50 Cent’s company Sire Spirits is in a legal battle with Rémy Martin and recently scored a minor victory in the case.
According to court documents obtained by XXL, a judge ordered last Thursday (April 28) for 50’s Sire Spirits, which includes his Branson Cognac brand, to move forward with the legal case against Rémy Martin, who initially sued Sire Spirits for infringement.
The case stems from E. Rémy Martin & Co.’s copyright-infringement lawsuit, filed in August of 2021, which alleges that 50 Cent’s Branson Cognac is a blatant copy of Rémy Martin’s jewel-shaped glass cognac bottle design for their popular XO cognac.
Sire Spirits countersued Rémy Martin, denying allegations of infringement and asking the court to throw out their lawsuit. Rémy Martin then filed a motion to dismiss and strike Sire Spirits’ counterclaims and affirmative defenses, but a judge denied their motion without receiving a reply.
According to the documents, a judge agreed with Sire Spirits’ counterclaims and defenses to be sufficiently pled and “common-place in patent infringement lawsuits.” So the judge ordered an expedited proceeding to determine the scope of Rémy Martin’s patent.
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In a statement to XXL, 50 Cent’s attorney, Stephen Savva, contends that no infringement was committed on Sire Spirit’s part.
“Our position continues to be that there has been no infringement of any kind,” the statement reads. “We intend to vigorously pursue all claims and defenses, including invalidating certain patents and trade dress purportedly held by Rémy Martin. This is a dispute that Sire Spirits did not start, but we will do everything in our power to finish.”
On Instagram today (May 3), 50 share a blog post about his small court victory. In the caption, he wrote, “They know i didn’t take there bottle design. The Big brands try to put smaller brands in court when they start gaining momentum to slow them down. They know Branson Cognac is the new wave.”
This isn’t 50’s only legal case recently. The *Power* franchise co-creator is still battling Teairra Mari for his money that the R&B singer-turned-reality star owes him.
See 50 Facts About 50 Cent
The Grammy Award-winning MC understands his place in the game now. “What I think my role in hip-hop now is to try and provide the opportunities that were provided to me, you know what I mean?,” he said in a 2017 XXL interview. “Also, I think, to get the fuck out of the way. Because the new artists, the young kids, like, some of their musical choices and things, they match, they’re right because the audience accepts it, right? That means that the other kids, their peers in their age group, is accepting it and they’ll grow. Some of my favorite artists learned how to rap after they got on.”
He’s very familiar with the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. His first Get Rich or Die Tryin’ single, “In Da Club,” peaked at No. 1 on the chart in February of 2003. The Nate Dogg-assisted single “21 Questions” earned 50 Cent his second solo No. 1 single in May of 2003. Nearly two years later, on March 5, 2005, “Candy Shop,” an Olivia-featured song that served as the debut single from The Massacre album, landed at No. 1 on the chart, too. That’s three solo singles from 50 that landed in the top spot of the Hot 100.
Back in March of 2005, 50 Cent’s The Massacre album had the third best first-week sales total of any rapper ever. He sold 1.14 million copies, a mark that was surpassed only by Eminem’s The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show. Em’s 2000 album, The Marshall Mathers LP sold 1.76 million copies in its first week, while The Eminem Show, released in 2002, sold 1.3 million copies.
Squashing beef does happen in his world. 50 Cent ended his feud with Fat Joe after their mutual friend, music executive Chris Lighty died on Aug. 30, 2012. According to Fat Joe, who traded diss songs with 50 after 50 dissed him on his 2005 single “Piggy Bank” (Joe responded with his 50 diss “My Fo Fo”), 50 offered to make peace after Lighty’s death during the taping of the 2012 BET Hip Hop Awards on Sept. 29, 2012.
In his book From Pieces to Weight: Once Upon a Time in Southside Queens, 50 said that his record deal with Trackmasters was for $65,000. Unfortunately, he was left with only $5,000 after handling lawyer fees and paying Jam Master Jay $50,000 to get out of a contract with JMJ Records.
While 50 Cent might be most known as a rapper and entrepreneur, make no mistake, he’s very serious about his acting. In a 2010 interview, Fif revealed that he lost 54 pounds in nine weeks to play the role of Deon, a football player who is battling cancer in the 2011 film All Things Fall Apart. 50 had to run on a treadmill for three hours a day and gave himself a liquid diet so he’d be able to lose the weight.
His debut album, *Get Rich or Die Tryin’*, had the best-selling first week for a debut project in the Billboard 200 albums chart’s history. The LP sold over 872,000 in its first week of release and debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 200.
His acting resume runs deep. 50 Cent has acted in 27 movies, including Get Rich or Die Tryin’ (2005), Home of the Brave (2006), Spy (2015), Southpaw (2015), Den of Thieves (2018) and many more.
The title of 50 Cent’s sophomore album, The Massacre, was originally supposed to be named after an infamous gang-related slaying allegedly orchestrated by notorious 1920’s gangster Al Capone. The LP was originally titled St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, and it was set to be released on Feb. 15, 2005.
Despite selling drugs since he was 12 and having promoted liquor brands in the past, 50 Cent doesn’t drink or smoke. In a 2011 interview, he said he saw the effects drugs had on his nephews and aunts and that helped discourage him from using them. He also says he had a bad experience being drunk once, so he refrains from drinking.
50 Cent’s 1999 single “How to Rob” earned a favorable response from Jay-Z, whom Fif mentioned in the lyrics “What Jigga just sold, like four milli? He got something to live for/Don’t wanna nigga putting four through that Bentley coupe door.” Hov apparently let Fif know that he’d be striking back. In a 2002 interview with Angie Martinez, Hov recalled telling 50 Cent that he respected “How to Rob,” but that he was going to have to respond. They were backstage at Hot 97’s 1999 Summer Jam, and that same day, Jay performed his song “It’s Hot (Some Like It Hot)” for the first time, and in it, he spits the lyrics: “Go against Jigga your ass is dense/I’m about a dollar, what the fuck is 50 Cents?”
50 Cent got one of his big breaks by playing his song “The Hit” for a Columbia Records executive just outside of a barbershop. A week after playing the music and seemingly being unimpressed with it, the exec called 50 and offered to connect him with Trackmasters. Trackmasters eventually produced most of his Power of a Dollar album, which has never gotten an official release.
50 Cent might have spent a lot of time trolling, but that doesn’t mean he won’t give game to up-and-comers. In a 2017 interview with Forbes, Kendrick Lamar said that 50 Cent gave him advice that made him realize how much he influenced his own fans.
Not too much is known about recording sessions for 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ album, but apparently, a then-upstart Kanye West was there for one of them. In a 2010 interview, Tony Yayo said Yeezy was in the studio with 50 the day Fif recorded “P.I.M.P.” and “Heat.”
50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ song “Heat” would have never belonged to him if Busta Rhymes and Rakim had been able to record a song over the beat. In an interview from 2002, Tony Yayo claimed that both Rakim and Busta tried to rap to the beat, but the gun sounds threw them off. Of course, 50 nailed it.
