50 Cent Says He Was Never Ashamed of His Mother’s Relationships

Rapper 50 Cent says he understood only after his mother’s death that the women he saw spending time with her had been her romantic partners, and that the realization never made him ashamed. In an interview, he recalled that as a child he viewed his mother’s female companions as friends. His grandmother later explained that their relationships were more than friendship, he said. 50 Cent described the explanation as clarifying what he had seen, adding that he had grown up around his mother’s relationships. The recollection revisits a line from “Hate It or Love It,” the 2005 song by The Game featuring 50 Cent, in which he described seeing his mother kiss a woman and feeling confused as a child. In the recent interview, he discussed the personal experience behind that lyric. 50 Cent, whose legal name is Curtis Jackson, has said his mother, Sabrina Jackson, died when he was eight. He recalled in an earlier interview that he attended her funeral but struggled to understand that she was gone. Those details, like his account of learning about her relationships, are based on his recollections. He is preparing a documentary about his life that will revisit his childhood and formative...