50 Cent faced widespread backlash Monday for using the death of The Wire actor Michael K. Williams to promote his TV show and liquor brand.
The 46-year-old rapper — whose real name is Curtis Jackson — took to Instagram after news broke of Williams’ death, sharing emojis of wide-open eyes alongside a screenshot of a New York Post report on the story.
“Damn if you didn’t see Raising Kanan check it out that fentanyl is no joke, killing the clientele,” Jackson wrote, plugging the Starz show, Power Book III: Raising Kanan, which is based on his childhood in Queens.
“R.I.P micheal k williams,” the rapper added, misspelling the actor’s name, and adding hashtags promoting his line of wine and cognac.
50 Cent later deleted his post after getting slammed by fans. The rapper then posted a Page Six article from 2018 about his feud with Williams when the actor was alive.
“Don’t ever try to understand me. I’m different. I don’t do all the fake love shit,” the rapper reportedly wrote.
Jackson then deleted that post, as well, after being eviscerated online by fans.
“50 Cent is my favorite rapper ever, but this is disrespectful as hell and corny,” one fan wrote. “He is a bitch for that, can’t defend the nigga no mo. RIP Michael Williams.”
“Idc what anyone says, using someone’s tragic & untimely death to promote your own show with an insensitive ass caption is VILE,” another fan weighed in.
“We all know [50 Cent] wasn’t raised properly hence the shameless plug for his show, Another perfect example of you can have money, but you can’t buy class. At this point this dude needs to be referred to as 5 dimes,” a third commented.
“Yo the fact 50 cent will even troll someone who died of an overdose isn’t even surprising,” another said. “We know as a human being he ain’t shit. He is a piece of shit father — we’ve heard from his kids. That’s why I don’t support nothing he puts out from tv, music, alcohol.”
Others suggested that people shouldn’t be surprised by the rapper’s questionable behavior.
“50 cent has literally shown us who he is for years,” one Twitter user said. “I honestly don’t know why y’all still support his projects but that’s another discussion.”
“Yalll don’t know shit about 50 Cent if y’all are surprised by that post,” another wrote.
The 54-year-old Williams was found dead on Monday in his Brooklyn apartment, where drug paraphernalia was found. Police said the actor was found by a family member.
Earlier this year, the mayor of St. Petersburg, Florida, Rick Kriseman, slammed 50 Cent for hosting a “stupid” maskless Super Bowl party.
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
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