Social media users were not having it when 50 Cent used the death of actor Michael K. Williams to plug his Starz show Power Book III: Raising Kanan and his Cognac brand.
In a since-deleted Instagram post Monday after Williams’ death, the “P.I.M.P.” rapper uploaded a screenshot of a news article about The Wire actor’s passing along with a pitch for fans to check out his new drug drama series.
“Damn, if you didn’t see Raising Kanan check it out that fentanyl is no joke, killing the clientele.” He captioned the post and added the hashtags #bransoncognac, #lecheminduroi and #bottlerover.
In a second post, that was also deleted, the rapper shared a screen grab of a 2018 Page Six article about a feud he had with Williams.
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Criticism of the insensitive posts was swift.
Twitter user @BougieBlackness uploaded a screenshot of Fiddy’s initial post and tweeted: “There’s no way 50 Cent is a good person. No way in hell. Just inappropriate.”
There’s no way 50 Cent is a good person. No way in hell. Just inappropriate. pic.twitter.com/9jUazKGDrG
— Queer Latifah ? (@TheAfrocentricI) September 6, 2021
Twitter user @amacattackkk added: “50 cent has literally shown us who he is for years. I honestly don’t know why y’all still support his projects but that’s another discussion.”
@GehYuhMS wrote: “I swear 50 Cent using Michael K. Williams’ death to promote his show had reminded me of when GoldLink did a backhanded slap of a tribute to Mac Miller, nearly two years ago.”
@BMORE0831 tweeted: “#50cent has no moral compass.”
Added Twitter user @CurtisBashar: “50 Cent is my favourite rapper ever, but this is disrespectful as hell and corny, he is a bi— for that, can’t defend the ni–a no mo, RIP Michael Williams.”
Related Story: ‘Power Book III: Raising Kanan’ Gets Season 2 Renewal
The defiant Raising Kanan executive producer responded to the backlash with a new post about the criticism over his previous IG uploads.
The new one included a news headline saying “50 Cent Under Fire for Using Michael K. Williams’ death to plug Power Book III: Raising Kanan.” The hip-hop mogul captioned the new post: “Hey if you didn’t get a chance to see Raising Kanan check it out. Fentanyl is a hell of a drug. #bransoncognac #lecheminduroi.”
We put a screengrab below, just in case he deletes this post too.
