50 Cent says his infamous upside-down performance during the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show almost didn’t happen.
The rapper claims that Jay-Z’s Roc Nation — which has helped the NFL produce the halftime show since 2020 — tried to block his surprise appearance alongside hip-hop veterans Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Dr. Dre and Kendrick Lamar.
“They wanted to leave me out of it. They didn’t want me there,” 50 Cent told The Hollywood Reporter in an interview published on Wednesday, July 31. (Us Weekly has reached out to Roc Nation for comment.)
Clarifying that by “they” he meant Roc Nation, the “In Da Club” rapper said he was only involved because his mentor Eminem intervened.
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“Yeah, they didn’t want me there,” said 50 Cent. “Eminem wouldn’t do it without me. 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,” he added.
50 Cent and Anderson .Paak made surprise appearances during the Super Bowl LVI halftime show, which took place February 13, 2022, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. Eminem, Dre, Blige, Snoop and Kendrick were advertised as headlining the show, marking the first time that hip-hop music has taken center stage during the halftime performance.
50 Cent famously performed “In Da Club” while hanging upside down, which he later admitted was a “mistake.”
“I think that was a mistake,” the rapper, 49, told USA Today in a May 2023 interview. “Everybody else walked in regular, the songs still went over and they got the trophy, too. They all won an Emmy. They got the same thing I got and I had to put myself upside down.”
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50 Cent appears on the cover of the latest issue of The Hollywood Reporter, and the outlet noted that he brought $3.5 million of his own money to the photo shoot.
The outlet said the rapper brought the money in “two heavy black suitcases,” with some of it positioned on a stool he sat on while smoking a cigar.
Between posing for photos, the rapper (real name Curtis Jackson III) dug into the cash and added a few more stacks onto the table next to him. He arrived with four security guards, and the doors were locked shut with the window shades closed.
