Do you think you’re ᴅᴇᴀᴅ at that point when you get take nine bullets? Do you go, “Oh, this is it.

I’m checking out.

” All you know is you it’s a life-threatening situation.

On May 24th, 2000, someone tried to end 50 Cents life in South Jamaica, Queens.

For over two decades, the story stopped there.

But now, the man tied to that hit is speaking in court and dropping claims that point directly at Jay-Z.

And what he’s revealing completely changes how this story has been told.

Let me break it all down.

Nine bullets in South Jamaica.

May 24th, 2000.

South Jamaica, Queens.

A 24-year-old Curtis Jackson sat in a friend’s car outside his grandmother’s house on 161st Street.

His son was inside the house.

His grandmother was in the yard.

He had just retrieved some jewelry and was about to leave.

Then, a man walked up to the car.

The asalent approached and fired nine sH๏τs from a 9mm handgun at close range.

The bullet struck Jackson in his hand, arm, hip, both legs, chest, and left cheek.

One round went through his face, shattering his wisdom tooth and swelling his tongue.

His friend in the car took a bullet to the hand.

Jackson spent 13 days in the hospital.

He used a walker for 6 weeks.

Full recovery took 5 months.

The bullet that went through his cheek left him with a slight slur in his speech that became part of his signature sound as 50 Cent.

In a 2013 interview, 50 Cent described what led to the shooting.

He was paid to do it.

When pressed on why someone would pay to have him killed, 50 explained the circumstances that led to the contract on his life.

Well, you paid cuz someone, you know, felt like that I would potentially do something to them if they kept going in the direction that they were going.

But this wasn’t just street beef.

This was business.

And it started with a song.

Before the shooting, 50 Cent had recorded a track called Ghetto Quran.

Forgive me.

The song explicitly named drug dealers and kingpins from Queens, including Kenneth Supreme McGriff, his nephew Gerald Prince Miller, and others like Lorenzo Fatcat Nichols, and Howard Papy Mason.

The track detailed their drug operations from the 1980s.

In the streets, this was a violation.

You don’t put names on records.

You don’t document criminal enterprises in songs.

Mcgriff, who had led the Supreme Team gang during the crack epidemic and was parrolled in 1995 after a narcotics conspiracy conviction, saw this as a direct threat.

Federal documents would later reveal that Mcgriff allegedly put out a $25,000 hit on 50 Cent as revenge for the song.

The man who allegedly pulled the trigger was Daryl Homo Bal.

Bal was a feared figure from Brooklyn’s Lafayette Gardens projects.

The nickname Homo was short for homicide.

Earned as a teenager for knocking out and robbing victims.

Standing about 5’7 with a limp from an old injury.

He was known for violence despite his size.

Bomb had met Mike Tyson in juvenile detention and after serving a decade in prison was released in 1999.

Tyson supported him with a car, cash, and a Rolex, employing him as his bodyguard.

But Bal gravitated back towards street life.

He joined the Peanut Crew gang and connected with McGriff’s network.

Sources claimed Mcgriff hired Bal for the 50 Cent hit as payback for the expository lyrics.

50 Cent Later named Bal directly in his music on Many Men Wish Death from his 2003 album Get Rich or Die Trying.

He wrapped Homo sH๏τ me.

3 weeks later he got sH๏τ down.

That line was factual.

On June 10th, 2000, just 3 weeks after the shooting, Bomb was killed.

He was sH๏τ in the back of the head at Quincy Street and Marcy Avenue in Brooklyn during a gang turf war.

The killer was identified as Aaron Ebe Granton, part of an ongoing conflict between the Peanut Crew and Cash Money Brothers.

Mike Tyson was devastated.

He dedicated his June 24th, 2000 boxing win over Lou Saves to Balm and reportedly offered $50,000 for retaliation against rival gang members.

The shooting had consequences beyond just the bullet wounds.

Columbia Records dropped 50 Cent and sheld his debut album, Power of the Dollar.

He was blacklisted from the industry, but the attempted murder also created the legend.

The story of surviving nine sH๏τs at close range became central to 50 Cent’s image when he finally broke through in 2003 with Eminem and Dr.

Dre.

When asked about the pain of being sH๏τ in the face, 50 Cent gave an answer that showed just how hardened he had become.

Wise, how bad is it to get sH๏τ in the face? Like I mean probably I I don’t know how to describe that outside of uh is it a 10 on the pain scale? It’s like it’s not really like cuz it’s not as painful as having to visit the dentist repeatedly for root canal.

Really? The case remains officially unsolved.

50 Cent refused to cooperate with authorities, adhering to the no snitching code of the streets.

He identified Bound but wouldn’t pursue prosecution since Bound was already ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.

Some prosecutors suggested it was safer to blame a ᴅᴇᴀᴅ man.

But the question of who ordered the hit and why would continue to unfold in federal courtrooms for years to come.

The Supreme Team connection.

To understand who wanted 50 Cent ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, you have to understand Kenneth Supreme McGriff and the empire he built in Queens during the 1980s crack epidemic.

The Supreme Team wasn’t just a drug gang.

It was a criminal enterprise that dominated Queens’s drug trade and amᴀssed fortunes through violence, intimidation, and a ruthless organizational structure that would influence both street culture and hip hop for generations.

McGriff ran the operation with military precision.

His nephew, Gerald Prince Miller, handled much of the street level distribution.

Together, they built a cocaine and crack distribution network that generated millions.

The Supreme Team’s rise coincided with the birth of hip hop in New York.

Their influence on the culture was direct.

the money, the cars, the jewelry, the lifestyle that would later define rap videos.

Much of it was modeled on what drug kingpins like Mcgriff represented in the projects.

Young artists growing up in Queens watched these men and either admired them, feared them, or both.

50 Cent was one of those young men.

Growing up in South Jamaica, he had idolized Mcgriff and the Supreme Team.

In a 2006 article, 50 Cent spoke openly about this dynamic.

He admitted that as a young drug dealer himself, these were the men he looked up to.

Their power, their money, their respect on the streets.

It was everything a kid from the projects wanted.

But admiration doesn’t mean obedience.

Mcgriff was convicted of drug conspiracy in 1987 and served time until his parole in 1995.

When he emerged from prison, the streets had changed, but his ambitions hadn’t.

He pivoted toward the entertainment industry.

Seeing an opportunity to legitimize his money while maintaining his street connections, he aligned himself with Irv Gotti Lorenzo and Murder Inc.

Records, the label behind artists like Jaw Rule and Ashanti.

This is where the threads start to connect.

Murder Inc.

was one of the H๏τtest labels in hip hop at the turn of the millennium.

Jaw Rule was a star.

The label was printing money, but McGriff allegedly provided street protection for Murder Inc.

, acting as muscle and ensuring that nobody crossed the label or its artists.

Federal prosecutors would later allege that this relationship went deeper, that Murder, Inc.

helped launder McGriff’s drug money in exchange for his protection.

50 Cents beef with Jay Rule predated the shooting.

It started in 1999 with a robbery.

50 Cents ᴀssociate had snatched Jaw Rule’s chain, leading to a confrontation.

The tension escalated through physical altercations, including a 2000 stabbing at a New York recording studio.

The beef was personal, public, and violent.

When Ghetto Kuran leaked, it wasn’t just an insult to McGriff.

It was seen as a threat to the entire murder in operation.

If 50 Cent was willing to name drug dealers on records, what else might he reveal? What did he know about the connections between the streets and the music industry? The 2003 federal investigation into Murder, Inc.

pulled back the curtain on these connections.

An IRS affidavit filed by agent Francis Mace described an ongoing plot with McGriff tracking 50 Cents movements via pager messages from ᴀssociates.

Text messages intercepted by authorities showed Murder, Inc.

employees like Christopher Lorenzo, Irv’s brother, relaying 50 Cents locations to McGriff.

The feds believed the shooting wasn’t an isolated incident.

It was part of a coordinated effort to silence 50 Cent.

The investigation also explored potential links to the 2002 murder of Run DMC is Jam Master J, suggesting it might stem from Jay defying an industry blacklist against working with 50 Cent.

The probe led to a 2003 raid on Murder Incanists offices.

In 2005, the Lorenzo brothers were tried on moneyaundering charges tied to McGriff’s drug proceeds.

They were acquitted, but the trial exposed the tangled web between street crime and the hip hop industry.

Mcgriff never faced charges for the 50 Cent shooting.

His attorneys argued that the allegations lacked substance and disappeared from subsequent filings, but in 2007, he was sentenced to life in prison for other murder for higher convictions and drug charges.

from behind bars.

Mcgriff has maintained his denial of any involvement in the shooting.

In 2025, his son spoke publicly about the matter, dismissing related stories as exaggerated for attention and attributing the 50 Cent beef to neighborhood jealousy rather than any orchestrated hit.

50 Cent’s own perspective on Mcgriff came through in that 2006 interview where he explained the clash over Murder Inc.

He said Mcgriff tried to mediate his feud with Jaw Rule and Irv Gotti, viewing them as his food, his financial interests.

50 Cent refused to back down.

In his words, “A [ __ ] would have to kill me to stop me from doing what I want to do.

Someone tried.

” The hitman’s life and death.

Daryl Homob lived a life that seemed designed for a crime drama.

Born in the early 1970s in Brooklyn, he grew up in the Lafayette Gardens housing projects, a place where violence was currency and reputation meant survival.

By his teenage years, Bal had earned a nickname that would follow him to his grave, Homo, short for homicide.

The name came from his method.

Balm would knock victims unconscious and rob them in the hallways and stairwells of the projects.

He was effective and feared despite standing only about 5’7 and walking with a limp from an old injury.

Size didn’t matter when you hit first and hit hard.

It was in juvenile detention that Bal’s life took an unexpected turn.

He met a young Mike Tyson and the two formed a bond that would last until Bomb’s death.

Both were products of Brooklyn’s brutal streets.

Both understood violence as a way of life and both saw something in each other that transcended their circumstances.

Bomb served roughly a decade in prison on charges that remain somewhat murky in the public record.

When he was released in 1999, Tyson was there for him.

The boxer, by then one of the most famous athletes on the planet, brought bomb into his inner circle.

He gave him a car, cash, and a Rolex watch.

He employed him as a bodyguard, bringing him along to fights and public appearances.

For the loose saves fight in June 2000, Bal was part of Tyson’s security team.

But Tyson’s friendship couldn’t pull Bal away from the streets.

Despite the legitimate job and the celebrity access, Bomb gravitated back to the criminal networks that had defined his life.

He connected with the Peanut Crew, a Brooklyn gang led by Ivory Peanut Davis and James Junior Hamilton.

He stayed at Tyson’s Connecticut mansion, but continued to involve himself in street business, allegedly pressuring drug dealers and maintaining his reputation through violence.

The connection to Kenneth McGriff came through these networks.

Mcgriff needed someone reliable for a sensitive job.

Balm had the skills, the willingness, and the reputation.

According to multiple sources, Mcgriff hired Bal to handle the 50 Cent situation.

The morning of May 24th, 2000, Bal allegedly traveled from Brooklyn to South Jamaica, Queens.

He approached the car where 50 Cent sat outside his grandmother’s house.

He fired nine rounds through the window.

Then he left, believing he had completed the job.

17 days later, Bal was ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.

The shooting happened at the corner of Quincy Street and Marcy Avenue in Brooklyn on June 10th, 2000.

Bal was sH๏τ in the back of the head in what police determined was part of an ongoing gang conflict.

The trigger man was Aaron eBay Granton, ᴀssociated with the Cash Money Brothers, a rival gang to Bomb’s Peanut Crew.

Some have speculated that Bomb’s murder was retaliation for the 50 Cent shooting, that someone connected to the rapper had arranged payback.

Others maintain it was purely coincidental, part of the endless cycle of gang violence that had claimed lives in Brooklyn long before and would continue long after.

The truth may lie somewhere in between.

In the streets, debts are often collected through channels that leave no clear evidence.

Bomb’s death triggered a wave of retaliatory killings.

His ᴀssociates fell one by one.

Peanut Davis was killed in August 2000.

Junior Hamilton was killed in August 2001.

Bomb’s own brother, Tyrone Tac Bomb, was killed in 2002.

The violence was eventually traced to Damen World Hardy, who was convicted in 2015 for multiple murders, including those of Bomb’s crew.

Mike Tyson took the loss hard.

2 weeks after Bal’s death, Tyson stepped into the ring against Lou Saves in Glasgow, Scotland.

He knocked Savise out in 38 seconds, then grabbed the microphone and dedicated the victory to Bomb.

I dedicate this fight to my brother, Daryl Bomb.

Someone killed him, and I haven’t gotten over it yet.

Reports later emerged that Tyson had offered $50,000 to anyone who would kill members of the rival gang responsible for Bal’s death.

Whether that bounty was ever collected remains part of Brooklyn Street legend.

The question of whether Bal was actually the shooter has been debated.

Court testimony from the 2005 murder inciner trial complicated the narrative.

A witness named John Reagan, a self-confessed pimp, testified that Mcgriff had boasted about the shooting, saying, “I got him.

” While believing 50 Cent was ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.

But Reagan claimed Mcgriff named the gunman as son, not homo, and described how the shooter cleaned gunsH๏τ residue with rubbing alcohol afterward.

Prosecutors noted that it was safer to blame a ᴅᴇᴀᴅ man, suggesting 50 Cents public naming of Bal might have been strategic, identifying a deceased suspect avoided fingering anyone who could still pose a threat.

Some street accounts claim the actual shooter was Brooklyn’s son from the Pink Houses projects or a Supreme Team affiliate known as God B.

The truth remains contested.

What is not contested is the result.

Someone pumped nine bullets into 50 Cent.

He survived.

The man most commonly blamed for pulling the trigger died 3 weeks later and the story became the foundation for one of hip hop’s most successful careers, the Jay-Z connection.

Now we come to the part that has fueled speculation for years.

What does any of this have to do with Jay-Z? The connection runs through several threads, none of them conclusive, all of them circumstantial, but together forming a picture that has kept conspiracy theories alive for over two decades.

First, the Murder Inc.

Link.

Irv Gotti was a longtime Jay-Z ᴀssociate.

Before founding Murder, Inc.

, Gotti had worked with Jay-Z on production and beats.

When McGriff entered the music industry, it was Gotti who introduced him to Jay-Z.

The introduction wasn’t nefarious.

Both Jay-Z and Gotti were trying to guide Mcgriff toward legitimate business.

Jay-Z has referenced this relationship in his music.

On Young Jeezy’s 2008 track, Put on Remix, he wrapped, “I put Pmy in my truck, told him, “Leave them streets alone.

I predicated jail would happen s I tried to put him on.

” Later on Drake’s 2018 song, Talk Up, Jay-Z offered, “I’m what Supreme didn’t become.

” These lines position Jay-Z as someone who tried to help Mcgriff go legit, contrasting his own success with Mcgriff’s eventual life sentence.

Jay-Z and Gotti funded Mcgriff’s 2003 film Crime Partners, an adaptation of a Donald Goen’s novel, as part of efforts to transition him into entertainment.

The project didn’t save McGriff from his eventual fate, but it demonstrated the genuine attempt to create legitimate opportunities.

The Jay-Z and 50 Cent Beef, however, is a separate story that has run parallel to all of this.

It started in 1999 with 50 Cents track, How to Rob, a humorous song imagining robbing famous rappers.

Jay-Z was among those named.

The track included lines like, “I’ll rob Jay-Z and stick a gun to his head, make him take off his rockaware, and throw him out the car.

” Jay-Z responded at Summerjam 1999 in front of 30,000 fans, “Go against [ __ ] your ᴀss is dense.

I’m about a dollar.

What the [ __ ] is 50 cents?” The timing of Jay-Z’s response matters.

The Summerjam disc came before the shooting, but Jay-Z repeated the line on his 1999 album, Volume 3, Life and Times of S.

Carter and continued to reference 50 Cent after the shooting.

Some have noted the timing of Jay-Z’s sH๏τs coming while 50 Cent was recovering from near fatal gunsH๏τ wounds as opportunistic at best.

In a recent interview, 50 Cent was clear about how he would have responded if Jay-Z had aligned with his enemies.

The implication is significant.

50 Cent is saying Jay-Z avoided taking sides during the most heated period of the murdering beef and that saved him from becoming a target.

The rivalry between 50 Cent and Jay-Z continued through the 2000s.

There were sales battles, diss tracks, and constant back and forth.

In 2003, they co-headlined the Rock the Mic tour and exchanged compliments and interviews.

50 Cent called Jay-Z the better MC due to seniority, while Jay-Z predicted 50 Cent could become the greatest, but the compeтιтion was always there beneath the surface.

The 2007 sales battle between 50 Cents Curtis and Kanye West’s graduation brought new accusations.

50 C claimed Jay-Z as def jam president had manipulated promotions to favor Kanye.

Graduation won the sales battle.

50 Cent has never let it go.

In December 2025, amid ongoing scandals involving you know who.

The speculation about Jay-Z’s connection to 50 Cent shooting resurfaced.

Viral YouTube videos claimed new footage of Jay-Z’s hitmen targeting 50 Cent.

50 Cent has amplified the noise.

He posted AI generated videos and memes mocking Jay-Z.

questioned whether the Super Bowl halftime show would proceed given Jay-Z’s Rock Nation involvement and generally trolled the situation.

When asked about Jay-Z’s proximity to the big dog in jail and whether he knew about alleged misconduct, 50 Cents response was telling.

You don’t think he knew anything? He’s he’s seemingly around.

That was a real suburb question.

I know, right? Proximity.

Proximity.

That’s SAT Hit Parade word.

Proximity.

Do you think heing knew all of the [ __ ] that was going on? Damn, that was like a I don’t want to incriminate myself.

I know.

I know.

But the way you said it, like I said, no matter how you answer that, you snitching.

50 Cent carefully avoids direct accusations while maximizing innuendo.

It’s a strategy he’s perfected over decades of beef, keeping the conversation going without making claims that could lead to lawsuits.

The most explosive claims have come from other sources.

A former bodyguard known as Uncle Ron posted videos on Tik Tok before his death in September 2024, alleging that Jay-Z and the bad boy mogul had conspired in the murder of the notorious B.

I.

in 1997.

Uncle Ron claimed the mogul offered him $30,000 to carry out the hit, with Jay-Z motivated by wanting Big E out of the industry so he could become the top hip hop artist.

Uncle Ron died from reported pneumonia within 24 hours of his video going viral, which has fueled further conspiracy theories.

These allegations lack evidence.

Gene Deal, another former bodyguard, debunked Uncle Ron’s story, saying Uncle Ron wasn’t part of the core security team, and that his claims were fabricated for online attention.

McGriff’s son has similarly dismissed altercation stories between his father and Jay-Z as far-fetched and hearsay driven.

50 Cent himself has never directly accused Jay-Z of involvement in the shooting.

His public statements and lyrics about the attempt on his life point to Mcgriff, Murder, Inc.

, and the Jaw Rule beef, not Jay-Z.

The insinuations about Jay-Z are part of their broader rivalry, not specific to May 24th, 2000.

The aftermath and the legend.

The shooting that was supposed to end 50 Cent’s career before it started instead made him a legend.

After Columbia Records dropped him and blacklisted him from the industry, 50 Cent did what survivors do.

He adapted.

He recorded mixtapz that couldn’t be suppressed by label politics.

Traveling to Canada to work in studios away from the murder inquiry sphere of influence.

The music circulated through bootleg networks, building a grᴀssroots following that couldn’t be stopped by industry gatekeepers.

In 2002, Eminem discovered the mixtapz and brought 50 Cent to Dr.

Dre.

The signing to Shady Aftermath changed everything.

By 2003, Get Rich or Die Trying had sold over 12 million copies worldwide and went diamond.

The story of surviving nine sH๏τs at close range was central to the album’s mystique and 50 Cents image as someone who couldn’t be killed.

Many Men Wish Death became an anthem for anyone who had enemies.

The track directly addressed the shooting, named Bal as the shooter and transformed survival into a brand.

The bullets that should have silenced 50 Cent instead gave him the most compelling story in hip-hop.

The 2005 film Get Rich or Die Trying brought the story to cinema with 50 Cent playing a fictionalized version of himself.

The semi-autobiographical movie depicted the shooting, the drugdeing past and the rise from the streets to stardom.

It wasn’t a critical success, but it cemented the mythology.

For those who tried to stop him, the outcomes were less triumphant.

Mcgriff received a life sentence in 2007 for murder conspiracy and racketeering.

His entertainment ambitions ending in a federal courtroom.

Murder Inc.

never recovered from the federal investigation.

The label that once competed with Def Jam and Rockefeller faded into obscurity.

Jaw Rule’s career collapsed under the weight of the 50 Cent Beef and the label’s troubles.

Daryl Bomb, the man most commonly blamed for pulling the trigger, was ᴅᴇᴀᴅ within 3 weeks.

His ᴀssociates followed him to the grave over the next few years.

victims of the same gang violence that had defined their lives.

50 Cent built an empire.

Beyond music, he invested in Vitamin Water and made a reported hundred million dollars.

When Coca-Cola acquired the company, he created the Power television franchise, which spawned multiple spin-offs and became one of Stars’ most successful properties.

He went from drug dealer to shooting victim to rapper to mogul.

The Jay-Z rivalry continues into the present day, transformed from an existential beef into something that looks more like content.

50 Cent trolls Jay-Z on social media.

Jay-Z occasionally fires back.

In December 2025, Jay-Z took a jab in an interview saying, “50 still moves like it’s 2003, a criticism of outdated tactics.

” 50 Cent responded with more memes.

When asked about concerns that his trolling could invite repercussions, 50 Cent was characteristically unfazed.

And you don’t throw out allegations, but like you kind of poke fun at them.

You just ask questions.

You don’t you’re not worried that it comes back your way like people dig up your past and try to pull stuff up.

I don’t got this fast.

In other words, 50 Cent sees his trolling as a form of separation, distancing himself and hip hop culture generally from the allegations surrounding others on the specific question of Jay-Z’s marriage to Beyonce and his subsequent industry success.

50 Cent had a provocative take.

Look, when Jay signed his contract, the big one was with Beyonce.

When he signed that contract, the marriage contract, he got trophies.

Now those [ __ ] trophies [ __ ] trophies came rolling in buddy.

He started getting Grammys left and right man if you look at this you know what I’m saying the suggestion that Jay-Z’s accolades came from his marriage rather than his music is inflammatory but it’s vintage 50 Cent using humor and provocation to keep the conversation going without making legally actionable claims.

Mcgriff sits in federal prison for life.

Balm is in a Brooklyn cemetery.

Murder Inc.

is a footnote.

J Rule is a punchline.

And 50 Cent is worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Still posting memes about the people who tried to destroy him.

The nine bullets that hit 50 Cent on that May morning didn’t kill him.

They made him immortal.

Thanks for watching.

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