Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story was published in May 2024.
CNN
—
50 Cent is not letting up on Sean “Diddy” Combs.
The rapper/actor/producer, who has long trolled Combs on social media, has not lowered the temperature of his words in the wake of Combs’ federal racketeering and sex trafficking trial.
On Tuesday, the hip-hop moguls’ names were once again intertwined when Capricorn Clark, a former assistant to Combs, reportedly testified that he had confronted 50 Cent’s then-manager Chris Lighty about their feud in an elevator after a press event.
“I don’t like all the back and forth,” Combs told Lighty, according to Clark’s testimony. “I like guns.”
Later on Tuesday, 50 Cent took to social media to mock Combs’ alleged statement.
“Cut, CUT 🎬Wait a minute PUFFY’s got a gun, I can’t believe this I don’t feel safe 😔LOL,” 50 Cent wrote in the caption on photos he posted which included tweets that outlined Clark’s testimony.
Later, he posted another photo with the caption, “Oh my goodness itty bitty Diddy wants me Dead, I have to lay low, ☹️I think I’m gonna hide out at the playoff game tonight. LOL.”
CNN has reached out to representatives for 50 Cent for additional comment.
Combs has pleaded not guilty to charges of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution.
50 Cent has long been a vocal critic of Combs, including after CNN’s publication of surveillance video that showed Combs physically assaulting his then-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, in 2016.
In September 2024, 50 Cent announced he was working on a docuseries for Netflix about Combs that would include “disturbing” allegations. CNN reached out to representatives for 50 Cent and Netflix for comment at the time.
Here’s a look back at how there came to be animosity between the two men:
In 2006, 50 Cent released a diss track titled “The Bomb,” which featured sounds of gunfire and his allegation that Combs knew the identity of the killer of Christopher Wallace, the rapper known as The Notorious B.I.G.
Wallace, who was both a protégée of and best friend to Combs, was gunned down in Los Angeles in March 1997 as he and his crew, which included Combs, were traveling in a caravan. Combs was in a different vehicle from the one Wallace was in at the time Wallace was shot.
No one has ever been charged with the murder.
In his diss track, 50 Cent raps, “I guess this means I won’t be invited to the white parties in the Hamptons,” referencing Combs’ famous soirées held in the upscale New York community.
50 Cent has also said he believes Combs is connected to the 1996 murder of rapper Tupac Shakur.
Combs called such allegations “nonsense” in a 2016 interview with the syndicated radio show “The Breakfast Club.” He has never been charged in connection to either case.
Followers of 50 Cent are familiar with his reputation for sharp comments and social media trolling.
The rapper-turned-television-producer has made Combs a frequent target, attacking everything from his music to his age.
Some believed it was mostly marketing, especially given the men’s parallel career tracks and even competing vodkas at one point.
But 50 upped his comments after Combs was sued in November 2023 by Cassie Ventura, who in a now-settled civil complaint alleged that Combs raped her in 2018 and abused her over the more than decade they were in an off-and-on relationship (Combs denied the allegations).
After federal investigators searched Combs’ homes in Miami and Los Angeles in March 2024, 50 Cent posted on X, “Now it’s not Diddy do it, it’s Diddy done. They don’t come like that unless they got a case.”
Combs was asked about the tension between him and 50 Cent during an appearance on “The Breakfast Club” in 2018.
“I don’t have no beef with Fif. He loves me,” Combs said. “Y’all can’t see that he loves me? You really think that’s hate? … You know he loves me.”
He added that he didn’t take the things 50 Cent says about him seriously.
“When he does that it’s like funny to me,” Combs said at the time. “I don’t really take it personal. I know he has a different sense of humor, and he’s just not in my life. We don’t have to never cross paths, and I will never say nothing negative about him, you know, because that’s just not me.”
Christian Combs, who goes by King Combs, is the 26-year-old son of Diddy. In May 2024 he released a song titled “Pick a Side” in support of his father and taking aim at critics like 50 Cent.
The younger Combs and his brother, Justin, were temporarily handcuffed and detained by authorities during the March 2024 search on their father’s home. Neither was arrested or charged.
Aaron Dyer, Diddy’s attorney, said in a statement to CNN at the time that “there was a gross overuse of military-level force as search warrants were executed at Mr. Combs’ residences. There is no excuse for the excessive show of force and hostility exhibited by authorities or the way his children and employees were treated.”
King Combs appeared to profess his father’s innocence in his track and took a swipe at 50 Cent.
“All that gossip sh*t is whack when all they had was 50 Cent / Who put this city on the map? / Stop lying,” the younger Combs raps.
50 Cent responded with a tongue-in-cheek post on social media.
“I feel so threatened by the things Christian is saying on his record,” he wrote in a since-delated post on Instagram, according to Billboard. “I’m afraid for my life, please don’t hurt me guys.”
