“I feel like Kanye West is successful because of me”: 50 Cent and Kanye West Had a One of a Kind Feud That Made Them More Famous

SUMMARY

• Kanye West and 50 Cent developed a faux rivalry that transformed the hip-hop rap industry forever.
• 50 Cent believes he is monumental to the success of Kanye West due to one big factor during their rise in the hip-hop world.
• Kanye West gives his rival 50 Cent credit for their rise in popularity that took advantage of their competition to boost album sales.

Hip-hop rap has permeated the world of music for not too long but in that time, the genre has evolved into one of the most influential art forms. Singers like Tupac Shakur, Eminem, 50 Cent, and Kanye West have been monumental in contributing to hip-hop rap, even though some might be a bit more “gangsta” than the rest.

50 Cent at a concert [Photo by Alex Const licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons]

With more than a dozen albums to his name, Kanye West experienced growth and popularity — two important measures of career success. However, with talents that are as flashy as attention-grabbing, West’s success depended on his witticism just as much as it did on his faux rivalry with 50 Cent.

Kanye West and 50 Cent’s Rivalry Buys Success

Kanye West on The Ellen DeGeneres Show [Credit: Warner Bros. Television]

When Kanye West launched into the world of hip-hop, two major things happened. The first was the arrival of a new musician blessed with enough talent to render anyone shell-shocked. The second was his rivalry with 50 Cent.

But, while hip-hop may never go out of style, the careers of musicians can suffer from the lack of relevancy. For West, that has never been a problem. The rapper has never experienced a rainy day or weathered a storm he couldn’t handle.

However, despite all his Grammys and business ventures, the one factor that has been an unparalleled high point of his life has also been his greatest success for a brilliant reason — the elevation of hip-hop to a whole new height by using his faux rivalry against 50 Cent to benefit the genre just as much as it benefitted their album sales.

Kanye West Owes His Rise to 50 Cent

50 Cent performs in Stockholm [Photo by Rikard Westman licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons]

In a battle of wits and business-savvy smarts, 50 Cent and Kanye West butted heads in a competition of their self-made will wherein both artists used their respective expertise to raise their reputations to the echelons of the genre of hip-hop rap.

However, 50 Cent was not one to let himself down easily when it came to letting his fans know who contributed to the rise of Ye. In an interview with Irish Examiner, the In da Club singer dished about his part in West’s fame:

However, it was not only Curtis James Jackson III aka 50 Cent who knew of his impact on Ye. The Donda singer-songwriter himself asserted how his rivalry with the Grammy winner changed the hip-hop world forever [via TimWestwoodTV]:

Hip-hop rap once revolutionized the music industry when Tupac Shakur arrived in a whirlwind, leaving the world heartbroken after his premature and tragic death in 1996. Now, his legacy lives on in the works of modern hip-hop legends like Eminem, 50 Cent, and Snoop Dogg whose albums keep elevating music to privileged levels.

Written by Diya Majumdar

Articles Published: 1871

Armed with a degree in literature and a love for pop culture, Diya Majumdar has over 1800 published articles on FandomWire. Her passion and profession both include dissecting the world of cinema while being a liberally opinionated person with an overbearing love for music and Monet.