50 Cent Continues to Denounce Diddy in New Interview

On Wednesday, The Hollywood Reporter unveiled 50 Cent (né Curtis Jackson) as its August cover star. Anyone who follows the rapper and mogul on Twitter or Instagram won't have any issue imagining the accompanying story being...candid, but they likely would be surprised at just how candid it got—especially where a different rapper and mogul was concerned. Jackson, who's currently pivoting from rap to television production, spoke a bit about everything from reaching middle age (Fiddy Cent will soon be Fiddy-years-old), waffling on his support of Donald Trump, and his lofty (or, fofty) aspirations of building a production empire. But he spoke at length about his longtime suspicions of Sean "Diddy" Combs and his forthcoming exposé of the alleged abuser in the middle of an ongoing federal investigation. Jackson said he first became acquainted with Combs via Jennifer Lopez in the early aughts and even collaborated with him on a few tracks including "Let's Get It." However, their relationship was "mostly work" and he emphasized that he "didn’t ever party or hang out with him," due largely in part to the number of allegations against Combs that are only now becoming more consequential by the day. “I’ve been very vocal about not going to Puffy parties and doing shit like that,” Jackson told the publication. “I’ve been staying out of that shit for years. It’s just an uncomfortable energy connected to it.” When asked to elaborate on the "energy," Jackson discussed a time, years earlier, when Combs asked him to take him shopping. "I thought that was the weirdest shit in the world because that might be something that a man says to a woman," he explained. "And I’m just like, 'Naw, I’m not fucking with this weird energy or weird shit,' coming off the way he was just moving. From that, I wasn’t comfortable around him." Now, if the latter revelation—more specifically, Jackson's reaction to Combs' offer—feels ever-so-slightly as if there's some internalized homophobia at play (Jackson has previously referred to Combs as "fruity" and said he hugs "from the front and the back at the same time”), he got more explicit when asked directly about Combs' famously dubious fetes. Given how many of Jackson's peers have been in attendance over the years, he was then asked why they've all largely remained silent, despite Jackson voicing his suspicions. "Some of them were involved, at the parties and enjoyed themselves, so they don’t know what the fuck is on tape or what’s not on tape, so they’re not going to say anything because they might have had too much fun," Jackson said. "And then you’ve got other people who look and go, 'Well, that’s not my business and I don’t want to be in it.'" "Then you’ve got a part of our culture that says, 'That’s snitching' or 'dry snitching' or shit like that" he went on. "It’s not uncomfortable for me to say what I said because I’ve been saying this shit for four years, five years. I been telling you, 'I don’t fuck with him. I don’t like the way he moving. This is a little crazy.' Everybody else is not going to be as comfortable as I am saying it." As to where his relationships with many of those people—mutual friend Mary J. Blige, for instance—stand despite his continued criticism of Combs... "Mary never reached out to me to tell me to not fuck up Puffy, because she knows that he does shit," he said simply. Currently, Jackson's production company, G-Unit Films and Television Inc., is helming a documentary on the allegations against Combs for Netflix. As to how deep the…