Rapper 50 Cent may no longer have two quarters to rub together, but he remains defiant. Curtis ’50 Cent’ Jackson filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Monday, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Jackson reported assets and debts each ranging from $10 million to $50 million. But he does not seem too troubled by his financial predicament. ‘Walt Disney has filed bankruptcy. Donald Trump has filed bankruptcy,’ the hip-hop star told E! News.
‘It means you’re reorganizing your finances, but it does stop things from moving forward that you don’t want moving forward.’
‘I gotta decent legal team,’ he added. ‘You don’t have to worry.’
He added, ‘You know when you’re successful and stuff, you become a target. I don’t wanna be a bulls eye.’
The filing comes just three days after a jury ordered the rapper-actor to pay $5 million to Lastonia Leviston in an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit after she claimed he acquired and intentionally leaked sex tape in which she was featured.
Leviston has a daughter with Rick Ross, who is Jackson’s rap rival. Jackson reportedly released the sex tape in 2009 to embarrass Ross. Jackson added himself to the video as a crude commentator and posted the humiliating end result online without her permission. The Manhattan jurors are deliberating on possible further punitive damages in the lawsuit against the multi-platinum-selling artist.
Attorney William A. Brewer III says Jackson and his legal team are ‘disappointed in the verdict but very appreciative of the service of the jury and the court.’
Leviston’s lawyer, Philip Freidin, declined to comment on the award, first reported by the New York Daily News. The lawsuit stems from a 13-minute video that appeared online in 2009 featuring a wig-wearing Jackson as a narrator dubbed ‘Pimpin’ Curly.’
The character made explicit remarks about Leviston and taunted Ross, who wasn’t in the video but has a daughter with Leviston. At the time the video surfaced, Ross and Jackson were trading barbs via video, lyrics, and interviews.
Jackson got the 2008 tape from the man in it — Leviston’s boyfriend at the time. The rapper and his lawyers said that Jackson didn’t actually post the video but that Leviston’s then-boyfriend said she wouldn’t mind if he did, and he thought that would suffice.The ‘Pimpin’ Curly’ character was just ‘joking’ by referring to Leviston as a ‘porn star,’ Jackson said during sworn pre-trial questioning that was played for the jury, according to news reports.
He didn’t testify at the trial. But Leviston, of Pembroke Pines, Florida, said she was horrified and humiliated when the video appeared online.
‘This was something done to me. I didn’t have a choice. I would never, ever do this to myself,’ she testified, according to news reports.
Jackson burst to the fore of gangsta rap with 2003’s ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin’, its lead single, ‘In Da Club,’ and a tough life story that included being shot nine times.
Source: Dailymail.co.uk
