Easily one of the yarns of the year thus far is the reported story of how, back in 2014, 50 Cent released his fifth studio album Animal Ambition, and begun accepting payment for the record via a little-known virtual currency called Bitcoin. He promptly forgot about the cryptocurrency accumulated through sales of the album, only to realise he was sitting on a small fortune of some $9 million once it blew up over the course of last year.
Only problem there is that it kinda, sorta, didn’t actually happen.
As it turns out, stores of 50 Cent’s Bitcoin fortune have been greatly exaggerated, according to new court documents filed in response to allegations that 50 Cent did not accurately disclose his financial holdings.
See, 50 himself filed for bankruptcy protection back in 2015, and a forgotten small fortune of cryptocurrency amassed the year before and not disclosed in those subsequent legal proceedings would put something of a wrinkle in things.
But as it turns out, the new documents refute the story entirely, asserting that any Bitcoin acquired through the sale of the album was not directly owned by 50, and was quickly converted to US Dollars by a third party.
Here’s where it gets real good, though.
At the time the yarn broke, 50 Cent completely bought into the story and leaned into it, not because he thought it was true, but purely because the lie made him look smart as hell.
50 Cent stated that he only makes an effort to deny false public reports in the event they make him look bad. This one made him look like a business genius, so he rolled with it.
As a general matter, so long as a press story is not irreparably damaging to my image or brand, I usually do not feel the need to publicly deny the reporting… This is particular true when I feel the press report in question is favourable to my image or brand, even if the report is based on a misunderstanding of the facts or contains outright falsehoods.
This bloke. This bloke right here. He gets it, man. He gets it.
