RAP BEEF TIMELINE · 2009–present
50 Cent vs. Rick Ross
“Officer Ricky” and the never-ending personal war
Rick Ross’s “Mafia Music” and 50 Cent’s “Officer Ricky” set off an exceptionally bitter personal campaign: correctional-officer mockery, Pimpin’ Curly skits, family-targeting videos, a 2012 entourage brawl, and a $7 million privacy judgment. The physical peak has passed, but sales, money, and business trolling keep it active.
THE RECORD
The moments
Diss track
Rick Ross opens with “Mafia Music”
Ross releases “Mafia Music,” taking shots at 50 Cent’s finances and a fire at the home of 50’s former partner—making the feud intensely personal from its first major record.
“Me look at 50 Cent, I think his house on fire / On the baby mama's house, 50 Cent is a liar.”Rick Ross, “Mafia Music”
▶ Watch “Mafia Music”Read the receipt ↗Diss track
“Officer Ricky” launches 50’s counter-campaign
50 Cent answers with “Officer Ricky (Go Head Try Me),” turning Ross’s past work as a Florida correctional officer into the center of a broad Pimpin’ Curly skit and social-media campaign.
“You got a career, then you got a job. You was a C.O., man!”50 Cent, “Officer Ricky” campaign
▶ Watch “Officer Ricky”Read the receipt ↗Legal dispute · disputed account
Family involvement turns into a privacy lawsuit
50 interviews Tia Kemp, the mother of one of Ross’s children, then publishes an explicit private video involving Lastonia Leviston, another mother of Ross’s child. Leviston’s later lawsuit turns the personal campaign into a legal case.
Read the receipt ↗Physical altercation · disputed account
The BET Hip Hop Awards brings the camps into a brawl
At the Atlanta awards, a separate confrontation between G-Unit and Maybach Music Group associates turns physical. Reporting described Gunplay being pepper-sprayed and losing his MMG chain during the scuffle.
“I had to fight off five dudes.”Gunplay, public account
▶ Read the 2012 BET Awards breakdownLegal dispute
A jury awards Leviston $7 million
A jury orders 50 Cent to pay Lastonia Leviston $7 million after finding for her over the private-video publication. The judgment becomes a major chapter in 50’s later Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring.
▶ Read the feud’s legal-history timelineSocial media
The social-media war never quite ends
The feud keeps resurfacing in public jabs about album sales, money, and business ventures: 50 trolls Ross after a Shreveport remark, and Ross returns fire. Neither has offered a clean public truce.
▶ Read Rick Ross’s response to 50’s trollingRead the receipt ↗
THE RECEIPTS
Sources and listening
DJBooth — history of the 50 Cent and Rick Ross feud ↗Complex — 2012 BET Hip Hop Awards brawl breakdown ↗Complex — 50 Cent clowns Rick Ross after Shreveport jab ↗Complex — Rick Ross fires back at 50 Cent’s trolling ↗ARTIST LENSES