50 Cent built a TV empire for Starz — and now he wants it back
The rapper and mogul is threatening to leave the network when his contract ends in a matter of months.
50 Cent is looking to take his talents elsewhere. In an Instagram post this week, rapper and mogul Curtis Jackson spoke about leaving Starz, the television network that airs a host of popular shows that his production company has created, after his contract ends in a matter of months.
“Everybody ready to work, I’m trying to buy my universe back from Starz so it goes where ever i go,” Jackson wrote in a caption over a video of a UFC fighter making a public plea to him to appear on the show Power. “Only 5 months left in my deal, and i’m not on the air for 6 months so We Out !”
Jackson did not reveal specific reasons for his potential exit, but it is his latest threat as he’s aired out his brewing frustration with the network — which airs his shows like BMF and the highly successful Power and its multiple spin-offs — in recent weeks. In a since-deleted Instagram post from the beginning of March, he wrote: “This is me packing my stuff, STARZ. Sucks, my deal is up over here I’m out. They renewed High Town, and FORCE is the highest-rated show they have sitting in limbo. If I told you how much dumb shit I deal with over here, you would think they all went to school on a small yellow bus.”
Musicians like Kanye West and Taylor Swift have sought to buy back their masters from record labels to do what they please with them, and 50 is taking that approach to his TV shows. Jackson’s departure, at least according to the man himself, could mark the reshuffling of a highly profitable television empire — his company G-Unit Film & Production has shepherded an armload of shows, including, apparently, some of the highest-rated in Starz’s catalog.
“G-Unit Film & TV produces the Top 4 series in African American households (Force, Ghost, Raising Kanan, BMF),” he noted in a past post. “[Black Mafia Family] was the biggest direct to consumer premiere via the Starz app. Force was the biggest premiere for Starz in the network’s entire history. Total of 21 shows across 9 different networks. 8 shows produced/in production/greenlit to production in 2022 increasing to a minimum of 10 in 2023.”
It’s unclear, though, how exactly or if Jackson would be able to indeed buy back these shows, and how smoothly the programs would transition, if at all, to a new home. But if 50’s frank posts are any indication, the future of your favorite Starz show is likely up in the air.
