J. Cole has gone out of his way to credit 50 Cent for having “the best album of all time” — ahead of Michael Jackson.
50 performed at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Thursday (August 9) for the first of two shows at the arena on his Final Lap Tour.
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During his set, the G-Unit rapper brought out J. Cole to perform “No Role Modelz.” Before exiting the stage, Cole took a moment to crown Get Rich or Die Tryin’ the greatest album of all time, while putting Michael Jackson’s best-selling Thriller just behind.
“Can I say this before I move off stage?” he began. “If y’all don’t make some noise for one of the greatest n-ggas to ever do this shit. 50 muthafuckin’ Cent, Curtis Jackson. Get Rich or Die Tryin’ the best album of all time. I don’t give a fuck what you talking about, n-gga!
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“It’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ at No. 1 and it’s Thriller at No. 2, and I love Michael Jackson. But I promise y’all that, Curtis Jackson, 50 Cent, we love you my n-gga, for real.”
In addition to J. Cole, 50 also brought out Jadakiss, DaBaby, Moneybagg Yo, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, Yung Bleu, Flo Rida, Tony Yayo and Uncle Murda during the show.
50 Cent actually had the chance to sign J. Cole before his big breakthrough after the Dreamville rapper visited his house and played him his music.
“That was so early, bro,” 50 said on The Breakfast Club in August 2022. “To me, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar… these artists existed early on when I fell in love with Hip Hop, but it was Talib Kweli, it was Mos Def, it was A Tribe Called Quest, it was Common Sense.
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“As dope as they are, it’s smarter rap, smarter music. The logic is: ‘Sit down, be humble.’ We supposed to already know to sit down and be humble. But when they put that there, it’s almost the conscious side of it.”
He added: “I’m like, ‘Yo, it was cool.’ But I didn’t really know if everybody was ready for it because of how strong they were embracing what we were doing.”
Despite being passed over for a record deal, J. Cole later collaborated with 50 Cent on “New York Times,” which appeared on his 2013 album Born Sinner.
“That was incredible. The features on this album… a lot of them I was blessed [with],” Cole told MTV News at the time. “We’re in the day and age where you just send it away and it comes back but I actually recorded with TLC and [50 Cent].
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“He just happened to be in L.A. and I had that song. I’d stolen 50 Cent melodies and was humming it on the hook like, ‘Man, if 50 do this hook, it’ll be so amazing.’ And he came through the studio in L.A., so it was crazy.”
