’50 Cent’ And His ‘Power’ Versus ‘Empire’ On Fox

There are two one-hour dramas starring primarily African-American casts that are going head to head in the media because of hubbub over similar publicity tactics. First up is Power, a show that features Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson as executive producer and part of the acting staff. Power is a show that has already finished its intriguing first season on Starz for the original series.

The other mainly African-American drama that recently premiered on Fox is called Empire, one that scored big ratings with viewers and featured Fox placing the premiere episode online for those who missed the pilot episode of Empire to watch the whole show online.

However, according to the Associated Press, 50 Cent isn’t happy with Empire‘s promotional vehicles because 50 Cent feels the Empire marketing tactics are too close to those already used by Power. Indeed, after soaking up the first full season of Power and later spying the promos for Empire, this reporter nearly confused the two shows — and then said some variation of the fact that Empire is trying to act akin to Power.

After watching the premiere episode of Empire, however, the distinctions become clear — even if Empire does play Kanye West’s lyrics proclaiming that “no one man should have all that power” in the background.

As reported by Billboard, 50 Cent took to Instagram to post his thoughts about his Power TV show versus Empire, within a social media post that has since been deleted.

“POWER Season 2 is unbelievably good trust me. I have the best writers and show runner. I like Terrence Howard and Taraji Henson. I don’t like that they would copy the marketing. Empire VS. Power LADIES what’s up you be the judge.”

Another major problem 50 Cent noted about Empire on Friday was that Empire used the name of his show — Power — in the ad photos, with 50 Cent saying it wasn’t necessary.

“They didn’t have to do that.”

Empire star Taraji P. Henson took to Twitter to respond to 50 Cents’ concerns with a cute quip and an emoticon of a peace symbol.

“I pay attention to $, not cents.”

Meanwhile, 50 Cents took that as his queue to lay off of the situation.

“Can you say anything bad when a woman says something to you and not be inappropriate? So I just laughed about it and let it brush. That’s cool. I think there’s room for more actual television shows.”

[Image via Billboard]