Rapper 50 Cent shares why people 'identify' with Trump after assassination attempt
Rapper 50 Cent said he would stay out of the election, but that didn't stop him from admitting people like him identify with former President Trump with his reaction after his first assassination attempt.
The rapper, whose real name is Curtis James Jackson III, sat down for an interview Saturday morning to discuss his new book "The Accomplice" where he was asked about his stance on the presidential election.
"I’d like to stay out of it. You know, well, look, things happen like Trump gets shot and they start playing ‘Many Men’ and it jumps 250% in streaming," Jackson said.
This referenced his 2003 hit "Many Men," a song that Trump later walked out to during a livestream a few days after the first assassination attempt against him. The song included lyrics such as "Many men wish death upon me. Blood in my eye, dawg, and I can’t see, I’m tryin’ to be what I’m destined to be."
Jackson later remarked on relating to Trump after that moment, particularly after Trump raised his fist in the now iconic image.
"He says fight. All right. And that’s exactly what I did after I got shot. I just went into fight mode," he said. "People identify with it that way."
50 Cent has occasionally flirted with the idea of supporting Trump in the past. In June, he told CBS News congressional correspondent Nikole Killion that he believed Black men were "identifying with Trump" because "they've got RICO charges [too]."
Earlier this year, he added, "I think Trump's gonna be president again, but I’m not gonna say that."
Most notably, in October 2020, Jackson told his Instagram followers to vote for Trump after seeing a report suggesting New York City residents could be taxed at a rate of 62% under President Biden.
"WHAT THE F--K! (VOTE ForTRUMP) IM OUT," Jackson wrote. "F--K NEW YORK The KNICKS never win anyway. I don’t care Trump doesn’t like black people 62% are you out of ya f--king mind."
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He later recanted his support in a Twitter post one week later.
"Another spin F--k Donald Trump, I never liked him," the rapper wrote. "For all I know he had me set up and had my friend Angel Fernandez killed but that’s history. LOL."