Fabolous Hits Back at 50 Cent's Jay-Z Take: '50 Cent Obviously Has an Issue'

"50 Cent obviously has an issue with Jay-Z." Fabolous did not bother tiptoeing. Asked on Cousins, the podcast hosted by Vince Carter and Tracy McGrady, about Fif's claim that Hov never dominated an era of rap, the Brooklyn MC said the take tells you more about the beef than about the record books.

In his view, it is "a downplay" on 50's side, plain and simple. The episode dropped Oct. 28, and the clip has been making the rounds since, with WorldStar among the outlets pushing it.

What 50 actually said

Fab was answering comments 50 made in mid-October on Andrew Schulz's Flagrant podcast. As Hip-Hop Vibe recapped, 50 argued that Jay never had a stretch where everybody agreed he was the guy, pointing to DMX's two No. 1 albums in 1998 and Ja Rule's run in the early 2000s. He also claimed Jay used his seat as Def Jam president to push Kanye West's Graduation past his own Curtis in the September 2007 sales race, a week Kanye won with roughly 957,000 copies to about 691,000.

That was not the only shot this fall. Earlier in October, 50 told Schulz for Interview Magazine that Reasonable Doubt debuted at No. 23 and was not a big deal back then, chalking up the 30th anniversary hype to great marketing, per HotNewHipHop. To be fair to Fif, he has repeatedly called Jay a phenomenal artist and a genius at marketing. His argument is about dominance, not talent.

Fab's case for Hov

T-Mac set it up, saying Jay may not have moved 10 million units like DMX, Nelly or Eminem, but he set the trends, down to the button-ups everybody was wearing. Fab ran with it. Hip-hop is not judged on record sales alone, he argued, and if Jay were not a figure of real stature, 50 would not keep connecting himself to him throughout his career.

Then Fab moved to the business side, where even 50 gives Jay his flowers. In Fab's telling, Jay is the most dominant businessman rap has ever had, an artist who had to be his own CEO before he had a real deal, and the model that later moguls, 50 included, built on. He even put Jay ahead of Biggie and Tupac on that front, saying neither ever had that kind of business structure. His closing verdict on Fif: he is just "shooting and talking."

Not exactly a neutral voice

Fab is not pretending to be impartial. He is a Brooklyn rapper whose prime ran right alongside Jay's Roc-A-Fella and Def Jam years, and he had his own brief Twitter dust-up with 50 back in 2009 that the two later smoothed over, per Hip-Hop Wired. He is also part of Let's Rap About It, the show with Maino and Jim Jones that has been trading jabs with 50 for months, including a dispute over an alleged $250,000 owed on their filming space. Just last week, Maino named 50 as a great rapper who "went bad" on the show, which we broke down here.

As of this writing, 50 had not publicly responded to Fab, and Jay-Z, true to form, has stayed out of the whole debate. Given Fif's track record online, that silence may not last.

Underneath the jabs is the oldest barbershop argument in rap: peak or longevity. 50 measures greatness by the moment, and Get Rich or Die Tryin' gave him one of the biggest moments the genre has ever seen. Jay's side points to 14 No. 1 albums across three decades and an empire that outlasted everybody he came up with. Both can be true, which is exactly why this one keeps coming back.

Watch the latest from Rich Motion: Fabolous Says 50 Cent Is DOWNPLAYING Jay-Z. Did Jay-Z ever truly dominate an era, or is Fab right that 50 is just downplaying him? Let us know in the comments, and subscribe at youtube.com/@RichMotion_Media so you don't miss the next one.

Sources: Cousins with Vince Carter & Tracy McGrady, WorldStar, Hip-Hop Vibe, HotNewHipHop, Hip-Hop Wired