50 Cent may have been the biggest rapper in the game at one point, but while he intermittently releases music, his various business ventures have recently overshadowed his musical output. In the third part of his hour long SXSW interview, 50 elaborated on how he got into his Vitamin Water deal, his relationship with Floyd Mayweather, and the stigma around rappers focusing on business ventures.
50 spoke of the first time he knew he wanted to get into the health beverage game. "I was actually in the supermarket, and I see a bottle of spring water. "t was like $2.89 and I went further down the aisle and saw a gallon of water for 59 cents." he said, adding, "and I just know if you put them in a glass that was identical, I wouldn't know which one was which." Fif saw this as an opportunity. "So I said 'I wanna sell water!'"
The rapper explained that this type of business mentality can be seen as a lack of artictic integrity. “Within music culture for you to be connected to a company or corporation meant you wasn’t being an artist…That wasn’t even supposed to happen,” he said, indicating that his respect in the industry may have suffered as a result. “When you watch the awards shows you’ll notice cause my trophy case don’t match the sales. But hey, Kanye get the trophies. I’ll get the check.”
Fif then spoke on his more recent endeavor into boxing, elaborating on his business relationship with Floyd Mayweather. “He’s like my brother. I don’t have relationships that I value friendships like that. So, we’ll flip flop whatever it is, but it is what it is,” he explained. “At the end of the day he was going through a lot of confusion that [I] experienced. Floyd doesn’t like to be by himself. He takes care of people, he pays people to keep them around him…It’s not the first time I ran into someone who finds their happiness through their circle.”