50 Cent believes Jay-Z's Grammy wins are in large part due to the latter's marriage to Beyoncé.
The G-Unit mogul discussed the matter in a new interview for the cover story of XXL's 20th-anniversary issue. According to Fif, Hov didn't start amassing Grammy awards until he and Bey began dating in the early 2000s.
“Even JAY-Z’s career, you can look at that and say the association to Beyoncé is when he started to receive the 16, 17 Grammys, since he’s been with Beyoncé," 50 explained. "And you go, prior to that… [he had] one. That came with the association."
A quick deep dive into Jay's Grammy wins proves 50's argument checks out. After winning Best Rap Album for his 1998 LP Vol 2...Hard Knock Life, Hov didn't win another Grammy award until 2004, when he and Bey won Best R&B Song for their collaborative hit "Crazy In Love." Since then, Jay has earned an additional 22 Grammy awards.
“You see [Jay and Beyoncé’s] kids already have Grammys. They don’t sing yet. They don’t sing. They don’t rap yet. And, they already have Grammys and shit. So, they say, ‘Give them this trophy so we can secure that they’re coming — to the awards show.'”
“It meant that much to the culture they just gave them the things,” he added, implying the Carter family’s accolades are not entirely genuine.
Fif continued by blasting the Grammys for shutting him out of the 2004 award show, which saw 50 earn five nominations on the strength of his record-breaking 2003 debut Get Rich or Die Tryin'.
“Later, people look at it and they honor those things," he said. "It didn’t matter to me in that time period—I was like ‘Fuck it.’ Don’t give me the trophy. So what? They didn’t give me Best New Artist and I sold 13 million records. That’s the largest debuting Hip Hop album."
Watch 50 Cent's full interview with XXL below.
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