WEBVTT - 50 Cent Pt. 2: Federal Raids, a Stabbing in the Studio, and a Dead Man’s Game 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.440 This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners. 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:05.760 Please check the show notes for more information. 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:20.680 Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:24.040 story about power, about a stick up kid who became 0:00:24.079 --> 0:00:26.720 a king and a crime kingpin who wanted to stay 0:00:26.720 --> 0:00:30.000 in the game. It's a story about music moguls who 0:00:30.080 --> 0:00:32.960 wanted to be gangsters and gangsters who wanted to be 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:37.640 music moguls. About reputations in the street and assumed identities 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:42.360 on the stage, about mixtapes, attempted murder, and four FBI 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:46.880 raids in one day. This is a story about Kenneth 0:00:47.000 --> 0:00:51.960 Supreme McGriff, the Lorenzo Brothers, jah Ruhle, and most importantly, 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:59.160 Curtis Jackson aka fifty Cent. It's a story about great music, 0:01:00.200 --> 0:01:01.639 like that clip I played for you at the top 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:04.520 of the show that wasn't great music. That was a 0:01:04.520 --> 0:01:07.880 preset loop for my melotron called gold Chain Cha Cha 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:12.559 MK one. I played you that loop because I can't 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:16.320 afford the rights to Lose yourself by eminem But why 0:01:16.319 --> 0:01:20.040 would I play you that specific slice of Moms spaghetti Cheese? 0:01:20.080 --> 0:01:21.000 Could I afford it? 0:01:22.640 --> 0:01:25.800 Because that was the number one song in America on 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:28.680 January third, two thousand and three, and that was the 0:01:28.760 --> 0:01:32.160 day the federal agents raided the offices of Murder Inc. 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:35.840 Records looking for dirty Money. Four days before, the hip 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:40.040 hop label's main adversary, fifty Cent, released a single in 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:42.800 the Club, which would become the biggest song of the year. 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:50.200 On this episode raids, stick Up Kids, Crime, Kingpins, Music Moguls, 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:54.280 Mixtape Wars, Attempted Murder, and Part two of our story 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:59.840 on fifty Cent. I'm Jake Brennan and this this Disgraceland. 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:24.079 If you happen to have a copy of Eric being 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:28.440 Rakim's classic nineteen eighty seven debut album Paid in Full, 0:02:28.919 --> 0:02:31.920 go grab it and turn it over. There on the 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:34.920 back cover you'll see a small picture of nine guys 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:38.240 posing outside the Jacob Javit Center in the Hell's Kitchen 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:42.520 neighborhood of Manhattan. There's Eric B with the giant gold 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:46.560 medallion hanging from his neck, and there's Rakim aka the 0:02:46.639 --> 0:02:51.160 God MC and yeah, I know it's crazy, he's actually smiling. 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:54.280 And then there's the rest of their crew, real guys, 0:02:54.600 --> 0:02:59.000 a mixture of rappers, hustlers and stickup men, including the 0:02:59.080 --> 0:03:01.520 kid crouched in the bottom right hand corner with the 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:05.040 red Adida's hat and the thick gold rope chain. If 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:07.960 you know anything about hip hop, especially the foundational years 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:11.320 of the nineteen eighties, that chain will look awfully familiar 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:11.520 to you. 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:13.120 But more on that in a minute. 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:15.799 This kid with the Adida's hat and the gold rope chain, 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:19.360 they all called him fifty cent, But he's not the 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:23.400 fifty cent you're thinking of. That is not Curtis Jackson, 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:26.360 who was just twelve years old when Peydon Full, this 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:28.200 record that we're talking about with the photo on the 0:03:28.240 --> 0:03:32.240 back was released. Incidentally, it was the first record that 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:35.760 he ever bought. But I'm getting ahead of myself. This 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:39.120 fifty cent, the og fifty cent. The dude on the 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:42.920 back of Peyden Full was a guy named Kelvin Martin, who, 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.800 despite his vertically challenged five foot two frame, was at 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:50.360 the time one of the most prolific and feared stick. 0:03:50.200 --> 0:03:52.080 Up men in Brooklyn. 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:54.720 It didn't matter if you were John Dillinger or Billy 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:57.440 the Kid or Tony fucking Montana, if you were a pimp, 0:03:57.560 --> 0:04:00.120 a dealer, a doper a rapper, you could be he 0:04:00.120 --> 0:04:03.200 has sworn enemy or his good friend if you saw 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:07.360 fifty coming, you crossed the street because chances were you 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:09.920 were gonna get robbed. And that's if you were lucky. 0:04:11.240 --> 0:04:13.400 With a three fifty seven magnum in one hand and 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:17.440 a cold forty five in the other. Fifties reputation preceded him. 0:04:18.080 --> 0:04:21.680 He had no fear, no regrets, and at only twenty 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:24.919 three years old, he lived by a code that protected 0:04:25.000 --> 0:04:29.320 himself above everything and everyone else. Some said he shot 0:04:29.360 --> 0:04:31.400 down some of Brooklyn's biggest hustlers and a hail of 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:34.479 bullets like a Western gunslinger of old, just to make 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:37.839 sure that reputation of his was kept spit shined in 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:41.479 air tight. Some even said that he stole the gold 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:46.360 rope chain right off of LLL Coolj's neck, LLL's iconic chain, 0:04:46.760 --> 0:04:49.719 and that LLL was relieved of said chain by the 0:04:49.760 --> 0:04:54.560 persuasive force of fifties twin long barreled revolvers. Whether or 0:04:54.600 --> 0:04:57.279 not that particular story is true, it's hard to say. 0:04:58.120 --> 0:05:01.200 LLL COOLJ, for one, had his own reputation to maintain. 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:05.760 Ll was hard as hell, so ll wasn't saying shit. 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:09.720 But plenty of others saw fifty cent again, the original 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:14.880 fifty cent pull a piece and lived to tell. On 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:17.920 one particular afternoon, every liquor store owner on a long 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:20.560 stretch of Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn heard the front door 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:23.200 of the shop open in the jingle of that little 0:05:23.200 --> 0:05:26.279 bell go dangling, and looked up from behind the counter 0:05:26.360 --> 0:05:29.159 to see not a customer but this short stack of 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:33.120 menace cocking one pistol and then another, and then that face, 0:05:33.480 --> 0:05:36.400 not Fifty's actual face, but the face of the Halloween 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:39.880 masks that fifty was wearing, the count from Sesame Street, 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:42.599 or maybe it was a Rich Nixon mask or something 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:44.680 like that. And by that time the store owner was 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:47.560 way ahead of them, popping open the registered drawer and 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:52.039 hand in the mass neighborhood menace all of his cash 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:56.680 but fifty cents exploits, his crimes, his unwavering code in 0:05:56.720 --> 0:05:59.520 which he got rich or died trying again. I'm still 0:05:59.560 --> 0:06:02.240 talking about the original fifty cent. It made him a 0:06:02.320 --> 0:06:06.000 lot of enemies. It all came to an inevitable end 0:06:06.120 --> 0:06:09.960 in October of nineteen eighty seven, just months after Payden 0:06:10.040 --> 0:06:14.080 full hit the shelves. This time the barrel was aimed 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:17.960 at fifty cent, multiple shots fired, one to the back 0:06:18.000 --> 0:06:21.440 of his head, the plume of gun smoke, the scattershot 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:24.359 rhythm of sneakers tearing astown several flights of stairs, and 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:29.880 then hitting the pavement and fading into the night. They 0:06:29.920 --> 0:06:33.120 found fifty cent bleeding out on the seventh floor stairwell 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:36.719 in an Albany Projects building in Brooklyn. He was rushed 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:40.120 to the hospital and then moved to the ICU. Four 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:46.960 days later, he was dead. Word of Fifty's death rippled 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:49.320 through the streets of Brooklyn, through every liquor store that 0:06:49.400 --> 0:06:52.240 he ever held up, and to the ears of every person. 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:53.080 He ever double crossed. 0:06:53.640 --> 0:06:56.320 But by the time that word spread one borrow over 0:06:56.640 --> 0:07:00.159 to Queen's, the streets were reckoning with even bigger news. 0:07:00.960 --> 0:07:05.640 Kenneth Supreme McGriff was being released from prison and coming 0:07:05.680 --> 0:07:10.080 home after serving eight years of a twelve year sentence. Preme, 0:07:10.320 --> 0:07:13.280 as he was better known, was a ruthless gangster and 0:07:13.360 --> 0:07:17.000 the leader of the Supreme Team, a notorious criminal organization 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:21.559 and crack cocaine distributor based in Queen's. Unlike the last 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:24.080 time Pream got out of the joint, this time was 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:27.040 going to be different. At least that's what was believed 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:29.280 to be true by the FEDS, who are continuing to 0:07:29.320 --> 0:07:33.040 monitor Prem's every move. It was suspected that Supreme had 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:36.040 entered the increasingly lucrative world of hip hop by striking 0:07:36.080 --> 0:07:38.600 up a relationship with a brand new record label, and 0:07:38.640 --> 0:07:41.200 that he was using that label to launder. 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:42.200 His drug money. 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:46.920 Murder Incorporated Records was named after the cold blooded triggerman 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:50.400 of the Syndicate, the infamous organized crime group from the 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:53.560 mid twentieth century, the one we're talking about here in 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:58.040 Queen's was founded by the Lorenzo brothers, Chris and Irv. 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:00.560 Though they wanted to be known around town, Chris and 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:04.520 IRV Gotti, a nickname bestowed upon them by none other 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:08.240 than Jay Z. So here's a record label whose very name, 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:11.080 as well as the nicknames of its owners, gave a 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:14.200 wink in a nod to gangsters both passed and present. 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:17.600 And again this is alleged by the Feds. They were 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:20.600 being bankrolled by the deep, dirty pockets of the Queen's 0:08:20.680 --> 0:08:25.560 drug lord Kenneth Supreme McGriff. Little future IRV Goddis growing 0:08:25.600 --> 0:08:27.920 up in Queen's growing up in the shadow of the 0:08:27.960 --> 0:08:32.000 supposed Preme and Lorenzo partnership, were inspired by the sheer 0:08:32.040 --> 0:08:34.800 magnitude of this new endeavor by a record label that 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:37.720 wanted to be bigger than the streets, like the rapper 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:40.760 joh Ruhle, who was one of Murder Inc's first and 0:08:40.840 --> 0:08:46.120 brightest stars. But not every kid in the city looked 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:48.839 up to the Lorenzo's and to prem with that kind 0:08:48.880 --> 0:08:53.360 of awe. One such outlier was Queen's native Curtis Jackson. 0:08:54.200 --> 0:08:56.319 When it came time for Curtis to level up from 0:08:56.360 --> 0:08:59.079 hustling on the streets to hustling on the airwaves, he 0:08:59.120 --> 0:09:01.439 did so not by ligning himself with the likes of 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:05.400 Murder Inc. The Lorenzo's Pream, and even Sean Puffy Combs. 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:09.160 In the eyes of Curtis Jackson, these guys didn't represent 0:09:09.440 --> 0:09:13.000 what was real. They weren't the streets. They repped that 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:17.679 Hubris life. They were all corporate bullshit, so far removed 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:19.800 from the streets that they may as well have been 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:26.479 living in a castle in the sky. Curtis was the opposite. 0:09:26.920 --> 0:09:29.560 He was the fly in the ointment, the nail and 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:33.280 the tire, the stick up kid fucking up your corporate machinations. 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:36.360 When it came time to assemble a crew, he called 0:09:36.360 --> 0:09:40.480 it g unit, not g as in gangster, but as 0:09:40.520 --> 0:09:44.840 in gorilla, as in a scrappy, independent group that battled 0:09:44.920 --> 0:09:49.000 much larger, stronger forces. And when it came time to 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:51.680 take a stage name, Curtis Jackson didn't look to the 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:56.520 Gambino family for inspiration, as Chris and herv Lorenzo did. Instead, 0:09:56.960 --> 0:09:59.600 Curtis Jackson took up the mantle of the city's ultimate 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:03.319 stick up kid. For his first commercial single, how to Rob, 0:10:03.559 --> 0:10:07.040 released on Columbia Records in nineteen ninety nine, Curtis Jackson, 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:10.000 now fifty cent, gave a wink in a nod to 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:13.440 his new name in his place in the hip hop hierarchy. See. 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:15.720 The single was included on the soundtrack of the film 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:20.280 Into Deep, which starred none other than LLL Cooljay himself, 0:10:20.559 --> 0:10:22.599 long since rumored to be one of the victims of 0:10:22.640 --> 0:10:26.960 the og. Fifty in LL's face was featured on the 0:10:27.000 --> 0:10:28.320 singles artwork. 0:10:28.520 --> 0:10:29.760 It was genius. 0:10:30.720 --> 0:10:34.280 Unlike the late Kevin Martin the original fifty cent, the 0:10:34.400 --> 0:10:38.480 new fifty cent had no beef with LL coolj. His 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:43.559 beef was with these new corporate gangsters, the Lorenzos, the Preams, 0:10:43.880 --> 0:10:47.599 and the Puffies. Mostly for the little guy with the 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:51.440 rough voice that was now putting Murder Inc On the map. 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:22.760 It all began with a stick up. One of Curtis 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:27.240 Jackson's now fifty cents friends flashed his piece and told 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:30.960 Joe Rule to fork over his chain. Joh got this 0:11:31.040 --> 0:11:33.720 rumble deep down in his gut, a feeling that fell 0:11:33.760 --> 0:11:36.400 somewhere between embarrassed and insulted. 0:11:36.920 --> 0:11:39.559 What the hell was he going to do? He slowly 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:40.560 peeled the chain. 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:43.400 From around his neck and handed it over. The Next 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:45.880 time he saw fifty, Joe gave him all kinds of shit. 0:11:46.480 --> 0:11:50.480 The fuck fifty thought he didn't rob jow It didn't matter. 0:11:50.760 --> 0:11:53.200 It was fifty's guy who did it, so it might 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:56.320 as well have been fifty himself. Fifty tried the water 0:11:56.400 --> 0:11:59.040 under the bridge thing, but John didn't see a bridge, 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:02.120 he saw wall. And then he started talking shit to 0:12:02.120 --> 0:12:04.880 anyone who would listen, and the gist was always the same. 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:09.800 Fifty cent was a fake rapper. This is when fifty 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:11.559 was on the come up, when he was trying to 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:14.920 establish himself. He couldn't be derailed by some wanna be 0:12:15.080 --> 0:12:16.439 gangster running his mouth. 0:12:17.200 --> 0:12:18.559 But if Jow Rule wanted to. 0:12:18.520 --> 0:12:21.240 Fight, then a fight was what fifty cent was going 0:12:21.320 --> 0:12:24.200 to give him some say the fifty cent didn't fight fair, 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:26.680 but fairness had nothing to do with it. Fifty cents 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:32.559 played by the rules of a dead man. March twenty fourth, 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:39.880 two thousand, Midtown, Manhattan. The small studio inside the Hit 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:43.560 Factory was loud as hell. Fifty was rhythmically bobbing his 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:46.040 head up and down, lost in the music and letting 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:47.160 the deep bass of this. 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:48.560 Track wash over him. 0:12:49.040 --> 0:12:51.360 He worked out a verse in his head, the rhymes 0:12:51.400 --> 0:12:55.959 coalescing into that trademark smooth casual flow. A small but 0:12:56.200 --> 0:12:59.080 mighty crew looked on a couple of dudes sitting on 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:02.120 the couch, heads not in sync, and an engineer working 0:13:02.120 --> 0:13:05.920 the board. The track ended, and fifty cent told the 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:08.240 engineer to rewind it and started from the top again, 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:12.960 but this time hit recording fifty was ready. He stepped 0:13:13.000 --> 0:13:14.560 up to the mic and began to rap his verse 0:13:14.600 --> 0:13:18.520 while the music played. His debut album for Columbia, Power 0:13:18.559 --> 0:13:21.480 of the Dollar, was scheduled for release in four months 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:25.000 in July, but fifty was already thinking three steps ahead. 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:27.040 You had to be prepared if you wanted to blow 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:30.439 up without selling out. Take that wrap money don't shake 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:36.319 hands with it. The song how to Rob, in particular, 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:40.400 was all the rage, with emphasis on the word rage. 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:43.120 It was supposed to be a joke, a piece of 0:13:43.320 --> 0:13:46.440 cutting satire, but more than a few of the forty 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:50.000 or so famous rappers and singers, the fifty cent fantasized 0:13:50.000 --> 0:13:52.640 about taking for all they were worth in his lyrics, 0:13:53.000 --> 0:13:56.400 they weren't laughing, No one could take a joke. Jo 0:13:56.600 --> 0:13:59.760 Rule wasn't included in that song, but fifty cent made 0:13:59.760 --> 0:14:03.200 sure the murder Ink Star didn't feel left out. The 0:14:03.240 --> 0:14:05.840 string of diss tracks that fifty was releasing straight to 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:08.960 the streets in advance of his major label debut put 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:12.880 jaw Rule in the crosshairs, and then fifty cent took 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:15.679 aim with the guy that the FBI and the NYPD 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:18.840 thought was really in control of. Murder Inks Perse Strings, 0:14:19.440 --> 0:14:21.760 one of the songs from Fifty's upcoming Power of the 0:14:21.760 --> 0:14:25.400 Dollar album, Ghetto Kuran, leaked and soon it could be 0:14:25.440 --> 0:14:28.840 heard pouring from speakers throughout the Five Burroughs. The track 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:31.320 aired the Dirty Laundry of the Supreme Team and of 0:14:31.400 --> 0:14:33.840 Kenneth Prema m griff and this was something that you 0:14:34.000 --> 0:14:39.520 just didn't do. The door to the small hit factory. 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:43.640 Studio flew open, and three men walked inside, jaw Rule, Chris, 0:14:43.680 --> 0:14:48.720 Lorenzo and another murder ink rapper, Ramel Gill aka Black Child. 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:51.320 They weren't there to check out the new ship fifty 0:14:51.400 --> 0:14:54.320 was working on. Fifty stopped rapping right away and took 0:14:54.320 --> 0:14:57.200 a step back as the uninvited visitors came out him fast. 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:00.000 If only he had some of that Kelvin Martin hardware 0:15:00.080 --> 0:15:02.760 on him. Someone hit the lights and the whole room 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:06.200 descended into chaos. Fifties boys were up off the couch, 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:09.640 up from the engineer's chair, jumping into the fray. Fists 0:15:09.680 --> 0:15:13.040 swung in the darkness. Lorenzo or Jos Someone was coming 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:17.680 at fifty now, knuckles out, so fifty cent retaliated wild 0:15:17.840 --> 0:15:19.640 quick stabs of self preservation. 0:15:20.360 --> 0:15:21.040 Then the scuffle. 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:22.880 A pair of hands grabbed one of the speakers to 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:25.240 the top of the recording console and lobbed it through 0:15:25.280 --> 0:15:28.400 the air. It slammed Lorenzo right in the head. He 0:15:28.520 --> 0:15:31.200 screamed in pain and also because it pissed him off. 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:35.160 The blood gushed down the side of his face. Fifty 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:38.640 Cents stumbled tried to catch his breath. Black Child flashed 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:41.800 a knife. Fifty sot gleam in the darkness, like it 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:45.320 was winking at him, this all knowing, all seen beacon 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:47.119 of impending doune about. 0:15:46.840 --> 0:15:47.920 To all fuck up. 0:15:48.680 --> 0:15:51.240 Black Child lunged forward, jabbed, and sunk the knife right 0:15:51.280 --> 0:15:56.280 into Fifty's chest. Fifty howled. The pain consumed him, breathing in, 0:15:56.520 --> 0:16:00.520 breathing out. It hurt like fucking hell. He slumped to 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:05.360 the floor, teeth clenched, eyes squeezed tight, while Lorenzo, Black 0:16:05.480 --> 0:16:08.800 Child and jah Rule scurried out the same way they'd 0:16:08.840 --> 0:16:16.080 come in. Minutes later, fifty cent was in the back 0:16:16.120 --> 0:16:18.760 of an ambulance, racing down the streets of Midtown to 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:22.920 Saint Luke's Roosevelt Hospital, where doctors treated his gaping chest wound, 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:28.040 along with a partially collapsed a long Two months later, 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:31.360 after getting back on his feet, fifty cent was shot 0:16:31.600 --> 0:16:35.800 nine times by an unknown would be assassin and nearly killed. 0:16:39.160 --> 0:16:42.200 It was the totality of these two incidents, happening so 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:46.040 quickly back to back, that cemented fifty cent not only 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:51.000 as authentic, but dangerous, So dangerous and so hot the 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:54.400 Columbia Records got cold feet. He may have survived those 0:16:54.520 --> 0:16:57.080 nine bullets he took outside his grandmother's house in Queen's 0:16:57.360 --> 0:17:00.360 but he wouldn't survive his first relationship with a major label. 0:17:01.080 --> 0:17:03.800 Columbia pulled Power of the Dollar with no intention to 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:06.680 release it, or any other fifty cent album for that matter, 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:09.480 And right at the moment when he was supposed to 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:12.760 be blowing up by executing that stick up strategy, by 0:17:12.840 --> 0:17:16.840 taking that rat money instead, fifty cents dead man game 0:17:17.280 --> 0:17:18.920 left him dead in the water. 0:17:25.040 --> 0:17:39.480 We'll be right back after this word word word. 0:17:38.640 --> 0:17:38.960 Murder. 0:17:39.000 --> 0:17:39.160 Inc. 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:41.560 Made sure to hit fifty cent while he was down. 0:17:42.400 --> 0:17:44.639 IRV God He went live on Hot ninety seven's The 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:47.959 Star and Buck Wywe Morning Show. IRV told all in 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:51.000 New York that fifty cent had gone soft, that fifty 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:54.520 had turned tail, that fifty cent was a rat. So 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:57.480 fifty cent you're never gonna believe this went and got 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:01.680 himself in order of protection against IRV Gotti and Jah rule. 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:04.879 This is what IRV Gotti told Pot ninety seven that 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:08.640 fifty cent was essentially acting like a little bit. That's 0:18:08.720 --> 0:18:12.399 him talking, not me. Also him talking, a guy does that. 0:18:12.720 --> 0:18:15.680 He makes himself all cozy with the NYPD. That guy 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:19.640 is not authentic, and that guy is essentially a fucking snitch, 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:23.600 per IRV God he's thinking, But fifty cent was no snitch, 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:26.120 IRV God. He was only half right, whether he knew 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:28.919 it or not. There was in order of protection, but 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:32.879 it had been issued by the NYPD on behalf of 0:18:32.960 --> 0:18:36.000 fifty cent. And no matter how much IRV Godi and 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:39.560 Crys Lorenzo and Prem tried to discredit their rival, their 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:43.480 strategy continued to backfire, only adding to fifty cents suddenly 0:18:43.560 --> 0:18:46.439 larger than life profile, which in turn was how one 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:50.240 of his mixtapes ended up in Eminem's Walkman, and then 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:53.439 to a million dollar deal with m in Doctor Dre's 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:58.119 hip hop Empire. And so as fifty cents debut album 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:00.760 was once again back in the pipeline, being prep for 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:03.600 an early two thousand and three release, he doubled back 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:05.520 to respond to the guys who had left him for 0:19:05.560 --> 0:19:07.639 dead and were now trying to bury him alive. 0:19:08.440 --> 0:19:10.160 To be clear here, I'm not talking. 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:12.240 About the guy who shot him nine times, as fifty 0:19:12.280 --> 0:19:15.000 would make known on the track many Men Wish Death 0:19:15.160 --> 0:19:18.000 from his debut album, Get Rich or Die, Trying the 0:19:18.040 --> 0:19:20.120 shooter was a stick up kid from four Green named 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:23.879 Darryl homo Baum, who was killed just weeks after he 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:26.679 tried to ice fifty Cent. When I say left him 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:29.160 for dead and we're now trying to bury him, I'm 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:30.880 talking about the shit that went down at the Hit 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:34.040 Factory and the subsequent slandering of fifty cents name on 0:19:34.119 --> 0:19:38.240 the airwaves. But as usual, fifty was three steps ahead 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:41.400 of his antagonists. Just weeks after IRV God he called 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:43.880 fifty a snitch. In December of two thousand and two, 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:47.280 fifty Cent, in his rap trio G Unit, released an 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:51.240 independent mixtape titled The Future Is Now. One of its 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:55.040 standout tracks was I Smell Pussy, and it flipped IRV 0:19:55.080 --> 0:19:58.520 Gotti's script by calling out IRV Ja Rule and the 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:01.879 guy who stabbed fifty cent Black Child by their names, 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:04.920 as in I Smell Pussy is that U IRV? 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:06.800 I Smell Pussy is that Jujah Rule. 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:10.480 Fifty Cent didn't go after preim on this particular track, 0:20:10.520 --> 0:20:13.439 but the notorious crack Kingpin was having enough problems of 0:20:13.480 --> 0:20:17.560 his own. Earlier in the year, Supreme had pleaded guilty 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:20.440 to a weapons possession charge, and he was currently out 0:20:20.480 --> 0:20:24.000 on bail and awaiting sentencing, and the shocking recent murder 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:26.880 of run DMC's jam Master J had brought more unwanted 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:29.440 attention from the cops in some of Jay's close friends, 0:20:29.560 --> 0:20:32.399 friends like fifty Cent, who was mentored by jam Master J. 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:34.320 They weren't going out of their way to say that 0:20:34.359 --> 0:20:37.679 Preme hadn't had anything to do with the shooting, and 0:20:37.800 --> 0:20:41.080 so as g units I Smell Pussy kept the cold 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:43.680 December streets of New York City red hot. 0:20:43.680 --> 0:20:46.000 Pream was laying low down in Miami Beach. 0:20:46.440 --> 0:20:49.240 He checked into the Lowe's Hotel under an alias, paid 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:51.840 with cash, and then quietly slipped into a room with 0:20:51.920 --> 0:20:54.199 walls as white as the outfits at a Sean Combe's 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:59.640 Labor Day party. But his quiet reprieve didn't last long. 0:21:00.560 --> 0:21:03.879 As Priam sat there alone, his hotel room door was 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:07.160 busted down from the outside with a bang, and splintered 0:21:07.160 --> 0:21:10.720 wood paved the way for FBI agents in their trademark windbreakers. 0:21:11.240 --> 0:21:14.040 They grabbed Priam's arms and twisted them behind his back, 0:21:14.400 --> 0:21:15.880 locking his wrists and cuffs. 0:21:16.880 --> 0:21:20.440 What the fuck was it this time? Priam shook his head. 0:21:20.880 --> 0:21:23.359 He didn't know who did Jim Master Jay, but it 0:21:23.480 --> 0:21:26.600 wasn't him. Now it was the Fed's turned to shake 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:29.920 their heads. They didn't care. They weren't here for that. 0:21:30.400 --> 0:21:33.199 They had pream on another weapons charge, one from a 0:21:33.200 --> 0:21:36.000 few years back when he brought a machine gun to. 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:36.879 A shooting range. 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:41.120 What's this, one of the agents wanted to know. We're 0:21:41.160 --> 0:21:44.200 rocking and rolling tonight, are we pream As he said, 0:21:44.280 --> 0:21:47.000 he was holding up a baggy of viagra and another 0:21:47.040 --> 0:21:49.520 baggie full of ecstasy that were found right there on 0:21:49.560 --> 0:21:52.680 the nightstand, next to a Murder Ink pager. And that's 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:55.159 where the Feds were headed next, straight out of this 0:21:55.240 --> 0:21:57.840 Miami safe house and back to New York, where, not 0:21:57.920 --> 0:22:00.399 even a week later, the record company that they believe 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:05.720 Preme Bank World was about to be taken down. January third, 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:11.479 two thousand and three, Manhattan. Early, the elevator doors opened 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:14.119 on the twenty ninth floor of the Worldwide Plaza building 0:22:14.160 --> 0:22:17.800 on Eighth Avenue. The surge of Federal agents and NYPD 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:22.280 detectors came flooding out, vest strapped, tight weapons, locked and 0:22:22.359 --> 0:22:26.120 loaded warrant in hand. They crashed through the front door 0:22:26.119 --> 0:22:28.680 of Murder Inc's corporate offices and began to turn the 0:22:28.720 --> 0:22:33.160 place upside down. They seized computers, foxes of files, two 0:22:33.160 --> 0:22:35.879 way pagers, anything they could use to trace the dirty 0:22:35.880 --> 0:22:40.240 money back to Preme. Cut to New Jersey where more 0:22:40.359 --> 0:22:44.040 FBI agents and NYPD officers were raiding the house belonging 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:49.639 to Cynthia Brent, Murder Inc's accountant, and then to Westchester County, 0:22:49.640 --> 0:22:54.600 New York. IRV Gotti's house raided, and then Wexford Terrace 0:22:54.640 --> 0:22:57.440 and Queen's the home of Joe Reagan, one of Prem's 0:22:57.480 --> 0:23:03.239 longtime associates, raided. All four places were raided simultaneously by 0:23:03.240 --> 0:23:06.280 the FEDS that morning, along with a fifth location, Chris 0:23:06.280 --> 0:23:11.399 Gotti's apartment at an undisclosed location. And then, with an 0:23:11.440 --> 0:23:14.840 affidavit filed with the US Attorney's Office, the United States 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:18.080 Government officially made the claim that prim was the quote 0:23:18.119 --> 0:23:21.600 true owner quote of Murder Inc. And then he provided 0:23:21.640 --> 0:23:25.920 the Lorenzos in the label with muscle aka threats, violence 0:23:26.080 --> 0:23:30.760 and intimidation. Four days later, while job Rules Record Label 0:23:30.800 --> 0:23:32.840 was trying to peel the g men off their backs, 0:23:33.160 --> 0:23:37.600 fifty Cent pulled that G unit guerrilla move of his, swooping. 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:40.720 In and taking that rap money. He hit Murder Inc. 0:23:40.880 --> 0:23:42.159 Where it really. 0:23:41.960 --> 0:23:45.000 Hurt on the charts and in the minds and hearts 0:23:45.040 --> 0:23:48.520 of the record buying public. His smash single in the 0:23:48.600 --> 0:23:51.680 Club was released on January seventh, two thousand and three. 0:23:52.240 --> 0:23:54.760