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50 Cent Takes Aim at Shooting Game
Posted in 50 Cent, Celebs, Hip-Hop, Live Music, Records Deal, Rumor on the July 24, 2007
50 Cent is apparently no fonder of fake shooting than he is of the real deal.
The Massacre rapper filed a $1 million lawsuit against Internet advertising company Traffix Inc. Friday, claiming that the Pearl River, New York, outfit pilfered his image for a banner ad that invites would-be consumers to “Shoot the Rapper” and “win $5,000 or five free ring tones GUARANTEED”—meaning, “Click here, and end up on one of our client’s Websites.”
If one’s mouse aim is on target, a misty spray of blood appears on the screen before the new Website opens.
The ad does not name check 50 Cent but, according to the complaint filed in New York State Court, the cartoon rapper on the screen is obviously supposed to be the 32-year-old hip-hop star.
The “vile, tasteless and despicable” depiction of 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, was “completely unauthorized” and “literally calls for violence against him,” states the lawsuit.
Before he hit it super-big with “In Da Club,” 50 Cent was shot nine times in a drive-by outside his grandmother’s house in Queens in May 2000. He inked a short-lived deal with Columbia Records from his hospital bed, later moving on to Universal Music Group’s Interscope after Eminem hooked him up with Dr. Dre and included the tune “Wanksta” on the 8 Mile soundtrack.
Traffix Inc.’s lawyer, Ezio Scaldaferri, told reporters that he had not yet seen the suit and couldn’t comment.