Don’t Sleep on this 50 Cent vs. WorldStarHipHop.Com Lawsuit
A few months ago, a good friend of mine who runs a very big website pulled me to the side and put me on to how Curtis Jackson p/k/a “50 Cent” filed a lawsuit against the urban hip hop website WorldStarHipHop.com. He even sent me a copy of the papers. When I thanked him for the lead and said I was gonna give him a shout out for said lead, his response: “Fuck no man, keep my name the FUCK away from anything in connection with Fifty, that nigga crazy and I don’t ever want it with him. Fuck around, he’ll be shutting my shit down too!” I never got around to dropping that post.
Last week the lawsuit was announced publicly. The basis for the suit is claiming how WorldStar used all types of 50 Cent and G-Unit related images with no permission, how it purposely misled the public into thinking that WorldStar was in business, or somehow related to 5o and G-Unit. “I gotta lawsuit against WorldStar for utilizing my likeness,” 50 is quoted as saying “A lot of people felt like that was my site because they seen my face on the cover of [the website] for a long time.” Boo Boo is right in that, before this suit, and for years, WorldStar had hella images of the South Side bully and his conglomerate posted up like it was tomorrow’s wall paper. It very much did look affiliated. Looks like an open and shut case to me. This is not what this case is about.
Being an equal opportunity website, WorldStar has, over the years, allowed other rappers with beef against 50 the platform to air out their differences. Cats like Ja Rule have frequented the site, firing shots 50’s way. Being that Jackson is that no nonsense dude who lives by the “any enemy of mine should be an enemy of yours” creed, I’m sure 50 has taken offense against the site that so freely used his unauthorized likeness. Bigger still though, is the fact that over the years, Fifty’s own community website ThisIs50.com has grown to the point that it’s become one of WorldStar’s main competitors. Fifty likes competitors. Actually, he likes competitors for how he gets amped in taking them out, mercilessly burning them to the ground, obliterating them from existing in his path. In my opinion, WorldStar’s only offense is that they’re in the same business and are of the same scope in size to ThisIs50.com. This isn’t about copyright infringement. This is an actual territorial war on the corporate level, and one side won’t be taking any prisoners. Like Beanie Sigel used to say, “Get Down Or Lay Down!”.
I told ya’ll before that 50 Cent was not a rapper. He’s a savage, a mother fucking beast who we’ve fucked up in allowing to amass an empire, a master thug not only on the street level, but on the business level, on the legal level. This whole lawsuit might seem boring to most, not the usual red meat, blood and guts we get to witness when our favorite rappers beef on records, on video. This shit is extremely fascinating to me. Curtis Jackson continues to evolve at an incredible rate, into something beyond a monster. I like 50 for the way he moves, but sometimes dude reminds me of how nations slept on that dude who became a dictator in Germany during them years that led up to World War II. Is this man going to eventually take over the world? Will we mourn the day we didn’t unite to take him out before it was too late, later wishing that there was a time machine in existence that would allow an assassin to go back in time to take care of business before it before it became a problem that got out of hand? I dunno, maybe I’m going too far.
Fifty also said “I have lawyers on retainers and I have to pay them so much money anyway, so we’ll go back and forth to court until [they] can’t afford a Subway sandwich. It’s already too late for [them].” He’s right, WorldStar fucked up, it’s too late for them, they’d best be stocking up on them sandwiches. Game over. We already know Fif won’t stop until the fat chick hits them high notes. It might also be too late for us. Shawn Carter p/k/a “Jay-Z” might actually be an incredibly smart man in how he doesn’t want it with Fif. At this point, I don’t blame him. God save us all.
And on that note… Halleluyah Hollaback! Damn.
Hell, I just wanted World Star to be cleaned UP, not cleaned OUT. But, Fif’s the man for the job and if he’s paying retainer fees anyway, might as well have his lawyers go after every red cent they can get.
Remember Eminem went after Apple and won.
–OG Matt Herbz–
Funny thing is WSHH probably doesn’t have the type of chips Fif will win in a judgment. The site will then become what he claims (I never thought WSHH was affiliated with 50) it pretended to be: Fif’s short arm.
What’s next, 50 coming at somebody with defamation of character charges when they put out a diss track aimed at him?
Dude’s wack for this.
50 might be stepping up his legal game but it’s very close to a wrap for his music career. Dude is one step away from irrelevance on the mic.
@ Alex
Hahahahahahha. I think Ja, Cam or Fat joe(or
almost anyone he dissed) might have a case
against 50.
DeathThreats(Funeral Music),
intimidating a witness(all those shots at Irv) ,
defamation of character(everyone), assault(Ja)…
Cosign Shakes. He better hope he makes money off this lawsuit because his music career is curtains.
co-sign OG Matt Herbz statement
The way this dude’s moving these days, I don’t even think he cares about music.
He seems to be a bit more vicious, in a way that a diss track or fires album can’t convey. He really is in some 48 laws, 50th law shit.
I thought he was doing all this recent flailing (tia/floyd, Beans, Worldstar lawsuit) for publicity purposes, but the more I think on it, & taking into consideration CJ’s legal/personal vantage point, this dude might really be on some ruthless, takeover the world shit.
I remember when he started ThisIs50, I thought “whatevers”, but he built it into an “empire”, a foundation for bigger things. This may be the first of many “bigger things”.
Worldstar was worried about the feds, & didn’t even see this shit coming.
I read something about this the other day and it’s real 50 is gonna start coming at bloggers like he comes at rappers. Ask illroots he got his twitter account banned. I’m no WSHH fan but thi shit is still wack if you ask me…
Great blog CJ!
[...] wall carpet on their site shows how much dude loves confrontation. Insiders tell me the lawsuit is more about how his own site ThisIs50.com has grown into becoming a valid WSHH competitor, and how, just [...]
1. 50 Cent is not depending on damages being paid… I think he’s more interested in shutting them down or tapping into their web-traffic. to all the commenters who think this is just about damages…. ur clearly not the sharpest tool in the box
2. The moment anyone touches 50’s money in anyway or tries to damage his brand in anyway… stay AWAKE coz dude is coming for you. I think this is true in business or war. in business its done legally. in war…. u know what happens – just look at what has happened to any country that tried to f— with the US govt.
3. Great article. this one and the JayZ one. Hip hop sites/blogs need more writers like you.
You’re still sure on “Jay don’t want it with Fiddy”?
http://www.xxlmag.com/online/?p=63093
The album sales kill Fiddy’s rap career…he took another L against Jay(first was selling less than Kanye). Like Hov said “I was gonna kill a couple rappers
But they did it to themselves
I was gon’ do it with the flow
But they did it with their sales
I was gon’ 9/11 ‘em, but they didn’t need the help
And they did a good job them boys is talented as hell”
SENOR CJ:
As always adore your commentary featuring Mr. Curtis-48-Laws-of-Power-how-to-rob-an-industry-Jackson…
Senor CJ, could you give us some illumination into the marketing of 50’s latest project? Using Kelly Rowland as the leading lady? Publicly speaking on the Kelly-Beyonce promotion “situation”? Constant harangues directed towards Correctional Officer Ross? Why 50 has leaked more still shots of him posing with CO Ross’ bebes than of his own child? He’s girly mouth. Why does he employ this strategy?
Senor Jack, I am under the impression that at this stage in the game 50 isn’t too concerned about album numbers, rather he’s concerned with “measuring” the impact of his targeted character assassinations. Any thoughts?
Lastly, Senor CJ, did I miss the post where you compare/contrast 50’s and S. Dot’s level of business acumen? S. Dot is smart. But Dr. Claw err 50 is smarter.
No5. debut in 2009, only 159K sold…hahahahaa! Men lie, women lie, numbers don’t! RIP 50 Cent the rapper, he is absolutely irrelevant now. Happy living off your millions Curtis.
Is this what’s in now?
going to court?
[...] next target would be one Shawn Carter, fans have been clamoring for the rap beef of the century. Bloggers have speculated that given 50’s ruthless nature in battle mode; its easy to see how Curtis would [...]
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