Lotta Cents
The rapper revealed the whopping figure he’s spent on lawyers since he first broke through in 2003 during a recent interview
You gotta spend money to make money, as the old saying goes, and 50 Cent has spent a lot over the course of his career — especially on lawyers and other legal fees.
In a recent podcast interview with Brian Roberts, the rapper and entrepreneur said he’s spent over $23 million on legal fees since he first broke through the music industry in 2003 with his debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin’. The topic came up somewhat out of nowhere while 50 was discussing the massive amounts of money Alex Jones will have to pay the victims of the parents of Sandy Hook, as well as the potential lawsuit looming over Kanye West due to his comments about George Floyd’s death.
“I spent over $23 million in legal fees since I had success in 2003,” 50 said. “So when you say you successful or that you rich in a different way, that money was just written off as expenses of business. You in it and I’m going, ‘What?’ I’m looking at it myself, ‘That’s how much you really spent on that?’ I was like, ‘Wow!’”
Those legal fees can pile up in a variety of ways, especially considering the thing lawyers are probably most useful for is facilitating commerce, and 50 has definitely done a lot of business over the past two decades. He’s also been involved with some lawsuits (not to mention a bankruptcy), and as he quipped during the interview, “The only thing someone in America can do is sue someone. They’re gonna sue, and there always gonna be pro bono or say, ‘We’ll defend you in exchange for 30 percent of what we receive off of this, because we do see a case.’”
Speaking of which, 50 Cent’s legal fees will certainly keep rising next year when he takes a plastic surgeon to court. 50 sued the surgeon, Angela Kogan, and Perfection Plastic Surgery and MedSpa after accusing Kogan of using a picture of him to promote penis enhancement surgery. The rapper denied having the surgery and has claimed he agreed to take the photo that was used because he thought Kogan was a fan and did not expect it to be used for promotional reasons. The trial is set to begin on July 3, 2023.