50 Cent
Photo: MTV News

50 Cent certainly can't be accused of not speaking his mind.

Late Monday, the G-Unit general phoned in to DJ Green Lantern's Sirius Satellite radio show and discussed the lukewarm early sales for his latest LP, Before I Self Destruct — and Jay-Z's possible dig at him during Sunday night's American Music Awards. During his acceptance speech, Jay said, "Men lie, women lie — numbers don't," and then burst out laughing, which many perceived as a response toward 50's recent baiting of Hov.

"He's said that before," 50 said. "I didn't really take that as disrespect. If you wanna be disrespectful, just be disrespectful. Once we start I'm not gonna stop. I'll make you aware of that, 'cause I'm not the type of guy that goes away. So if that's the kind of energy we getting ready to go into, then let's do it!"

50 also discussed his new LP, which looks poised for a lukewarm debut on the charts in its first week out — Hits Daily Double estimated that its debut-week sales will be in the range of 150-160,000. His three previous albums all easily surpassed 500,000 units sold in their first weeks, although in a much more robust album market than today's.

"For me this album is a prequel — it's full circle," 50 said. "When the energy around a project is the way this is, you can't really feel like it's a failure. Like, I look at the numbers and am like, 'What is this?' I've already assessed that the album has been out a month before its actual release period [due to an online leak, and the album's early digital release due to the leak]. So when you got that, you go, 'Well, what did you actually expect?'

"For myself, I'm asking myself, 'What did you expect, bro? Your fans got it when it was available, at the first available opportunity.' "

• 50 Cent
• Jay-Z

Photo: MTV News

• Beanie Sigel
• 50 Cent

50 Cent and Beanie Sigel perform on Monday night
Photo: MTV News

NEW YORK — 50 Cent has been on a high-octane promotional run for the past few weeks to support his latest effort Before I Self Destruct, and on Monday night, the hulking rapper ended his trek where it all began, on the streets of New York.

Flanked by his G-Unit family and hundreds of fans who waited outside in the cold to catch a glimpse of the entertainer, 50 Cent made good on his promise to deliver a good show at Manhattan's Highline Ballroom for MySpace's The 50th Release show.

G-Unit's Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo were first up to bat, bouncing back and forth, exchanging raps as fans waited for the main event.

As he did on the previous night's American Music Awards performance with Eminem, 50 slyly made his entrance onto the stage to the sounds of yells and screams and launched right into his verse from "Crack a Bottle."

"It's bottle, after bottle/ The money ain't a thing when you party with me," 50 rapped as the crowd joined in. "It's what we into, it's simple/ We ball outta control like you wouldn't believe."

Clad in a black-and-tan leather vest, oatmeal Timberland boots and shiny jewelry, 50 went into some of his darkest rap tales.

"I done told you, boy, I'm a soldier boy/ I got no choice but to be a rider/ I approach you, boy, with the toaster boy/ Get to point-blank range and fire," Fif warned on the catchy song "G-Unit Rider, Part 2." 50 followed up the melodic track with more smash songs from his vault: "I Get Money," "What Up Gangsta" and "Crime Wave." The MC grinned from ear to ear, commanding the audience's attention with each lyric.

Next, 50 turned his attention to the many female patrons in the audience with the single "Baby by Me." The song's introduction excited one woman so much, she leaped a few feet from the adjacent V.I.P. area, just to get closer to the stage. Fif then launched into his new single, "Do You Think About Me," joined by guest crooner Governor.

Midway through the show, he turned things up a notch.

"Where my n---a at?" 50 shouted. As Jay-Z's "Do It Again" track sounded off, Beanie Sigel emerged from the bowels of the backstage area and dived head first into his verse off the record.

"You know how Mac come through on the club tip/ Everybody real deep on that thug sh--/ Cop Cris' spray the club on that thug sh--/ Cop frisks suits snub in the club quick," Beanie rapped.

Moments before his surprise appearance Beanie talked to MTV News about his newfound alliance with 50 Cent.

"It means a lot," he said of joining 50 for his hometown performance. "I'm here. I'm in New York."

	See 50 Cent and Beanie Sigel Onstage

Sigel, with some assistance from 50 Cent, has fired a number of pot shots at onetime mentor Jay-Z. But through it all, Beanie says that his music will remain pure. "I'mma continue to do my thing," he said. "And I'mma be in this music business, putting out good music, quality music. And I'mma stay grounded in relation with me and the people who I represent and speak for. The people in the streets who's doing they thing. That's what I'm here to do, and I'mma always do that.

Beans and 50 performed the Jay-Z dis record "I Go Off" for the first time on a public platform.

"I'll give you something to talk about/ Come 'round me frontin' I'll air you out, I go off," 50 rapped.

Following the brief set, 50 got back to reminding the crowd why he's still a force to be reckoned with, sprinting through more hits from his endless catalog, old and new, including "P.I.M.P.," "Just a Little Bit," "Magic Stick" and the open letter to ousted G-Unit members Young Buck and Game, "So Disrespectful."

Shortly before closing out his performance, in true bad-boy fashion, 50 joked on members of the New York Police Department, who were also in attendance.

"Every time I come to New York, you see the police right next to you," 50 said, pointing to the various plain-clothes cops in the crowd. "You gotta watch them. It's the hip-hop police. They make like I'm a terrorist or some sh--. I ain't do nothing to nobody. But you gotta watch them, 'cause they're watching you."

• 50 Cent And Beanie Sigel Take Over The Highline

• 50 Cent And Beanie Sigel Shake Up New York

• 50 Cent
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Val Kilmer and 50 Cent walk the red carpet at the American Music Awards
Photo: Jason Merritt/ Getty Images

LOS ANGELES — 50 Cent is a busy man — he just released a new album, Before I Self Destruct, and film of the same name, and he's working on several other movies in various stages of development. He's also an unpredictable man — as evidenced by his double-take-inducing appearance at last week's "New Moon" premiere. So, it makes sense that the rapper/actor/mogul would show up at the American Music Awards with Val Kilmer as his "date," eager to tell everyone that he's even busier and more unpredictable than they think.

"It's exciting," he said of the 2009 AMAs, walking down the red carpet alongside a grinning Kilmer, who could best be described as being dressed like Truman Capote's evil twin. "We came out here to enjoy the festivities. Val and I are going to sit and see what's going on. Are you wondering why we're together?"

Well, yeah. And with that, 50 revealed that he had written a screenplay for a movie in which he and Kilmer are set to star.

"We're here because we've got a project that we're working on together," said 50, who took the stage later that night with Eminem. "It [starts] in December."

"It's called 'The Gun,' and it's about a gun," Kilmer added. "It's a really good title. He wrote it."

According to 50 Cent, who has written three feature-film scripts recently, the role Kilmer will be playing was transported from a different screenplay. "He's actually a character from a different project, but I got him to come out of there when he saw the value of what he was looking for."

Fitty explained that "The Gun" has a "socially conscious" theme. "It's about how a weapon goes from manufacturing to its distribution point, to being in a citizen's custody — and how it ends up in the wrong hands," he said. "We watch the actual gun travel through a few different people's hands."

"I'm a criminal," explained Kilmer, saying he gets the gun at one point. "And we're friends."

"Gun" would mark the second time 50 Cent and Kilmer have collaborated, following their recent straight-to-DVD release "Streets of Blood." And if all goes well, the rapper said, perhaps 50 will ask the veteran actor to collaborate in the medium that made him famous.

"I know [Val can sing]," grinned 50 Cent, thinking back to films like "Top Secret!" and "The Doors," in which Kilmer played Jim Morrison. "You think I don't know?

"Yeah, there's a possibility ... you could hear something from us on this next album, if I can work that into the situation," he promised. "But that's hard."

With a smile, the actor added that he'd be up for it if Fif would only ask. "I do whatever he says," Kilmer explained.

For breaking news, celebrity columns, humor and more — updated around the clock — visit MTVMoviesBlog.com.

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• 50 Cent

Eminem performs at the American Music Awards on Sunday
Photo: ABC/ Dick Clark Productions

Emimen strode out onto the American Music Awards' stage on Sunday night (November 22), looking very much like a prizefighter ready to deliver a knockout.

"In this corner, weighing 175 pounds, with a record of 17 rapes, 400 assaults and four murders," Em shouted, channeling his inner Michael Buffer, "The most diabolical human in the world ... Slim Shady."

He then launched headlong into a hulking version of "Crack a Bottle," delivering lines like body blows, bobbing and weaving across the stage, his face covered by a hood. Em spit with fire and hunger, and the crowd nodded their heads with the beat and went nuts when Em welcomed a very special guest to the stage: none other than another heavyweight brawler, 50 Cent.

The two exchanged daps in the middle of the stage and then 50 got to work on his verse, looking lean and mean in a stocking cap and bubble vest.

50 disappeared just as quickly as he'd arrived, and Em's DJ cut "Bottle" short, flipping instead into the chorus of Drake's massive hit "Forever." The crowd threw their hands in the air and Eminem, now with his hood removed and his eyes scanning the audience, dove into his verse of the song.

The censors got on most of his lines, but there were sill jokes about macadamia nuts and fromunda cheese (we told you he was hungry). Then, at the end of his tight verse, he thrust his fist into the air as the crowd cheered wildly, further proving he's still the champ.

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The Game
Photo: Michael Tullberg/ Getty Images

The Game has thrown disses at both 50 Cent and Jay-Z, so who does the Compton rap fanatic think would win if Fif and Jay ever engaged in a war of words? In a recent interview with Complex.com, Game says he gives it to Jigga.

"Jay-Z will f--- 50 up in a battle!" Game predicted. "It would be so fast and over with. 50 is funny, but Jay is witty. Jay-Z is not to be toyed with. If he responds, if he feels like you're really pissing him off and he responds, he's gonna f--- you up! He would f--- me up, I'm just glad he didn't respond, so I didn't have to go dig in my bag and try to f--- him up.

"I definitely think that Jay-Z didn't come at me like he came at any other rappers because I definitely would have been more disrespectful," he continued. "Once you start a beef with me, you better be ready to go the whole 12 rounds. I will try to chew your f---in' ear off, like Mike Tyson. I'll do it and I think he knew that — I'm disrespectful! So Jay, he did the right thing and just kinda let it die down and I let it die down 'cause it wasn't anything, really. It was fun and I really admire Jay's career. I just really don't care too much for the man himself."

The onetime G-Unit member also said he's open to working with 50 Cent again — although 50 recently said he isn't — but he does think Fif is just following his footsteps by beefing with Young Hova.

"I already did that Jay-Z thing," Game said. "50's just doing what I'm doing. Nobody went at Jay; I went at Jay. Now everybody wants to get at Jay — not saying anything about Beanie Sigel, that's personal and I stay out of that. He's just a man and he's got all the right in the world, but I feel like I did something that people have been wanting to do, but everybody is scared because Jay-Z is so lyrically inclined to cut your throat and your career in half that nobody wanted to do it. But me? I just don't give a f--- sometimes."

Both Game and 50 Cent have been in the lab with Dr. Dre lately. The Doc was in New York on Thursday at Best Buy promoting his headphones. During a press conference, RapRadar.com asked him about his relationship with Game and 50 since they are on opposing sides.

"It's good, I'm working with both guys," Dre began to say before Interscope CEO Jimmy Iovine attempted to move onto the next question. "Everything is good. Both guys are gonna be on my record. I'm trying to put it back to where it is supposed to be: all love."

• 50 Cent Vs. Jay-Z

• The Game
• Jay-Z
• 50 Cent

50 Cent
Photo: MTV News

50 Cent gets very domesticated in his video for "Baby by Me." He has a wife (played by Kelly Rowland) and the three kids (triplet boys), and he flips burgers on the grill after a hard day at work.

Fif said the role wasn't too much of a stretch.

"I would actually yell at Kelly," Fif laughed. "I'd be like, 'You don't do nothing right. I told you to have one baby and you had three! You don't do nothing right!' "

Getting more serious, 50 said he seriously thinks about settling down.

"I think it could happen," he said. "You know, it has to be at the right time. I mean, you see Em make a decision to go home. He didn't want to wake up one morning and Hailie be grown. You know, your life in general, you gotta make choices at different points."

Fif is living the life of a bachelor for now. He said the last celebrity woman that made him say, "Damn!," because she looked so good, was his "Home of the Brave" co-star.

"Jessica Biel. Her body is like, 'Wooo-wooo,' " 50 said, making a bottle shape with his hands.

When asked to choose between Biel and Megan Fox, Fif was stumped for a few seconds. "That's a toss-up," he said. "Ummmm ... Megan Fox."

When it came to Fox or Halle Berry, 50 didn't have to think about it. "Halle Berry," he answered without hesitation.

Then came a tough question: Catwoman or Mrs. Smith? "Angelina Jolie?" 50 asked. "Angelina!"

Fif — who did say Halle was his all-time favorite beauty — could not decide between Jolie and Katy Perry.

" Angelina got all those kids from all those different countries," he laughed. "Got a lot to deal with."

• MTV News Extended Play: 50 Cent

• 50 Cent

50 Cent, F. Gary Gray and Floyd Mayweather
Photo: Thisis50.com

50 Cent has been in full promo mode the past few weeks, pushing his album Before I Self Destruct. He did take some time off this past weekend, visiting the Las Vegas mansion of his friend Floyd "Money" Mayweather. Fif brought along Tia Kemp and her children, one of whom is the young son of 50 rival Rick Ross.

In footage that was released this week on ThisIs50.com, Fif is seen in the house taking pictures with Mayweather, and even Diddy pops up in the mix. Later, we see 50 and Floyd chop it up at a kitchen table with "Law Abiding Citizen" director F. Gary Gray.

Later, the boxing champ can't resist pulling out $100,000 in bills. Fif pulls out several hundred dollars but admits he doesn't carry as much cash as "Money" Mayweather — especially on Floyd's home turf.

"I gotta make a bet right quick," Mayweather says in the video. "I got a few dollars. I ain't f---in' with you right now."

Mayweather's young daughter holds 50's money and said, "That's not more than my dad."

50 then playfully takes his money from the child. "Give me my money, you little traitor. I thought you was down with me," he jokes, then kisses the little girl on her head. "He taught you to say that."

50 is back to work. He's performing at New York's Highline Ballroom on Monday to celebrate his album's release. 50 will also be making in-store record appearances at Best Buy stores in New York and New Jersey on Friday.

• The Evolution Of: 50 Cent

• 50 Cent
• Floyd Mayweather
• Diddy

50 Cent
Photo: MTV News

50 Cent says Before I Self Destruct is no different from his other three solo LPs; he feels like his back is against the wall every time he releases a new album.

"Absolutely, every project is the same for me," he told MTV News. "It feels like I'm back in the underdog space because I feel that doubt from the public where they go, 'Do you think he can do it again?' [They doubt you can] return to that space where you're generating that interest as before. Not the actual sales, not how people feel about you generally, but overall does it feel the way it felt in 2003? ... But I told them ahead of time, actually getting a chance to hear the record, is that this album was arguably better than Get Rich or Die Tryin'."

Fif says he's more conscious of himself in the studio now, as opposed to when he was debuting. Now that he's tasted the kind of success that most in his peer group will never see, he says that some want to see his downfall. It's only natural.

"Well, the title itself is a representation of the cycle of success from an artist perspective," he said. "I feel like the general public turns you into a favorite by consuming your material. We all start from an underdog space. And after they consume it, they begin to resent you for not bearing the same pressures. Because you're in this financial space where they know you're not under the same circumstances they are. ... This is why they like nothing more than to see Britney Spears when she's shaving her head and swinging at the cameras. We should be covering her more now. They covered it during the confusion, but the intensity, that's less than when she made the comeback."

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• 50 Cent

50 Cent on "The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien"
Photo: NBC

For all of the beef 50 Cent seems to find himself in, the guy actually has a pretty acute sense of humor. Those looking for proof need only watch his appearance on Tuesday night's episode of "The Tonight Show," in which 50 goofed around amiably with host Conan O'Brien for the better part of 10 minutes.

O'Brien touched on a number of topics, some more sensitive than others. He began by asking 50 about a photo snapped of him with his arm around Bette Midler. The two collaborated on restoring a park in 50's old neighborhood, and the rapper joked that he knew he had arrived at another level of fame when he had his picture taken with the veteran diva.

"I thought I was hot before I took that picture, but when my grandmother saw that, it was a different kind of energy," he said. "She was like, 'Baby, you made it! Do you know who that is?' "

The pair also talked about his most recent beef. Not the one with Jay-Z, but rather the one with a kid from Canada who posted a YouTube video calling the rapper a "media whore." Fif also explained his still-for-sale house in Connecticut (which features 13 bedrooms, a nightclub and a grotto) as well as a failed line of condoms and his new fragrance. "This is the smell of success right here," he explained. "People thought it would smell more like gunpowder, but we made some changes!"

After talking about his new album Before I Self Destruct (O'Brien offered to help track down the person responsible for leaking it), 50 disappeared for a segment before coming back to perform his latest single, "Baby by Me."

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50 Cent Promotes His New Fragrance "Power"

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Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Calle 13, More At Los Premios MTV

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50 Cent, The Diplomats, The LOX And More At Governor's Island, New York, 10.03.09

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50 Cent's 40 Day Community Celebration In Queens, New York

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50 Cent's "Family Day" At Great Adventure Amusement Park In NJ

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Soulja Boy's Tour Bus From 50 Cent

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