50 Cent Names The Next Beats By Dre: “If There’s Another Company That Does It, It’ll Be…”

Written By S. Samuel

G-Unit head 50 Cent is confident in the power behind his SMS Audio electronics company and has gone as far as to call it the successor to Beats By Dre. #FollowTheDoc

50 Cent
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In Fif’s opinion, the recent multi-billion dollar sale of Beats to tech giant Apple has only motivated his team.

“The success of Beats is great for us. It makes the category understand how valuable our association is to that company,” he said. “When they see the company, and see that it sold for $3.1 billion, they go: ‘That one is definitely next, that’s the one that has the cool factor connected to it while producing quality products.’ “If there’s another company that does it, it’ll be SMS,” he said. “So it’s like when you’re playing basketball in the park: We got next.” (ABC 13)

Appearing at the annual Cannes Lions festival Tuesday (June 17), rap star Kanye West reacted to the Beats By Dre/Apple deal.

“There would have been no Beats deal without the Samsung deal. It showed the No. 1 company the importance of connecting with culture,” said West. “The reason I said I didn’t like Samsung particularly is because throughout my entire life, because of how my parents raised me, I have to work with the No. 1. I can’t work with anyone but Jay Z, because he’s No. 1. I can’t be with any girl but Kim, because that’s the girl whose pictures I look at the most and get turned on by. I’m not going to represent any company but Louis Vuitton, because that’s No. 1. … Samsung is not quite Apple, but it showed that Jimmy [Iovine] and Dre would be able to connect with the No. 1 influencers.” (Adweek)

Back in March, Fif said too much emphasis on Interscope placing its focus on marketing around Beats By Dre left a bad taste in his mouth.

“Not that there wasn’t a whole lot of support, but just an actual fear factor created from the aura of respect that Jimmy[Iovine] has within the Interscope system,” Fif began to explain. “When you see Interscope turn into Beats Records, where everyone that you see is actually marketing Beats headphones — you don’t even see a music video without Beats headphones in it.” (MTV)

A few days prior, 50 revealed Interscope hit him with various restrictions after the launch of his SMS Audio headphones line in 2010.

“Interscope is Beats Records,” 50 Cent told FORBES. “There’s no artist that has a marketing budget supporting what they’re actually doing that doesn’t have Beats headphones in the actual visual to support that brand, that company. So when I invested in SMS Audio, it kind of made people afraid.” In particular, 50 Cent recalls not being allowed to display his own SMS headphones shooting the video for “My Life.” At one point, he wore a hat with the SMS logo on it; the letters were blurred out in the final edit. (Forbes)

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Written by S. Samuel

Steven Samuel is the co-founder of SOHH.com.

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