Surveilling 50 Cent

SEPTEMBER 6--Rapper 50 Cent told federal agents that he fears for his life due to a long-running dispute with a New York drug dealer facing charges that he was the secret power behind one of hip-hop's leading labels. The performer (real name: Curtis Jackson) survived a 2000 murder attempt that investigators (and Fiddy himself) believe was orchestrated by Kenneth 'Supreme' McGriff, a convicted Queens druglord. A 2003 search warrant affidavit for the Manhattan offices of the Murder, Inc. record label contended that McGriff was still trying to whack 50 Cent and that he 'communicates with Murder, Inc. employees concerning the target.' Excerpts from the document, authored by IRS agent Francis Mace, are below. 'McGriff is tracking 50 Cent's whereabouts through his network of associates,' Mace alleged, with his cronies sending ad hoc surveillance reports to McGriff's pager, which was provided to him by the rap label, headed by McGriff's boyhood pal Irving Lorenzo (aka Irv Gotti). One such urgent field report to McGriff--sent by Lorenzo's brother Chris--noted the performer's presence in his old Queens stomping ground: '50 is in the hood guy r. brewer!' Guy R. Brewer Boulevard is in the heart of McGriff's criminal turf. The Mace affidavit noted that while 50 Cent declined to speak about his own shooting, he agreed to be interviewed about the October 2002 murder of Jason Mizell, Run-DMC's Jam Master Jay. Investigators have examined whether Mizell was killed for defying the 'blacklist' of his protégé 50 Cent, which was reportedly established by McGriff after he was denigrated by the rapper on a cut called 'Ghetto Koran.' The Mace affidavit does not disclose what 50 Cent said about the Mizell homicide, but the mere fact that he spoke to probers will surely be used by adversaries, who have tried to portray the star as a police informant. In one monitored text message, Mace noted, McGriff branded 50 Cent 'a talking dry snitcher.' (4 pages)