50 Cent Origin of Me

May 9, 2011 12:51 PM

50 Cent discovers Mongolian slaves in South Carolina (slyt pretty much)

His documentary series, The Origin of Me, in which he travels to South Carolina in search of his personal family history premieres on VH1 on May 23rd.

posted by AceRock (69 comments total)

If this is 50 Cent's idea of PR, it's pretty good. That being said, it is slightly reminiscent of the Heston/Moore interview where a feeble old person had to defend their irrational, childish beliefs while still being considered to be making valid points to the public at large. Gotcha journalism it is not.
posted by jsavimbi at 12:57 PM on May 9, 2011

Video is blocked here in the UK, this looks like its might be the same thing on youtube.
posted by Lanark at 1:10 PM on May 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

Ah. I was just going to say how the videos won't work for me (in the Netherlands), thanks for the link Lanark.
posted by bjrn at 1:11 PM on May 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Based on the first video, it looks like it has the potential to be Roots meets Borat.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:13 PM on May 9, 2011 [4 favorites]

General Martin Witherspoon Gary was as evil a motherfucker as one can imagine. That house was a nexus of political oppression, terrorism, lynching, and rape. Just read what his friends had to say about him. That delusional old woman is not alone though
posted by Blasdelb at 1:14 PM on May 9, 2011

We are all familiar with Genghis Khan's Underground Railhorde
posted by East Manitoba Regional Junior Kabaddi Champion '94 at 1:18 PM on May 9, 2011 [17 favorites]

I'd really like to see that show.
posted by the young rope-rider at 1:26 PM on May 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Many excellent bon mots in the Ta-Nehisi thread about this, so I will only paraphrase one:

If true, this means Mongolian BBQ should be demonstrably better.
posted by joe lisboa at 1:33 PM on May 9, 2011 [3 favorites]

I admire 50 Cent's rhetorical deference to the crazy lady. It takes a lot to say "I've never heard of that before" to a remark you know is false.
posted by Dia Nomou Nomo Apethanon at 1:35 PM on May 9, 2011 [3 favorites]

Sometimes it seems to me that some people just can't WAIT to get old so that no-one will challenge their lifelong assumptions.

It's nice to see 50 do the whole "Being polite around an old person's insanity" dance. This won't be the case when this generation of nouveau Internet Commentarians get older and come up against the next generation of spastically attention hungry teenaged Internet Trolls.

Now that'll be interesting to watch. And Participate in. Probably on Metafilter actually.
posted by rudhraigh at 1:36 PM on May 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

That, right there, is America without the creamy filling.
posted by fourcheesemac at 1:39 PM on May 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

I watched a few moments of this at TNC's blog the other day-- once it got to the Mongolian Element, I couldn't watch anything more. Gotta salute 50 Cent's interest in doing this, though.
posted by darth_tedious at 1:40 PM on May 9, 2011

pretty light.
posted by mrgrimm at 1:41 PM on May 9, 2011

She's right, though. We do have to study our history. And it's never too late to start, crazy old woman.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:41 PM on May 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

By taping her, he's already doing more damage to her than anything he could say.
posted by LogicalDash at 1:42 PM on May 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

I'd never even heard of the Red Shirts before, and technically I'm Southern, as I'm a Florida native. But as my kids say, when it comes to accents and attitudes, "Georgia is more Southern than Florida."

From Blasdelb's link:

Raphael Semmes erected a tombstone in Mexico with the inscription “In memoriam of Abraham Lincoln, President of the late United States, who died of nigger on the brain, 1st January 1863.”

Holy crap.

Wish I had still never heard of the Red Shirts.

Makes me think of all these people who put Confederate flags up in the back of their pick-up trucks* and say they are just "proud of their Southern heritage." If you really are proud of anything in the South's past, the Confederate flag is the very last thing you should want to use to symbolize that pride. That flag is a symbol of all that was wrong, from plantation slave owners to trigger-happy rednecks.

*NOT PICKUP TRUCKIST.
posted by misha at 1:43 PM on May 9, 2011

50 cent is rational America's answer to James O'Keefe...

Both of them owe a great deal to Borat. And in turn, all of them must pray daily to Hunter Thompson.

People say the damndest things.
posted by fourcheesemac at 1:45 PM on May 9, 2011

The actual goal of this show was to find someone in America who would make 50 Cent look calm, rational, and measured. And boy did they hit THAT one out of the park.
posted by 1adam12 at 1:46 PM on May 9, 2011 [7 favorites]

That, right there, is America without the creamy filling.

Pretty sure that is the creamy filling.
posted by joe lisboa at 1:46 PM on May 9, 2011

That said, are we sure this isn't an Eddie Murphy bit?
posted by fourcheesemac at 1:46 PM on May 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

I don't see these clips as much different that the crazy old lady trying to give her mail back to the black postal worker (and that got deleted).

I'm pretty sure we all have some unchallenged assumptions that are grievously incorrect. I'm not going to defend the old lady, but I'm not sure what the point it here.

Crazy be crazy.
posted by cjorgensen at 1:47 PM on May 9, 2011

My favorite part was when she tells him he has to study his history from about 1780-1810, and Fitty gets this concerned look on his face, like you can just hear inside his head "Damn, that's gonna cut into my 40oz. time!"
posted by mannequito at 1:49 PM on May 9, 2011

Whew, South Carolina. Nobody I'm related to.
posted by desjardins at 1:49 PM on May 9, 2011 [3 favorites]

My favorite part was when she tells him he has to study his history from about 1780-1810, and Fitty gets this concerned look on his face, like you can just hear inside his head "Damn, that's gonna cut into my 40oz. time!"

Wow. Really? That's what you took away from that exchange?
posted by ixohoxi at 1:50 PM on May 9, 2011 [37 favorites]

Hahahah 40oz time what the hell
posted by palidor at 1:55 PM on May 9, 2011 [6 favorites]

40oz time? 1985 called, from a rotary phone, and wants its drink back.
posted by cashman at 2:00 PM on May 9, 2011 [4 favorites]

Thing is when you work around or in historic sites in the south, you run into these folks far more than normal, rational people would expect. I mean, as a southerner, I expect working at a Civil War battlefield to run into the occasional die hard Lost Cause devotee. Heck, my folks can be from time to time on the borderline of crazy/delusional about some things in southern history. But the sheer number of times people walk out of a tour because you are attempting to paint a picture that wasn't dictated by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, will freaking blow your mind.

In fact, just a few months ago I was asked by a friend of my parents what I was working on in my degree. As I began to tell him that I was working at a Civil War site doing some intepretation for an exhibit, he got this happy little glow of satisfaction. The glow fled and his eyes glazed over when I went on to explain that I was focusing on African Americans and contraband camps. He then perked back up a little and trotted out the old tried and true, "Well, some of them stayed on the plantations because they were so well taken care of."

At that point you realize you'd probably have more luck convincing him that the moon was made of hummus.
posted by teleri025 at 2:03 PM on May 9, 2011 [5 favorites]

At that point you realize you'd probably have more luck convincing him that the moon was made of hummus.

Al Qaeda wins moon race?
posted by joe lisboa at 2:05 PM on May 9, 2011

Al Qaeda wins moon race?
Yeah, and it's probably Obama's fault.
posted by teleri025 at 2:09 PM on May 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Damn, that's gonna cut into my 40oz. time!"

Somehow this is more outwardly racist than anything the old woman said!
posted by mikeh at 2:10 PM on May 9, 2011 [14 favorites]

more of this deuchebag's history
posted by Blasdelb at 2:12 PM on May 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Thing is when you work around or in historic sites in the south, you run into these folks far more than normal, rational people would expect.

The south ? Hell, Central Wisconsin is pretty good for this sort of tone-deaf overt racism. A few years back I had a job delivering lumber supplies, and one of my stops was this McMansion in a new subdivision just outside of Appleton. I was there to unload a deck and gazebo, and the homeowner met me and was pretty eager to help out.

As we were unloading, he was talking to me about how great this place was. See, none of those "filthy hmong" or "criminal blacks" could ever live within miles.

What about the Fair housing act, I asked. Well, he said, they had that covered. The covenant for the land required that every homeowner belong to the church. As the church was pretty free to discriminate "those people" wouldn't be allowed in.

I have no idea if those protections are as strong as he says, or not. What got me, though was how much glee he took in sequestering him and his family on a couple of acres of exurbia outside of some cow-town just to get away from people with different colored skin.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 2:25 PM on May 9, 2011 [3 favorites]

I'll be honest, though: I can't stand 50Cent.
posted by paisley henosis at 3:12 PM on May 9, 2011

Reminded me of that scene in the Borat movie where Borat dines with proper Southern snobs. Except that instead of Sacha Baron Cohen playing Borat, this has 50-Cent playing 50-Cent.

Did she mean Angola? I think she meant Angola, even if she didn't realize it.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 3:42 PM on May 9, 2011 [3 favorites]

Kids These Days™ still like 50 Cent right?* So presumably they'll tune in and they just might, by watching one of their favorite artists, just might get an interest in discovering their own roots? Seems like a pretty good thing to me, even if some of the bits in the middle get a little weird.

*Yes, I'm not yet 30 and already completely out of touch. I'm sorry.
posted by jnrussell at 3:52 PM on May 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Do people who fly the confederate flag seriously not realize that you just don't see black people ever flying the stars and bars and there's a very specific reason for that? Genuine question. I am fascinated by the ways the confederate flag is used by some people in the south - and sometimes even people up north - and the weird things that they'll claim it means to them if not race-related ("free speech", "southern pride", "sticking it to the man/sticking it to Washington", etc). You will never hear a flag waver say "oh yeah, well I have this flag because I yearn for a time when black people were still slaves." They most likely don't feel that way. But they have to realize how offensive it is, right?

I do not think displaying a confederate flag makes automatically makes someone a racist, but goddamn is it some insensitive behavior.
posted by windbox at 4:23 PM on May 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

do people who fly the confederate flag seriously not realize that you just don't see black people ever flying the stars and bars and there's a very specific reason for that?

I grew up in suburban Georgia and there were a lot of confederate flags. They fell into 3 camps:

(1) Racists, obviously. Both the in-your-face type and the ones who gave implausible denials and clearly were racist. Pretty straightforward. Some of the latter gave the "culture" excuse for their flags

(2) Those who believed the culture argument, and were very naive on the whole race issue. Keep in mind that many areas of the south are very segregated. It wouldn't necessarily occur to them that black people felt X way about something... because they NEVER saw any black people, aside from maybe an occasional trip to Atlanta. My high school had like 5 black students out of 2500, and they didn't mingle much.

(3) Contrarians, who aren't particularly racist or fond of Southern culture but just want to shock people. Like those who have a bunch of Nazi stuff or something.
posted by wildcrdj at 4:32 PM on May 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

What's with the blues guitar? That's the A&E/Euro-doc indication that the filmmakers are in the rural South?
posted by raysmj at 4:37 PM on May 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Well, no question mark belongs in the latter sentence, it's just a remarkably silly TV doc convention.
posted by raysmj at 4:38 PM on May 9, 2011

Do people who fly the confederate flag seriously not realize that you just don't see black people ever flying the stars and bars and there's a very specific reason for that?

Can't say I have a charitable explanation, but this isn't exactly true.
posted by polyhedron at 4:39 PM on May 9, 2011

"Damn, that's gonna cut into my 40oz. time!"

what the fuck?
posted by nathancaswell at 4:50 PM on May 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Damn, that's gonna cut into my 40oz. time!"

Yeah, that's f-ed up.
posted by lumpenprole at 4:54 PM on May 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

Why was he even interviewing this woman?
posted by delmoi at 5:00 PM on May 9, 2011

Besides, they don't even sell Vitamin Water in 40 oz containers.
posted by wildcrdj at 5:03 PM on May 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

Pogo_Fuzzybutt: The John Birch Society is headquartered just outside of Appleton, in Grand Chute WI. So, that subdivision may have been a bit of a Special Case. My own experience with overwhelmingly white places like Wisconsin and Maine is that people mostly don't think much about race because they don't ever see anyone who isn't white. Its rare to hear anyone make a big deal out of being someplace where there's only white people, cause that's, like, every place in WI. Doesn't mean they're not racists, just that it doesn't come up that much.
posted by rusty at 5:04 PM on May 9, 2011

"Damn, that's gonna cut into my 40oz. time!"

-Somehow this is more outwardly racist than anything the old woman said!

-what the fuck?

-Hahahah 40oz time what the hell

This is turning into a bit of a derail, so I'm suggest this comment was made less as an ignorant "race thing" and more as a gangsta rap stereotype thing from someone who's not that familiar with 50 Cent's particular gangsta rap kingpin shtick. I've never heard 50 Cent talk about 40oz (he's more of an expensive status symbol rapper than a drinking on the corner rapper), but there's certainly no shortage of 40oz references in the genre that someone might assume otherwise without knowing better. At any rate, while unfortunate it can probably be ignored at this point.
posted by Hoopo at 5:06 PM on May 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

And, as we all know, gangsta rappers can be of virtually any race.
posted by rusty at 5:09 PM on May 9, 2011

... just ask Joaquin!
posted by elphTeq at 5:13 PM on May 9, 2011

And, as we all know, all black people are famous gangsta rappers like 50 Cent and there are no white, latino and asian gangsta rappers, but yeah please continue to take cheap lazy potshots at a comment from 3 hours ago that has been pointed out by plenty of people already because clearly that guy who made a bad joke on the internet that you know nothing about is racist.
posted by Hoopo at 5:18 PM on May 9, 2011

Yeah guys! There's no place for accusations of racist commentary in a thread of this subject matter! Don't derail!
posted by nathancaswell at 5:28 PM on May 9, 2011

c'mon guys, don't derail a conversation about racism by talking about racism.
posted by DJ Broken Record at 5:31 PM on May 9, 2011 [2 favorites]

First of all, does Vitamin Water come in a 40oz size?

Secondly, I'm pretty sure 50 Cent is capable of studying history while at the same time enjoying a beverage.
posted by ODiV at 7:03 PM on May 9, 2011

it is slightly reminiscent of the Heston/Moore interview where a feeble old person had to defend their irrational, childish beliefs while still being considered to be making valid points to the public at large.

See, that's what I always thought about the Reagan presidency.
posted by benito.strauss at 7:21 PM on May 9, 2011 [3 favorites]

Except that instead of Sacha Baron Cohen playing Borat, this has 50-Cent playing 50-Cent.

This has Curtis Jackson playing 50 Cent.
posted by setanor at 9:18 PM on May 9, 2011

People collect Nazi memorabilia just to shock other people?
posted by Brocktoon at 11:05 PM on May 9, 2011 [1 favorite]

50 Cent has a really nice house and is a master of not letting what he is thinking show in his facial expression.
posted by subdee at 11:25 PM on May 9, 2011

LOL, that lady needs to study the history of 50c!
posted by Flex1970 at 3:56 AM on May 10, 2011

polyhedron: "Do people who fly the confederate flag seriously not realize that you just don't see black people ever flying the stars and bars and there's a very specific reason for that?

Can't say I have a charitable explanation, but this isn't exactly true."

The entire Black Confederate thing is just revisionist crap. There were no Black Confederates. TNC has a series of really interesting posts on his attempt to find some.
posted by QIbHom at 6:25 AM on May 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

And, as we all know, ...continue to take cheap lazy potshots at a comment from 3 hours ago that has been pointed out by plenty of people already because clearly that guy who made a bad joke on the internet that you know nothing about is racist.
posted by Hoopo at 5:18 PM on

remember, remember, it's not what he is, it's what he said or did.
posted by eustatic at 12:04 PM on May 10, 2011

c'mon guys, don't derail a conversation about racism by talking about racism.

I thought the thread was about 50 Cent's discussion with an old lady with some fucked up racist ideas. We've had plenty of good comments from a bunch of people elaborating on their experiences growing up and living around people not unlike that lady. But apparently it's about everyone displaying their shock and outrage about an ill-informed comment one after another, and conversations are comprised of people pointing and saying "WTF?"

Yeah guys! There's no place for accusations of racist commentary in a thread of this subject matter! Don't derail!

And there's my confirmation that this is indeed the place to point and say "WTF?" so I guess I'm out.
posted by Hoopo at 3:39 PM on May 10, 2011

qxntpqbbbqxl: Did she mean Angola? I think she meant Angola, even if she didn't realize it.

That might be slightly better; however Angola is still part of Africa...
posted by dhens at 4:07 PM on May 10, 2011

mannequito: My favorite part was when she tells him he has to study his history from about 1780-1810, and Fitty gets this concerned look on his face, like you can just hear inside his head "Damn, that's gonna cut into my 40oz. time!"

ODiV: First of all, does Vitamin Water come in a 40oz size?

Just for the record: fuck both of you. Seriously. Go to hell and shut the fuck up you fucking morons.

Glad to see that this kind of thing is accepted on MetaFilter. Imagine if you had done something terrible, like slight people who are white and possibly female or non-normally-sexual or some shit.

Hoopo: This is turning into a bit of a derail, so I'm suggest this comment was made less as an ignorant "race thing" and more as a gangsta rap stereotype thing from someone who's not that familiar with 50 Cent's particular gangsta rap kingpin shtick. I've never heard 50 Cent talk about 40oz (he's more of an expensive status symbol rapper than a drinking on the corner rapper), but there's certainly no shortage of 40oz references in the genre that someone might assume otherwise without knowing better. At any rate, while unfortunate it can probably be ignored at this point.

Fuck. That. Too.

It's a rediculous pile of shit based on his skin color and occupation AND NOTHING ELSE. That's pretty fucking racist. If this thread was about a female model and someone made some vague joke about tall women there would be scores of the same fucking comment bitching about how that wasn't Ok.
posted by paisley henosis at 4:43 PM on May 14, 2011 [1 favorite]

I had to Google "40 oz" to even understand the reference, and WTF? That dismisisive, racist comment totally has no place on Metafilter. I can't see any reason not to delete it (and maybe a lot of the derail about it, too).
posted by misha at 1:02 PM on May 15, 2011

I was trying to make the point that 50 Cent is pretty damn savvy and successful, but I guess it came out wrong if I'm getting a "fuck you."

Sorry for coming off like a jackass.
posted by ODiV at 3:46 PM on May 15, 2011

Man, now I'm having trouble getting to sleep because of that stupid post I made. I just was trying to take the language of the original post and tie it in to Vitamin Water, which 50 Cent has done extremely well with, to say that he's no idiot. My next point was that even if someone enjoys a drink, it certainly doesn't preclude them from being able to think about and study history.
posted by ODiV at 4:18 PM on May 15, 2011

ODiV IMO you have nothing to apologize for. I, for one, completely understood your point with the Vitamin Water comment and thought it was pretty clever.

I think you're getting painted rather unfairly with the same brush as the original 40 oz comment which was probably the most overtly racist thing I've ever read on Metafilter.

Go get some sleep.
posted by nathancaswell at 4:33 PM on May 15, 2011

ODiV, I wasn't at all offended by your reply! I figured you were just trying to deflect all the negative energy from the original comment.
posted by misha at 7:10 PM on May 15, 2011

ODiV: I just was trying to take the language of the original post and tie it in to Vitamin Water, which 50 Cent has done extremely well with, to say that he's no idiot.

Now that you say that, I see what you meant.

I didn't read it that way before, but I was pretty shocked to see that kind of talk above your user name. I tried to come up with what you were going for that wasn't ugly, and obviously I didn't figure it out.

I'm sorry for saying fuck you. You aren't a moron and I'm sorry I lashed out at you.
posted by paisley henosis at 10:53 AM on May 16, 2011

That's a relief, thanks. Though after being on the site awhile I've learned that intention doesn't count for much if you can't make yourself understood. I'll endeavour to be more clear in future.

The insomnia turns out to not be related much to MeFi, but instead to jetlag. I'm vacationing in Ireland for the next couple of weeks and coincidentally am doing a bit of drinking and studying of history myself.
posted by ODiV at 3:18 PM on May 16, 2011