Hurricane Chris has expanded on his criticism of 50 Cent‘s Humor & Harmony festival and extended an invitation to bury the hatchet with the G-Unit boss.
The “A Bay Bay” rapper put 50 on blast last week over his inaugural music and comedy weekend in Shreveport, Louisiana — Chris’ hometown — accusing the mogul of failing to book any local artists to perform.
50 hit back with a series of sneering social media posts mocking Chris’ rap career.
In an interview with KSLA 12 following their spat, Hurricane Chris added more context to his rant and explained that his issues stem from 50 Cent saying that he wants to eradicate Shreveport’s “ratchet” reputation.
“First off, let me start by saying that it’s no hate for 50 Cent. The Humor & Harmony festival, I’m glad it happened. I’m glad 50 Cent came to Shreveport,” he began.
“But where he went wrong in the beginning, when he originally came to Shreveport, the first thing he started to voice was, ‘No more ratchet. This ain’t ratchet city anymore.’ If you know anything about the Shreveport history, you know we call ourselves the Ratchet City. And when a person says that, they don’t mean that this is a dirty, nasty place.”
“We have an artist, late and great, that died by the name of Ratchet Life and he had the city in his hands. So it was a great disrespect for you to come into this city and say, ‘We’re getting the ratchet out of the city.’ We have people under this ground buried that have that attached to their name and their legacy,” added Chris, who named his debut album 51/50 Ratchet.
“You couldn’t go to New York and say, ‘This ain’t the Big Apple.’ You couldn’t go to New Orleans and say, ‘We’re not naming this the Big Easy.’ You couldn’t go to Dallas and say, ‘We’re not calling this D-Town anymore.’”
He then requested a meeting with 50 Cent to iron out what he calls a “misunderstanding”: “I just want to sit down with 50 and hopefully have a conversation to let him know that the word that he was downplaying is more than just a word. It’s actually our culture and something we have grown to be proud of […] And I think the people that 50 is around may not be leading him into the right direction in knowing our culture.”
Chris volunteered to do just that, saying: “I’m willing to work with him. I think it’s a big misunderstanding and we actually need to sit down […] I’m willing to sit down and we fix everything […] Maybe I could take you to my grandma’s house and let her give you some real soul food.
“Even though he made a bunch of funny jokes on Instagram, I could stand up under that pressure. It’s all good.”
The 35-year-old rapper also clarified his criticism of the festival’s lineup, saying he was referring to Shreveport artists, not those from the entire state of Louisiana. The local acts who did perform, however, were asked to do so for free, according to Chris.
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“A lot of artists performed but they performed for free. The Shreveport artists that performed had to perform for free under a bridge — not even in the big stage arena,” he said. “And what I would like to show him is that we do have a lot of artists that woul rock stages like that.
“It’s not about me. My son had a football game that day so I couldn’t perform. And it’s no malice, it’s no hate, it’s all love. But I must voice my opinion because I’ve been in Shreveport and I know the history of my place, and I cannot allow the history to be erased.”
Hurricane Chris further walked back his criticism of 50 Cent allegedly spending $500,000 to hire local police for the festival.
“I was not upset towards that. We need to be safe,” he added. “I hundred percent agree with the spending the money on safety so the community can be safe. That’s money well spent.
“I think I was just frustrated with the fact that none of the artists that I’ve seen put in a lot of work in this city got paid to be on that stage.”
