Fat Joe Reveals He Lost A $20 Million Deal … Thanks to His Beef with 50 Cent

Joe writes about a critical call he received from Michael Jordan in the days he had tension with 50. The call followed a near-confrontation he had with Fif while they were set to appear at the Vido Music Awards in Miami.

He writes that Fiddy’s G-unit was “extra thick that year” and that apart from the group’s other rappers, such as Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo, and Young Buck, 50 Cent had also just signed Mobb Deep. Furthermore, Ma$e was also tagging behind with “some extra muscle.”

Joe adds, “Halfway through the show, I went out on the stage to give Missy Elliott an award. What the audience at home didn’t see was that during the commercial break beforehand, 50 Cent got out of his seat and started walking around the house.

Joe adds: “He went up to the audience in the cheap seats and started waving to me. It was like he was daring me to get off the stage and physically confront him. Then he went down to the floor and started slapping fives with Jay-Z and Diddy.”

By the time the commercial ended, 50 Cent had wandered on stage and was just a step away from Joe for some time.

“I was saying to myself, Okay, we’re about to fight. We’re about to get it on right here at the VMAs,” recalls Joe. “When the show came back on—this is live TV, mind you—he went back to his seat. The G-Unit started yelling at me while I’m reading off the teleprompter. The Terror Squad, offstage in the wings, started barking back. That’s when I dropped my jab: ‘I feel safe with all the police protection courtesy of G-Unit.’”

50 Cent was displeased by the jab. After Joe and his Terror Squad were gone, 50 Cent took to the stage to perform some of his best hits back then. He also performed Tony Yayo’s “So Seductive,” after which he said, “Fat Joe is p*ssy, man. P*ssy boy. F*ck boy.”

As tension flared between Joe and 50 Cent, the former had a meeting with Jordan brand a few days later. A discussion had been going on for some time, and Joe was set to be the face of a new shoe named “Fat Joe Jordan.”

However, after the Miami showdown, Michael Jordan himself phoned Joe to break the bad news that the deal couldn’t proceed, citing his beef with 50 Cent as the reason.

Said the NBA legend to Joe, “You know I love you, Big Joe, but you’re too hot right now. I wanted to do it, but I’m not into all that rap beef. With all this controversy, we can’t do the sneaker anymore.”

Joe writes that he lost over $20 million when that deal collapsed. He lost out on other endorsements as well.