50 Cent has shot down claims that The Game wrote the Get Rich or Die Tryin’ track ‘What Up Gangsta’.
Appearing on Power 105.1’s The Breakfast Club in New York yesterday, 50 Cent debunked a claim that The Game penned the 2003 song ‘What Up Gangsta’.
The Power Book III: Raising Kanan producer said that’s not the case.
“[The Game] said he wrote ‘What Up Gangsta,'” 50 said. “I’m like, ‘C’mon, bro. You wasn’t even around when we did that. That was before you even came into the picture.”
50 went on to imply the claims were made out of “desperation”.
“That was Get Rich Or Die Tryin’. We didn’t even know who he was until after,” he said. “There’s a point when you [reach] desperation and you’ll say anything.”
It was actually The Game’s manager, Wack 100, who made the ghostwriting claims.
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Back in March, Wack revealed it was the Compton rapper who wrote 50’s opening track on Get Rich or Die Tryin’ during a Clubhouse session.
“I’m going to speak on something [The Game] don’t ever speak on,” he reportedly said, before quoting the hook from ‘What Up Gangsta’. “What up, cuz? What up, blood? What up, gangsta? Who you think wrote that? I’m going to leave it alone.”
50 did later confirmed he wrote several tracks on The Game’s 2005 debut album, The Documentary, including ‘Higher’.
50 had signed The Game to G-Unit back in 2003, however by the time The Documentary was released, things between the two had soured.
Elsewhere in The Breakfast Club interview, 50 revealed he passed on signing J. Cole early in his career because he wasn’t sure if fans were ready to hear conscious rap in the early 2000s.
“As dope as they are, it’s smarter rap, smarter music,” he said. “The logic is: ‘sit down, be humble.’ We supposed to already know to sit down and be humble. But when they put that there, it’s almost the conscious side of it.”
“I’m like, Yo, it was cool, but I didn’t really know if everybody was ready for it because of how strong they were embracing what we [G-Unit] were doing.”
Watch the full interview:
