50 Cent Recalls Meeting Eminem: “I Thought I Was Being Punk’d”

Fifty recently opened up about his first meeting with Eminem, describing the surreal experience of signing with Shady Records and the whirlwind that followed.

50 Cent recently sat down with the hosts of Million Dollaz Worth of Game podcast at the Humor and Harmony Festival in Shreveport to reflect on his early days, how he navigated being blackballed in the industry, and his successful leap into Hollywood. During the interview, he shared some incredible stories about his first meeting with Eminem and signing with Shady Records.

Fifty was emotional, recalling that unforgettable moment:

It was wild. Remember that show “Punk’d” on MTV? I thought they had cameras, and it was going to come out and say, “You’ve been punk’d”. I was in California; he flew me to LA. I was so bugged out from the experience that I had my vest on. The lawyer that I had with me took me to him, and I get there, and he’s like, “Let me hug you. Yo, this is going to be the biggest shit”. He’s so excited that it made me question whether what was happening was right ’cause it felt so good that it couldn’t be right.

50 Cent went on to describe how surreal the whole situation felt, especially considering that Eminem had just released “The Marshall Mathers LP” and sold an astonishing 1.7 million records in the first week:

When I met him, the first night I met him, it was, he had an event, and it was “The Marshall Mathers LP” just came out, and first week he sold 1.7 million records, and he was so excited about me. I’m looking like, “You serious?!”

The conversation also touched on the tension with Ja Rule, which 50 Cent initially tried to keep under wraps to avoid making Eminem feel like he had “bought a problem”. But things took a turn when Ja Rule made a comment about Eminem’s daughter, Hailie:

Ja made a mistake and said something about Hailie… Em was like, “What the fuck made him think like this?” It was a Friday. Em didn’t record that Friday. I recorded that Friday, that Saturday, that Sunday. He came back; I had a full CD, “Automatic Gunfire”. The whole mixtape was done Monday morning. He was listening like, “Yo, when did y’all get the chance to?…” All this shit was this weekend.

Fifty also shared a moment of reflection on his first major payday in the industry:

I got one million dollars in cash for my first deal. The only person that pointed out that million dollars was no money was Dame Dash. He said, “After you get a watch, chain, look out for the homies and do this and that, it’s nothing”. And I was like, “I’m from 134th street, a million dollars is a lot of money. I think I hit the lottery”.

Hearing 50 Cent recount these stories reminds fans just how influential that Shady Records deal was, not just for his career but for the entire hip hop landscape. The emotional connection he made with Marshall back then is still strong, making Fifty one of Em’s most loyal friends.