50 Cent (left); Irv Gotti. Photo:
Arturo Holmes/ABC via Getty; Prince Williams/ Getty
50 Cent wasted no time speaking his mind in the wake of record producer Irv Gotti’s death.
The rapper, 49, took to Instagram on the evening of Wednesday, Feb. 5, to share an image of himself in a grey G-Unit sweatsuit smoking what appears to be a hookah while posed next to a mock headstone that reads “RIP.”
In the same post, 50 Cent shared an image of Gotti smiling while attending an event. To caption the post, 50 Cent wrote, “I’m smoking on dat Gotti pack, nah God bless him 🕊️ LOL.”
50 Cent in August 2023. Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
Fellow hip-hop stars took to the comments to share their take on 50 Cent’s reaction to Gotti’s death. Bobby Shmurda commented, “Yo, this thing is crazy son,” while 600breezy commented, “Everyday he show us why they hit him 9 times 😭😭😭😭,” referencing when 50 Cent was infamously shot nine times and survived in 2000.
News of Gotti’s death was revealed on Feb. 5. The producer, who was 54 at the time of his passing, had a series of strokes in recent years and was a diabetic, a source told PEOPLE.
In August, TMZ reported Gotti had a stroke, citing hip-hop record executive and manager Wack 100, who noted that he had spoken with someone at a stroke recovery facility about the incident. “Irv has been struggling with diabetes for years, which caused him to have a minor stroke over six months ago,” he told the publication at the time.
Throughout his career, Gotti worked with artists such as DMX, Jay-Z, Ja Rule, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Toni Braxton and Jennifer Lopez, among others.
Irv Gotti on June 26, 2022 in Los Angeles. Prince Williams/ Getty
50 Cent and Gotti famously had beef for over 20 years, beginning in 1999 when Ja Rule, who was signed to Gotti’s Murder Inc. label, was allegedly robbed by one of 50 Cent’s associates in Queens, N.Y., per XXL. Following that alleged robbery, 50 Cent released the song “Your Life’s on the Line,” which openly dissed Ja Rule and Gotti.
Just one year later, 50 Cent and Ja Rule got into an altercation at the Hit Factory Studio in New York, which resulted in Murder Inc. rapper Black Child stabbing 50 Cent, per the outlet. Black Child claimed he did so in self-defense.
Irv Gotti in June 2022. Leon Bennett/Getty
Per CBS, a 2005 federal investigation suspected that the instance of 50 Cent being shot nine times in Queens came as a result of Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff and members of Murder Inc. conspiring to kill the Power producer in retaliation to the diss music he made about them. They did not face charges in connection with the shooting.
Hostility remained between the pair in the years that followed, bubbling up on instances such as in 2017, when 50 Cent threatened to slap Gotti in response to the latter’s interview on The Breakfast Club.
Per HipHopDX, the two butted heads again in 2021 when Gotti claimed to Chicago radio station 107.5 WGCI that DMX died of a fentanyl overdose, which led 50 Cent to say in a subsequent, since-deleted post, “This guy is a idiot,” adding, “Did he just say DMX died from smoking crack and fentanyl! why would he say that?”
