50 Cent has decided to cease being painted as the “bad guy” in rap beefs and will stop entertaining artists with diss records. “A lot of times, earlier in my career, I was competing with artists because that was what I loved about hip-hop: The idea that battling someone was necessary to defend your spot and you had to take on all challengers so I did that constantly. No one thinks that way now and everyone looks at me like I’m the Broad Street Bully. The younger kids coming up missed that time frame, and even the conscious rap is gone too. The stuff that Common Sense and Talib Kweli and Mos Def were rhyming about. What was socially conscious and responsible about the music has been replaced by hipster kids in skinny jeans and mohawks looking like a bunch of homos.

COSIGN

Of course, that’s always been around, but it was usually confined to the Village. Artists have always had the opportunity to influence the culture, but now it’s the other way around: They’re trying to look like their audience to attract their audience. Now you can’t tell the difference between a Led Zeppelin fan and a hip-hop fan.”

Speaking in an interview with radio personality Tim Westwood, Fif said he never sparked rap beefs.

“I don’t have…issues with people until they say things that make me feel like they want a problem,” said the Queens rapper. “Point to one situation that I’ve been in, one altercation where I was competing with another artist that I’ve started…Ain’t that hip-hop? There’s always been battling. It’s always been a part of the culture. In the future, because I’ve been kind of captured as the actual bad guy on some level because they watch me compete and win and it feels like it was effortless, I will make a point to not even respond. I will just look and watch people when they say things.”