NEWS
50 Cent has revealed that he originally intended to have Trina join him on one of his hit records but ended up giving the assist to Lil Kim instead.
Apple Music caught up with 50 while backstage at a recent London concert on The Final Lap Tour where he opened up about getting Kim to replace the Diamond Princess on 2003’s “Magic Stick” after the latter “fucked up the record.”
“Get Rich, it was 20 songs. I had no room for ‘Magic Stick,’ which was written for Get Rich or Die Tryin’ but it didn’t make it,” he explained. “I wrote that record to intentionally work with Trina. I sent it to Trina and they fucked up the record.
“I was like, ‘Yo.’ The lyrics and everything was messed up. Gee Roberson heard the record and came and got it from me. He was like, ‘Yo, I need this for Kim. I need it.'”
50 continued: “She had made a good record but it didn’t have the formula that Biggie created for her to have success in our culture. It didn’t have the sexuality. It was like, ‘I’ve been gone for a minute now I’m back….‘ The record with her and Mr. Cheeks… But ‘Magic Stick’ was spot on for her.”
Check out the interview below:
The Fantom of the Beat-produced “Magic Stick” arrived in April 2003 after being left on the Get Rich cutting room floor, serving as Kim’s second single from La Bella Mafia.
The raunchy anthem debuted at No. 75 on the Hot 100 and climbed all the way up to No. 2 but was blocked out by JAY-Z and Bey’s “Crazy In Love.”
Elsewhere in the interview, 50 admitted that “Many Men” was actually his least favorite GRODT song at the time his 2003 debut arrived.
“‘Many Men’ was my least favorite at that point because musically we was in the boom-bap phase,” he said. “We was in that hard-hitting intensity, the energy on the records, and it’s the slowest song on Get Rich or Die Tryin’. And it’s now the tempo that the artists are rapping to. So the fast tempo, hard-hitting beats, that was that era, that time period. And the whole album had it.”
However, the song’s producer, Six Figga Digga, has since refuted 50’s statement in an interview with TMZ.
“In my humble opinion, that was the point,” he said. “If you got a track like that, along with the other tracks that Dr. Dre did, then it’s not going to sound the same because I’m not Dr. Dre.
“Also, when it was done, it was a different frame of mind, a different way of thinking, so when you’re trying to blend those two things together, I can see that.”
NEWS
There’s a high probability that Jorja Smith has new music coming this summer. The British singer revealed plans for her What Are the Odds LP on Thursday (July 2), with the album set to arrive on Aug. 21 via FAMM.
Smith reunites with producer P2J — who served as a primary collaborator on her 2023 album Falling or Flying — for the entirety of the project. J Money and P2J will continue to build on the inventive U.K. garage sound Smith has been exploring, alongside a mix of grime and house.
“This album came together really naturally. There was never a big plan; it was just me making music that felt right in the moment,” Smith tells Billboard. “Working with P2J, we started experimenting with different sounds, pulling from U.K. garage, grime and house (funky house, Afro house) and it all grew from there.”
She continues: “The music feels uplifting, but the lyrics can be a bit sad at times. They’re about growing up, love, loss, friendships and figuring things out as I go. I trusted my instincts with this one, and I think you can hear that throughout the record.”
Smith kicked off the album’s rollout in May with the self-assuring “What’s Done Is Done,” and it continues on Thursday (July 2) with a second single, “Alive,” which finds the R&B singer joining forces with Afrobeats pioneer WizKid. The duo basks in the love-drunk euphoria of the honeymoon phase of a bubbling relationship and heads to Paris for the visual.
“Making this with P2J and WizKid felt really easy,” Smith adds of the collab. “We wrote and recorded it together in London. I think we captured that feeling when you’re at the beginning of something with someone and everything feels exciting. I’ve always loved WizKid’s music and the way he’s opened so many doors for Afrobeats around the world, so it feels really special and a big honor to have a song with him.”
What Are the Odds serves as Jorja Smith’s third studio album and contains 12 tracks. Outside of WizKid, the only other feature comes from grime artist Devlin.
When the project lands on Aug. 21, Smith will hit the stage later that night at London’s All Points East, as she’ll be co-headlining the Victoria Park show with Tems. 2026 has already been a busy year for J Money, who served as a musical guest on the debut season of Saturday Night Live UK in April.
The 29-year-old also collaborated with Mobb Deep’s Havoc for a remix of her “Blue Lights” classic and lent “Price of It All” to Amazon MGM Studios’ Bait soundtrack.
Find the What Are the Odds cover art and tracklist below.
What Are the Odds tracklist:
