Five years ago on September 11, 50 Cent and Kanye West, two of Hip Hop’s highest-selling stars, went at it on the SoundScan charts.

Both Fif and Yeezy released their albums on the same day. 50’s Curtis and Kanye’s Graduation were both highly-anticipated releases, with the former selling 691,000, and the latter moving 957,000 units.

Despite promises that he would retire if he lost, 50 remained in the game, and now reminisces on the “battle.”

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“At the time, I had a stronger feel for the streets [than Kanye], prior to that competition and trying to compete with each other,” explained Fif in an interview with XXLMag.com.

50 explained, for those who hadn’t heard, that there had never been real beef between him and Kanye. “That was just to build energy because Kanye [and I]…we didn’t have no beef at all. You can’t stand that close to someone and take pictures for the cover of Rolling Stone with having beef.”

“That was something that we created,” added the Queens emcee. “Obviously, it riled the fans up in every way and the results are always bigger sales than usual. Both of the numbers were bigger than what they would have been [without the competition]. It was just great marketing.”

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