YA HEARD: 50 Cent, Jay Z and ... Bill O’Reilly? What gives?

It seems that 50 Cent is giving back to his old neighborhood of Jamaica, Queens, in a big way this weekend. On Saturday, 50 is reported to have as many as 30 buses that will transport children in the
community to Six Flags theme park in New Jersey. On Sunday, the megastar is having an all-out block party, which he and his G-Unit company are calling “E 2Family Day.” Reports have it that 50 is
spending somewhere in the area of $500,000 on this event. It is free to the public and will include food, carnival rides, music and celebrity appearances.

The event recently received quite a bit of national notice, but not for the good works for which it deserved attention. The city of New York began to raise concern after it was mentioned that 50 would
perform for his hometown crowd at the event. Apparently, police felt that 50’s performance at the event would be a danger to public safety and began to demand that the rapper not perform at his own
event.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg held a press conference late last week and stated, “Our understanding after talking with 50 Cent is, he has no plans to perform whatsoever. He might go, but he’s not
going to perform.“

In a city as vast, prominent, and experienced as New York, it is a shame that the city decided not to work with the individuals heading this admirable event. It’s almost as if they’re likening an outdoor rap
performance in Southside Queens to a terrorist threat. 50 Cent is pouring half a million dollars into an impoverished part of the city and all they can worry about is if he will be performing or not? Wow!

Jay Z takes poke at O’Reilly

Bill O’Reilly has responded to a shot taken at him by Jay Z on Jay’s new record “Off That.” In the record Mr. Z raps, “Yeah, you still on that/We still making money ‘cause we still off that/Same black
verse white, we all that/Please tell Bill O’Reilly to fall back/Tell Rush Limbaugh to get off my [bleep]/This 2010, not 1864/Yeah, we came so far so I drive around town, hard top and exhaust/How’s that for
a mix/Gotta black president, green presidents/Blueprint to my white iPod/Black diamonds in my Jesus piece, my God ...”

After playing the excerpt from the song, O’Reilly simply responded with, “Hhmmm ... A regular Otis Redding, isn’t he? Yeah. Hmm.”

O’Reilly is well known for talking out the side of his hypocritical neck about hip hop and its culture, yet at times we make it real easy for him to reload his clip. The song as a whole, as well as what was
directed toward O’Reilly and Limbaugh, was weak at best. There was really no need for O’Reilly to elaborate any further on the song because the track already spoke for itself. Sometimes it’s best for
some people to stick to what they do best. In this case, Jay may want to stay as far away from politics as possible. In the words of Chad Ochocinco, O’Reilly responded to Jay Z with a simple “Child
Please!”

Dennis Winn can be reached at 703-200-4928 or .