50 Cent admits to having “plagiarized” Nelly

Rap and plagiarism, a complex story

We regularly hear about stories of plagiarism, theft of beats, or non-respect of copyright in the history of the rap game. And that’s quite normal: Basically, rap was a Music that drew enormous inspiration from other styles, even going so far as to “steal” samples from well-known funk hits to make instrumentals. “Theft” has therefore always been part of the identity of musicjust like repeating certain refrains or certain famous gimmicks (the famous “Woop woop, that's the sound of da police” repeated a thousand times, among others). But now that all this has become professionalized, artists are much more attentive to the “borrowings” of which they may be victims. 50 Cent recently admitted that he had almost copied certain songs to make hits again.

When Fifty “plagiarized” Nelly

One thing you can't take away from 50 Cent is his knowledge of music and melody. So, when the boss of G-Unit had to find an idea to make a chorus for the song “On Fire”, by Lloyd Banks (loyal G-Unit soldier at the time), Fif' knew directly where to look. In an interview for Hot 97, he admitted that he had wanted to imitate Nelly's song “Hot in Herre”, a hit which had worked very well.

“It's the same song. It just has a little new melodies, a new production and then I let Banks do it”explains 50 Cent, as he begins to sing the choruses of the two songs to prove that they are the same. Yes, even the greatest cracks in the history of rap have sometimes resorted to dubious methods to make it work!