50 Cent is not even giving the time of day to Kanye West running for president.
In an interview with Billboard posted on Tuesday (July 14), the G-Unit rapper had nothing nice to say about West’s political aspirations. While accusing him of purposely being a “diversion” to help Donald Trump win, 50 highlighted the fact West, a billionaire, received more than $2 million from Trump’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).
“I’m going to contemplate running myself,” 50 said sarcastically. “I’m going to run to create a diversion for someone else. The new thing is to run to create a diversion and distract people. Would you run against someone who just gave you $2 million?”
According to Forbes, West received “between $2 million and $5 million” from the PPP loan for his Yeezy brand, which “saved over 100 jobs.”
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Similarly, several of JAY-Z’s companies are rumored to have taken money from PPP loans as well. According to Variety, a company named Malibu Entertainment that’s part of the Tidal and Roc Nation infrastructure accepted a $2.1 million loan on April 7. The move came shortly after Tidal and Roc Nation laid off, furloughed or cut salaries of nearly half their respective employees.
As for Ye, 50 isn’t the only person disinterested in his bid for president. A recent poll from consulting firm Redfield & Wilton Strategies asked 2,000 people who they’d vote for in the November 2020 presidential election, and West received just two percent of the vote.