Ross. With Ross now holding the upper hand, he continued to exploit 50 Cent’s financial situation in his diss tracks. In an interview with Angie Martinez, he taunted 50 Cent, saying, “Get rich or die trying, now you bankrupt.”
50 clapped back a month later on Instagram posting a photo of a shirt stylized like Rick Ross’ body. Ross responded saying 50 Cent’s son Marquise would be interning at MMG.
“@50Cent your son applied to be an intern at [MMG],” Ross wrote on Instagram. “And it will be processed. As you well know I got 50 cars/200 acres and a mower with his name on it.”
At this point, 50 Cent was notably furious and was threatening to get physical. He replied to Rick Ross’s post in the comments, stating, “I’ll make it easy. I’ll come wherever you are, b-tch. Now, let’s see if Puffy or anybody else can help you.”
In November 2015, Rick Ross attended the grand opening of a new Wingstop in New York City. Aware of Ross’s presence, 50 Cent arrived at the venue hoping to confront him. However, upon receiving news of 50 Cent’s presence, Ross promptly exited the venue.
50 Cent confirmed his presence at the Wingstop by taking a picture of the restaurant and posting it on his Instagram page, along with the caption, “Let people know you have an ass-whooping coming.”
In the same year, 50 Cent ridiculed Rick Ross’s eighth studio album, “Black Market,” for selling a mere 34K copies in its debut week. He mocked the album’s abysmal sales, alleging that Rick Ross’s label purchased half of the copies in a desperate attempt to inflate the numbers.
Come August 2021, Rick Ross declared himself the victor in the beef with 50 Cent. A few months later, during an interview with GQ, he reignited the feud by mocking 50 Cent’s purported lack of financial gain from his television series “BMF.”
“Man, I saw the first episode of BMF, I was trying to support the homie Big Meech, the n-ggas in the street. I’m a real n-gga, I could put my issues with 50 Cent to the side. I know he may have made a quarter million off the whole season. I’m happy he made the quarter [Interviewer laughs]. You know that’s what he made. Why you laughing like that? And make sure you put all these details in. I’ll never let you interview me again if you take it out. Keep it, but, look I know he made $250K off the whole season, and that’s good. Tell him I said congratulations.”
During an episode of the I Am Athlete podcast in 2020, Rick Ross took more shots at 50 Cent after the idea of the two rappers having a ‘Verzuz’ battle was floated. Ross dismissed the idea claiming 50 Cent can’t make good music anymore.
“I’m a real dude– 50 Cent had some huge records when he had the biggest producers and artists around him putting them together. That’s why, right now, he can’t make nothing to save his life. Rozay probably couldn’t save him!”
The MMG boss added that even when it came to dropping diss records, it made sense earlier when they were at their peak but not anymore as 50’s music is “no longer valuable in the music area.”
In a previous interview on Hot 97’s Ebro In The Morning, 50 Cent claimed he has no problem with Ross and would have “got him by now” if he was chasing him. He expressed confusion about why people continue to bring up their beef.
Despite a temporary lull, the feud reignited in 2023, when Rick Ross, while promoting his joint album with Meek Mill titled “Too Good To Be True” claimed 50 Cent was broke and needed a job. He made the claim during an interview on Complex 360 when host Speedy Morman asked about the possibility of both rappers setting their differences.
“I doubt it,” responded Rick Ross.
And the beef goes on…
