R&B/Hip-Hop

As 50 Cent was trying to recover from both being dropped from Columbia Records and shot nine times, the G-Unit leader took up ghostwriting to make ends meet. In 2022, 50 sat for an interview with The Breakfast Club, where he said during that period he ghostwrote Diddy’s verse on G. Dep’s “Let’s Get It.” It’s unclear, and unlikely, that Puff and him had much interaction during this exchange, but this is the earliest example of both rappers being in each other’s orbit that we know of.

While it’s a fairly empty bar, 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ cut “U Not Like Me” marks the first time 50 Cent dropped Diddy’s name on any official record.

““Hoes be like ’50, you so witty’/ On the d—k like they heard I ghostwrite for P. Diddy,” 50 rapped on the 2002 song.

After dropping G-Unit’s debut mixtape in 2002, 50 Cent appeared on a revamped version of The Notorious B.I.G.’s “N—as,” which appeared on his posthumous 1999 album, Born Again. Diddy notably opens up the song with an announcement of the song being a “Shadyville Entertainment and Big Boy collaboration,” before 50 Cent comes in with a few bars aimed at Diddy: “I don’t dance around like Diddy,” he raps.

After a few innocuous interactions between 50 Cent and Puff — the latter presented the former with his MTV Video Music Award for Best Rap Video back in 2003 — their relationship started to noticeably fray in 2005. Ma$e, who was in the midst of a rap comeback at the time after having dipped off to become a pastor, desperately wanted to leave Bad Boy Records. 50 Cent offered to buy him out of his contract, and in turn sign him to G-Unit. While publicly Diddy said he supported the deal, 50 later said in an interview that the deal fell through because the Bad Boy leader was being “unreasonable.”

Seemingly out of nowhere, 50 Cent then first his first official shots at Diddy. Embedded within his G-Unit Radio 22 Hip Hop Is Dead Verse Two tape was the song “Hip Hop,” quoting Dead Prez’s 2000 hit, where 50 implies that Diddy had something to do with the death of The Notorious B.I.G.

“Who shot Biggie Smalls?/ We don’t get ’em/ They gon’ kill us all/ Man Puffy know who hit that n—a/ Man that n—a soft/ He scared them boys from the Westside’ll break him off,” 50 Cent rapped.

This marked a drastic shift in 50’s and Puff’s relations, while everything appeared docile in the public eye, it’s clear something shifted around 2006 that caused 50 Cent to get aggressive. The diss was likely in response to the fall out of the Ma$e deal, though this was never officially confirmed.

Despite 50 Cent’s warning shots, the two appeared to put their growing hostilities aside to make some music together. On 2007’s Curtis, Puff appeared on the remix of “I Get Money” alongside Fif and Jay-Z. In an interview with AllHipHop that same year, Diddy acknowledged that all three of them had issues with each other, but that they were able to put those differences aside to link up on a track.

“The beauty about it, at the end of the day we all love to make music,” Diddy said. “It wasn’t no real egos involved, we all played our positions.”

This seemed to usher in a relatively peaceful time between Diddy and 50 Cent. The latter playfully interrupted an interview with Puff a year later, exchanging some witty banter. Then, Diddy and 50 Cent joined forces to troll Rick Ross during the G-Unit leader’s feud with Rozay in 2009. 50 and the Bad Boy Records founder were both seen in that viral video with Rick Ross’ baby mother Tia Kemp, in which 50 took her shopping to frustrate Ross.

By 2014, 50 Cent was back in the saddle, firing off more shots at Puff. While chatting with 92Q Jams at the time, 50 Cent called Diddy’s new single “Big Homie” straight trash.

“Puff still out there, he don’t even need a record, ’cause he don’t got one,” 50 said. “You know Puff ain’t got no music that you want to hear, that ‘Big Homie’ shit is garbage.”

50 then doubled down on this criticism in an interview with Funkmaster Flex later that month. He also called Puff a “sucker” for disrupting the deal with Ma$e, elaborating a bit on what actually happened. From 50 Cent’s perspective, Diddy tried to sell Ma$e’s Bad Boy contract for $2 million and wouldn’t budge on the number.

“He asked me for $2 million,” 50 recalled. “[I was] like, ‘Mase ain’t worth $2 million with $2 million in his pocket.’”

In 2015, 50 Cent and Diddy’s escalating tensions bled over into their business ventures. French Montana became a die-hard supporter of Puff’s Ciroc Vodka, which caused 50 Cent to issue a snarky comment on social media. French had initially supported the G-Unit leader’s Effen Vodka, before apparently switching sides.

“This what I feel about your bulls—t Effen Vodka,” French said in a video response to 50. He proceeded to take numerous bottles of Effen and throw them in a dumpster. 50 Cent clowned French for the act, satirizing a conversation he might have had with Puff prior to making that video.

By 2016, their feud was in full swing. Following the release of Greg Kading’s documentary Murder Rap, which theorized that Diddy was heavily involved in the murder of Tupac Shakur, 50 responded on Instagram agreeing with Kading’s conclusion.

“LMAO SO PUFFY WIT THE S—T HUN??” 50 wrote. “SEE YOU GOTTA WATCH THESE PUNKS,? SCARY ASS N—AS A TRY YOU. #nopuffyjuice he killed Tupac lol.”

50 hopped on Instagram in December of 2017 to post an image of himself surrounded by an entourage of stuffed animals. “Recovering From Pettiness,” it read in the photo, adding in the caption: “Sorry I can no longer help you guys, soon you will all be gay and happy. You are all now left under leadership of PUFFY DADDY. Report to the nearest rainbow. #denofthieves jan19.”

The seemingly unprompted dig didn’t elicit any response from Puff or his allies.

During a 2018 interview with The Breakfast Club, 50 Cent addressed the homophobic post and said it came from his real-life experiences with Puff over the years.

“When he says things, he doesn’t even know what he’s saying is, like, fruity. He says to Fabolous, ‘Me and you, we need to party,’” 50 Cent recalled. “What is you talking about? When people say that to me I get a little uncomfortable.”

50 added: “He said something to me a long time ago, at Chris Lighty‘s wedding. He told me he’d take me shopping. I looked at him like, ‘What’d you just say? Let me move, man, before I do something. You gon’ make me mess up the wedding.’ No. That’s something a guy says to a girl.”

During Diddy’s own appearance on The Breakfast Club, he dismissed any issues with 50.

“I don’t have no beef with Fif. He loves me,” Diddy said smiling. “Y’all can’t see that he loves me? You really think that’s hate? You know he loves me.”

In a rare moment of compassion, 50 Cent took a breather from accosting Diddy to send him his warmest regards following the death of his wife Kim Porter, who passed from pneumonia.

“R.I.P to Kim Porter, I send my condolences to her friends and family,” 50 wrote on social media. She was loved and will be missed dearly. I know Puff is hit right now, he loved her for real, soul mate type s—t. Chin up puff, Positive vibes only.”

By 2023, it was back to business as usual for 50 Cent. During a stop on his Final Lap Tour, he reflected on his past issues with Puff. The tour stop occurred around the same time that authorities arrested MOB Piru Bloods member Duane “Keefe D” Davis for 2Pac’s long unsolved murder. Speaking to the crowd, 50 Cent again accused Puff of having Pac murdered.

“I hate when they leave me to talk because I always say the wrong thing,” 50 said. “Last time they left me, I said something about Puffy. You saw that clip? I gotta stop doing that kinda shit. I been talking to a therapist to try to help me with the s—t I been saying… It’s some crazy s—t on my mind. Maybe I said that s—t about Puffy because he got Tupac killed.” 50’s reference is seemingly tied to Keffe D’s own claim that Diddy had, in fact, approached him about a paid hit on the rapper years ago.

After Cassie’s sexual assault lawsuit and subsequent settlement, 50 Cent completely let loose on Puff, hurling trolling insult after trolling insult at him on social media. In one particular X post, 50 posted an image of Diddy and Cassie together, writing in the tweet: “If I text you this, it means I want my money by tomorrow.” He then shortly after used IG to announce his interest in buying Revolt from Diddy.

It’s worth noting these are only a few of the tweets and IG’s 50 aimed at Diddy during this time.

As the fallout from Diddy’s alleged sex crimes continued, 50 Cent announced in December of 2023 he was hard at work on a documentary exploring Puff’s alleged misdeeds. He also announced proceeds would reportedly go to victims of sexual assault.

As 50 Cent’s relentless trolling continued into 2024, things took a turning point when the G-Unit leader compared Puff to the notorious pedophile and alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. 50’s comments came after federal authorities had raided Diddy’s homes for evidence regarding sex trafficking charges against him.

“Boosie said where the f—k is his friends,” Fif wrote on X at the time. “They not saying nothing because they didn’t know he was recording everything. LOL Wait till I get the tapes.”

After the security cam footage went viral of Diddy assaulting Cassie outside a hotel room, 50 Cent was among the first to react to the video.

“Now I’m sure puffy didn’t do it, he is innocent this proves nothing!” 50 Cent wrote in a sarcastic Instagram post. “This is what his lawyers are gonna say, God help us all.” On X, 50 also posted a screenshot of Diddy’s statement denying Cassie’s claims: “The lie detector test has determined this was a lie…. Maury vibes.”

Later in May, 50 also announced that he had sold off his Diddy documentary series to Netflix after a “massive” bidding war. Many fans thought the rapper was joking, until TMZ reported that it was true.

50 Cent was seen on video popping out to a local Diddy roast in Miami, Florida on June 8. While Fif didn’t contribute to the roast, his appearance was telling, considering he’d just sold his doc over to Netflix.

As Puff’s criminal trial has unfolded, 50 Cent has trolled the disgraced music mogul basically every day, sharing numerous digs on social media. Things got serious when President Donald Trump said he’d perhaps “look at the facts” of Puff’s case if he were to ever consider a pardon for the mogul. 50 Cent hopped on the opportunity to dissuade Trump as quickly as possible, sharing a montage of videos that showcased Diddy saying very negative things about the president over the years.

“See Trump don’t like s–t like this buddy, you run your mouth to much,” 50 wrote in one caption.