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50 Cent: Steve Stoute Told Me Not to Sign With Eminem

Fif says the former record exec told him, "Don't do the deal with the white boy."

Had he taken Steve Stoute's advice, 50 Cent's life would be a lot different today. Over a decade ago, Stoute encouraged the then unsigned Queens-born MC not to work with "the white boy," Eminem.

G-Unit's commander in chief revealed the story to MTV News Tuesday (March 18) at Sirius XM radio station, the location of his Town Hall session. "Me and Steve had an opportunity to meet with each other, he was running Interscope," Fif recalled of a conversation from 2002. "He had already stopped being associated to Columbia Records. When I tried to play him [my] music, he said 'I already know what you can do.'" 

50 wasn't able to get Stoute "on the phone" after their original talk. Em ended up offering him a deal, so he flew to Los Angeles to get the paperwork done. The two met at the Mondrian Hotel, and Stoute somehow found out they would be there. He ran up on Fif to stop him from joining the Detorit native's team. "He showed up in the lobby of the Mondrian…he was like 'look don't do the deal with the white boy.'"

He didn't take the advice. Instead, Fif sold over 30 million records worldwide under the Shady/Aftermath/Interscrope umbrella. Last month, he left Interscope to join Capitol Records as an independent artist. The announcement of a label swap, however, didn't get much support from Stoute when he sat down for a Hot 97 interview with Angie Martinez in February, and that didn't sit well with 50.

A week after Stoute's critique, the 38-year-old rapper was photographed barking on the Tanning of America author, but the conversation was much tamer than it looked. "I said, 'that wasn't really nice of you, Steve. To say what you said wasn't really nice, and I think you should apologize,'" 50 explained, then admitted with a smile, "I said it a little different."  

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(Photos from left:  Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File,  Larry Busacca/Getty Images)

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