by 50 Cent has hit back at R&B singer ALICIA KEYS for criticizing gangsta rap, insisting her comments were “not really bright.” Keys boasted controversy by voicing her opinions on the hip-hop subgenre, telling Blender Magazine, “Gangsta rap was a ploy to convince black people to kill each other.” Keys’ comments have reportedly enraged rapper 50 Cent, real name Curtis Jackson, whose music is said to fall into the gangsta rap category. Keys issued a statement later saying that her comments were “misrepresented” and that she isn’t a “conspiracy theorist” or “a racist.” “We stand by our story,” Blender spokeswoman Kate Cafaro told The Associated Press on Tuesday. Regardless of Keys’ explanation, 50 Cent wasn’t too thrilled with the comment. He tells The Showbuzz, “I’m prejudice(d). I don’t like people who don’t like me. If you don’t like the content that I write because of my experiences; I am being who I am when I am writing it. I fall into that ‘label’ as far as you considering artists creating ‘Gangsta music,’ we fall into that.” 50 went on to say, “If she don’t like that, (then) I don’t like that classical music s— she be doing. At some point she’s playing some s— that don’t relate to me. ⦠We listen to it and try to figure out why people actually enjoy it. I am trying to enjoy it. That statement changes my perception of Alicia Keys totally. But the magazine is standing behind it, which means they probably have a tape of her in conversation saying it. It’s just not really a bright comment anyway.” Keys has since retracted the statement, insisting her words were taken out of context.
