The Smollett Harlem Pride performance had timelines buzzing this weekend, and then 50 Cent showed up in the comments to make sure nobody enjoyed it in peace. While Jussie Smollett was on a Harlem stage giving his first full performance in eight years, Fif was at home turning the moment into another chapter of a rivalry he has been nursing for a decade.
Here is what actually went down. On Saturday, June 27, 2026, Smollett headlined Harlem Pride’s “17 Shades of Pride” celebration on West Harlem’s 12th Avenue waterfront, sharing the lineup with Jus10, Hibiscus, and 2AM Ricky, with the day hosted by Hope Giselle. The actor and singer hit the stage in a white tank and dancers in tow, performing music from his catalog and his newest album “Break Out.” For Smollett it was a homecoming and a comeback rolled into one, a real moment of visibility after years of being more known for a court case than a setlist. The Smollett Harlem Pride performance was supposed to be his feel good return.50 Cent had other plans. Reposting footage of the set, Fif wrote, “See 👀 I told you POWER was the shit, but No you want to watch Empire. Now look this is all your fault. LOL 😆” That one caption did three things at once. It dragged Empire, it flexed his own show Power, and it pinned the blame on the very fans who once chose the Lyon family drama over his Starz hit. Classic 50. He did not even have to insult the performance directly. He just framed the Smollett Harlem Pride moment as proof that he was right all along.
To understand why this lands, you have to go back to the rivalry. For years, 50 Cent treated Empire like a personal target. The Fox drama, where Smollett played singer Jamal Lyon, was a ratings monster when it premiered, regularly outdrawing Power in its early seasons, and Fif made it his mission to troll the show every chance he got. He mocked its numbers, its storylines, and its cast, turning what could have been quiet professional jealousy into a full public sport. So watching Smollett perform at a Pride event a decade later gave 50 the perfect opening to revive the bit and remind everyone that, in his telling, Power was always the harder, realer show.
The other layer here is the legal history that has trailed Smollett since 2019, and it is worth getting right. That year he told Chicago police he had been jumped by two men who hurled racist and homophobic slurs and put a rope around his neck. Investigators later accused him of staging the attack with two brothers, Abimbola and Olabinjo Osundairo, who said he paid them. He was convicted in 2021 on five counts of felony disorderly conduct and sentenced in 2022 to 150 days in Cook County Jail, probation, and restitution. Then in November 2024 the Illinois Supreme Court overturned the conviction, ruling that prosecutors had violated an earlier agreement by charging him a second time. Importantly, that ruling was about due process, not innocence. The special prosecutor stressed it did not clear Smollett’s name, and Smollett himself has maintained from day one that he did nothing wrong.
All of that history is the subtext sitting underneath 50’s little laughing emoji. When Fif says the Smollett Harlem Pride performance is “all your fault,” he is leaning on years of public skepticism and tying it to his favorite punchline, that fans backed the wrong actor and the wrong show. It is petty, it is pointed, and it is exactly the kind of low effort, high impact jab that has made 50 the most feared man on Instagram for years now. He does not argue. He posts four words and a couple of emojis and lets the comment section do the rest.
What makes it sting a little more is the timing. This was supposed to be a clean win for Smollett, a Pride headlining slot in his old stomping grounds, a crowd that showed up for him, a chance to be celebrated rather than litigated. And for the people in that Harlem crowd, it clearly was. But the second the clips hit the wider internet, 50 Cent reframed the whole thing, and suddenly the conversation was less about the music and more about whether Jamal Lyon ever should have beaten Power in the first place.
Smollett has not fired back, at least not yet, and history says he probably should not bother, because engaging 50 in a comment war is a fight nobody wins. The performance happened. The crowd cheered. And right on cue, the loudest man in the building was not even in the building. He was on his phone, reminding everybody that he never let the Empire thing go, and that he was never going to.
