50 Cent has revealed that he had the chance to sign Desiigner before Kanye West, but passed on the “Panda” rapper.
Sitting down for an in-depth chat with Gillie Da Kid and Wallo on Million Dollaz Worth of Game, the G-Unit boss recalled meeting with the future G.O.O.D. Music and Def Jam rapper after the breakout success of his aforementioned hit.
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“The n-gga came to me, what’s the n-gga’s name? He sounded like Future. Panda, panda, panda,” he said, struggling to remember Desiigner by his name. “I met with him before he did the deal with Kanye and them.”
However, 50’s enthusiasm quickly waned when he asked the Brooklyn-bred upstart to play him what other music he had in the stash.
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“I had him at the office. I was like, ‘Yo, let me hear the other records you got.’ And he’s like… ‘That’s it,'” he continued. “And the shit was so hot that he had, I was struggling. But I was like, ‘Nah, I can’t give that n-gga that money. Let them give him whatever the fuck they gonna give him.'”
50 Cent’s reservations were vindicated as Desiigner struggled to replicate the success of “Panda,” which reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2016 and has been certified five-times platinum.
After a string of follow-up singles and projects, the now-27-year-old rapper departed G.O.O.D. Music and Def Jam in 2019, although he recently appeared on Kanye West and Ty Dolla $ign‘s Vultures 2.
Desiigner isn’t the only rapper who 50 Cent passed on; he also turned down the opportunity to recruit a fledgling J. Cole to G-Unit Records before he became JAY-Z‘s first Roc Nation signing.
In a 2022 interview on The Breakfast Club, Fif revealed his reasons for not signing the future superstar: “That was so early, bro. To me, J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar… These artists existed early on when I fell in love with Hip Hop, but it was Talib Kweli, it was Mos Def, it was A Tribe Called Quest, it was Common Sense.
“As dope as they are, it’s smarter rap, smarter music. The logic is: sit down, be humble. We supposed to already know to sit down and be humble. But when they put that there, it’s almost the conscious side of it.”
“I’m like, Yo, it was cool, but I didn’t really know if everybody was ready for it because of how strong they were embracing what we were doing,” 50 added, referencing the popular street-oriented rap music that he and G-Unit were known for.
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Danny Brown was also being eyed by G-Unit back in the day but was ultimately snubbed for reasons beyond his rapping ability.
“50 was with it. He just didn’t sign me because of my jeans,” Brown told MTV in 2011. “He liked the music, but he didn’t like the way I looked. I understand where they were coming from with that, but you gotta understand where I’m coming from, too. I’m from Detroit.”
