50 Cent Describes Initially Being Left Off 2022 Super Bowl Halftime Show Roster: ‘Eminem Wouldn’t Do It Without Me’

If you don’t remember 50 Cent‘s name on the original lineup of artists for the iconic 2022 Super Bowl halftime show featuring Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar and Eminem that’s because, according to 50, “they” didn’t want him there.

In a new feature in The Hollywood Reporter, 50 goes into detail about the drama behind the scenes of the Super Bowl LVI performance that featured him as a surprise guest, but which he said almost didn’t happen. “They wanted to leave me out of it. They didn’t want me there,” 50 said, echoing a since-deleted Instagram post from Sept. 2022 in which he said, “[Eminem] is the man, he wouldn’t do the show without me,” after the performance won three Emmy awards; rapper N.O.R.E. also mentioned the initial snub on his podcast around the time.

Asked who “they” were, 50 said it was Jay-Z’s Roc Nation who didn’t want him on stage that night. “Eminem wouldn’t do it without me,” 50 (born Curtis Jackson) reiterated about Marshall Mathers, who first signed Jackson and helped him release his smash 2003 debut studio album, Get Rich or Die Tryin’. “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.”

The long history of mutual admiration between the two MCs will extend into the future thanks to an upcoming project from 50’s G-Unit Film and Television company, which he said is developing a series based on Em’s 2002 8 Mile feature film. “50 is like a brother to me,” Eminem told THR. “50 has proven again and again that there’s really nothing he can’t do, and nobody gets in the way of him getting it done.”

The story also notes that 50 is expanding his already sprawling TV holdings with an animated series for Amazon Freevee called Lady Danger Agent of B.O.O.T.I. featuring Nicki Minaj. “He’s a blueprint to what resilience looks like,” Minaj said of 50, whose expansive TV portfolio includes the six-season Starz hit Power — and spin-offs Ghost, Raising Kanan and Force — as well as another Starz series, BMF and upcoming shows including the boxing drama Fightland and Queen Nzinga, about an African warrior queen.

“Whenever he’s been counted out in the real world or within the entertainment business, he’s risen to the occasion and come out triumphant. He’s smart. He’s a businessman,” Minaj added. “I can see past the ‘funny 50’ — I see a very deep thinker. He’s honest. He’s mastered the chess game of reinvention throughout many eras of music, entertainment and social media. Yet he still somehow always seems to remain authentic. That is a very difficult feat.”

50 also said he’s launching his own FAST (free ad-supported streaming TV) channel, building his own film studio in Shreveport, LA and working on a novel about a Black female Texas Ranger.