Rapper 50 Cent claims Donald Trump’s campaign offered him $3 million to perform at his Madison Square Garden rally, but he turned it down.
The musician, who has not formally endorsed the former president but is known to support him, said he tried to avoid politics.
Trump held a massive and controversial rally in New York City on Sunday to close out his presidential campaign.
“I got a call on Sunday…they offered me $3 million,” 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, told The Breakfast Club on 105.1 FM in New York on Tuesday.
Rapper 50 Cent claims Donald Trump’s campaign offered him $3 million to perform at his Madison Square Garden rally, but he turned it down.
It was unclear whether he literally meant that the campaign called him at 11 a.m. on Sunday, or simply contacted him earlier.
The hosts asked him if he was also offered money to perform at the Republican National Convention in July and he nodded his head and said “mmhmm.”
Jackson said that none of the conversations went very far, as he was not interested in performing or appearing at any of the political events.
“I’m afraid of politics… because when you get involved in it, no matter how you feel, someone passionately disagrees with you,” he said.
“I stay away from religion, I stay away from politics.”
Jackson then dragged Kanye West into the conversation by reducing the rapper’s hundreds of vile anti-Semitic rants to mere “religion” and “politics.”
“That’s the formula for the confusion that sent Kanye to Japan,” he said.
‘He said something about both things (religion and politics), and now he can only go to Japan. So I don’t want to get into that.’
Trump held a massive and controversial rally in New York City on Sunday as the closing event of his presidential campaign.
Jackson said Kayne West was forced to move to Japan (pictured in Narita, Japan, in June) because she “said something about both things (religion and politics).”
The radio hosts then joked that they had to let him go because Vice President Kamala Harris was on the line.
‘Do you want to say hello?’ they said.
‘Why are you trying to get me into this? I thought we were good,” Jackson responded.
He stood up to walk away, but sat back down when the hosts all laughed and he realized it was a joke.
Jackson has spoken positively of Trump in the past, once saying that “maybe Trump is the answer” in response to a news article about the immigration crisis.
“I think Trump will be president again, but I’m not going to say that,” he wrote on Twitter in March.
Then in June, he said that many black men were “identifying with Trump” because “they (also) have RICO charges.”
Jackson’s 2003 song Many Men became something of an anthem among MAGA faithful after Trump took the stage at his first rally after the July 13 assassination attempt.
‘Many men wish me death. Blood in my eye, friend, and I can’t see, I’m trying to be what I’m meant to be,” is one of the lines of the song.
Jackson has spoken positively of Trump in the past, once saying that “maybe Trump is the answer” in response to a news article about the immigration crisis.
The rapper later explained how Many Men’s streaming increased dramatically after the rally.
‘He says fight. Alright. And that’s exactly what I did after I got shot. I just went into fight mode. People identify with it that way,’ he said.
The closest Jackson came to endorsing Trump was in 2020, when he preempted an incorrect report that New York City residents could pay a 62 percent tax under Joe Biden.
‘WHAT THE FUCK! (VOTE FOR TRUMP) I’M OUT. F**K NEW YORK The KNICKS never win anyway. I don’t care that Trump doesn’t like black people, 62%, are you crazy? he wrote at the time.
“I don’t want to be 20cent.”
Jackson realized his mistake with the help of his ex-girlfriend Chelsea Handler and retracted his support a couple of weeks later.
Fuck Donald Trump, I never liked him. As far as I know, he set me up and killed my friend Ángel Fernández, but that’s history. Hahaha,” he wrote.