Rapper and mogul 50 Cent has weighed in on one of pop culture’s favorite love stories — Taylor Swift and NFL star Travis Kelce — offering both praise and a playful dig. Speaking with Extra TV’s Mona Kosar Abdi, the “Candy Shop” hitmaker said he was flattered by Taylor’s name-drop in her latest album The Life of a Showgirl, specifically on the track Ruin the Friendship. He explained that the reference was more about the cultural moment he represented than about him personally, saying, “The shoutout is the shoutout, but what she was making reference to was that period when no one was more prominent in music.”
In Ruin the Friendship, rumored to be inspired by Taylor’s late high school friend Jeff Lang, she sings, “But as the 50 Cent song played / Should’ve kissed you anyway.” Reacting to the lyric, the rapper — born Curtis Jackson — admitted he’d gladly attend Taylor and Travis’s wedding if invited, adding with a grin that he “loves the two together” and prefers their relationship to Kelce’s previous one. “I like it a lot better than the last thing Kelce had going on,” he said, before doubling down, “It’s a lot better.”
The comment was widely seen as shade toward Travis’s ex-girlfriend, influencer Kayla Nicole, whom the Kansas City Chiefs tight end dated from 2017 to 2022. Fans also noted that Taylor appeared to reference that past romance in another new track, Opalite, singing, “You couldn’t understand it, why you felt alone” — a line many interpret as a subtle swipe at Kelce’s former flame.
