Key Takeaways
- 50 Cent dismissed the renewed hype around Jay-Z's Reasonable Doubt as "great marketing," noting that the 1996 album originally debuted at No. 23.
- He also argued that Jay-Z’s industry relationships and past pairing with Eminem helped shape the perception that Hov matched the world’s biggest rapper.
- Roc Nation’s anniversary campaign included New York subway takeovers, pop-ups, premium merchandise, an HBO docuseries and three Yankee Stadium concerts.
50 Cent has shared that he thinks Jay-Z's recent album anniversary celebrations were all about "great marketing" and nothing else.
Sitting down with his Street Fighter co-star Andrew Schulz for an Interview Magazine chat published on Friday (October 9), Fif got onto the subject of power and influence, which led him to take a swipe at Hov, starting with his famous "Basquiat haircut."
"That’s how we see the person's personality after they settle in. After they’ve been there for a while, you see who they actually are," he said. "And if not, we see the gimmicks. We see things like the Basquiat hair. When that comes, you go, 'No, it was intentionally grown out for a Tiffany ad.'"
50, unprompted, then went on to talk about how he believes strong relationships with tour companies allows for opportunities that might not necessarily be there for other artists. Seemingly taking another swipe at Jay, he mentioned the rapper's wife, Beyoncé, before referencing The Home & Home Tour Hov did with Eminem in 2010.
"If you have a strong enough relationship with the tour companies, they’ll do a touring deal with you because they’re securing the tour deal with Beyoncé," he said. "When they have to do things to broaden your audience, they may do New York and Detroit. He’s done this before. He’s done the stadium in New York. Him and Em[inem], they matched him up with the biggest rapper in the world like they’re the same."
"We do your hometown and then my hometown. That’s just to change perception and make him appear as big as Eminem," he added before taking a dig at Jay's debut album, 1996's Reasonable Doubt, which upon its initial release didn't perform that well commercially but grew to be what many deem to be a classic.
"Bro, the album showed up number 23 on the chart when it debuted," 50 pointed out. "It was not a fucking big deal then. Why is it a big deal now? It’s great marketing."
Roc Nation spent months marking 30 years of Reasonable Doubt and 25 years of The Blueprint with JAŸ-Z30 subway ads, a Spotify-backed takeover of the J and Z trains, custom transit maps and commemorative Brooklyn Public Library cards.
Pop-ups in Manhattan and Brooklyn drew lines of fans chasing exclusive merch. Target stocked limited white vinyl alongside anniversary CDs and cassettes, while the official store listed a roughly $1,500 collector's crate holding 13 Jay-Z albums, a $300 cassette box and $400 Yankees jerseys from a co-branded run with the team.
An eight-part HBO docu-series, three concerts at Yankee Stadium, and several shows in Europe rounded out the push.
