Oprah Confronts 50 Cent on the Feud That No One Else Remembers
[There was a video here]
Remember how a few years ago, 50 Cent accused Oprah Winfrey of being a white woman, just like one in her audience, after she had taken various stances against the facet of hip-hop culture that once made him such a musical force? Me neither, but she sure did and she confronted him on it long and hard in an interview that ran alongside her Paris Jackson sit-down on last night's Oprah's Next Chapter.
In the discussion, Fiddy comes off as a sloppy performer, calling the beef "strategy" and saying, "I had to create a reasoning" regarding the demographics of Oprah's audience. Well, he'll never be accused of being a statistician. "If I can't be your friend, at least let me be your enemy so I [could] coexist," he said. Oprah thought this was "interesting." She was being polite.
It's fascinating how intertwined her reputed dominant tendencies and the obsequiousness that made her an icon are in this awkward talk, during which 50 looks her in the eyes for less than half the time. I love that she's confronting him so ardently, but she keeps revealing how hung up she is on being disliked. "Did you say things about me to be provocative or did you really just not like me?" she asks him. And then, in a discussion about his dog, whom he named after Oprah (because she's a bitch, get it?), she wonders, "So now do you have greater affection for me?" "Now do you like me? Now do you like me?" Great interviewing strategy, Oprah. When he says he has for a few years, she beams. Success.