50 Cent is opening up about discovering that his late mother was gay, making it clear that he never felt ashamed of that part of her life.
“When your mom has friends around, you look at them and just see friends,” he told Variety in a recent interview. “As a child, I just saw two women hanging out. My grandmother informed me later that there was more going on and they weren’t just friends, and I was like, ‘Oh! Now I know what that was!’
“I’m not ashamed of that in any way,” he added. “I grew up around that.”
Fif also reflected on his verse from “Hate It or Love It,” his collaboration with The Game, which includes the lyrics, “Coming up I was confused, my mommy kissing a girl/Confusion occurs coming up in the cold world.”
He further explained to Variety that being vulnerable about his experience “made it more powerful.”
When asked if he had ever discussed the subject with Jay-Z, who also discovered later in life that his mother, Gloria, is a lesbian, 50 Cent revealed that the topic has never come up between them.
“No, but it is something we have in common,” he said. “But then, find the line. We just reacted differently to it. One of us doesn’t mind, and the other one kind of minds a little bit.”
50 Cent’s mother, Sabrina Jackson, gave birth to him at 15 and died when he was 8 years old, leaving him to be raised by his grandmother. The rapper has said he never knew his father and struggled to process the news when he was told that his mother was gone and would not be returning.
He first spoke publicly about his mother’s sexuality in a 2012 interview, recalling how his grandmother explained that “that kiss was a little different from all the other kisses you saw.” He also pointed to Barack Obama’s endorsement of same-sex marriage as an influence on his own support for marriage equality.
