With the announcement of 50 Cent’s bankruptcy came the jokes on social media: exclamations of ‘zero cent now!’ or ‘bet he wished he’d never sold Vitamin Water now he’s in liquidation’ and other sort of snarky financial jibes.
But that’s really not the full story. The joke isn’t about the irony of his financial situation and his rap name…but the fact he thinks he can get away with lying about the aforementioned bankruptcy to delay a revenge porn case against him.
Confused? Let us explain. A few days ago, 50 Cent was asked by a court to pay a $5 million penalty fee for posting a revenge porn tape online. It dates back to 2009, when he, trying to get revenge on rival rapper Rick Ross, 50 (real name Curtis Jackson) bought a sex tape of Rick’s ex Lastonia Leviston from another ex of hers, edited his narration into the tape, then uploaded it to the internet.
Just in case you don’t remember the legalities of last year’s leak of hundreds of photos and sex tapes of female celebrities – or common decency, or the rules about sex crimes – what Jackson did was entirely illegal. Not just any sort of illegal; he took someone’s private, intimate moments and shared them with the world so they could laugh/wank at them. That’s revenge porn and it’s a sex crime.
Jackson was so blasé about it, he edited his narration in to the tape and uploaded it to his website, 50Cent.com. As well as narrating what’s going on, he mocks the woman’s body, reports The Daily Beast.
Seeing the video had made it online nearly drove Lastonia, the mother of Rick’s child, to suicide. She took Fiddy/Jackson/that prick to court and broke down in tears this week when she was awarded $2.5 million for use of her image without permission and $2.5 for intentional infliction of emotional stress.
Now Jackson’s saying he can’t pay it – because he’s bankrupt and has filed for bankruptcy, claiming he owes creditors $10-50 million, twice in 30 days.
This is even though he’s worth $100m and he’s living it up on Instagram, wearing massive blingy necklaces, smoking cigars, showing off about his huge stake in Beats and Effen vodka – the latter a brand he’s been promoting in clubs with the likes of Chris Brown.
Now Lastonia’s lawyers are trying to go to the court where Jackson filed the bankruptcy – in Hartford, Connecticut – to try and permit the trial to continue. One said: ‘We are not giving up. We will not be defeated by these delays.’
So, just FYI, the jokes you’re making about 50 Cent’s bankruptcy? Or the way we’ve all been talking about the financial bankruptcy instead of the moral one? Well, the joke’s on you, Lastonia Leviston and basically every other woman (and it is mostly women) who’s seen an image of her naked or doing something sexual put on the internet without her permission. And it will be until Jackson can no longer wriggle free of what he’s done to another person and the lengths he’s going to cover it up.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.