50 Cent and Eminem proved their long-running friendship remains alive and well as they shared the stage at the former’s Final Lap Tour rolled into Detroit, Michigan this past weekend.
The G-Unit boss headlined the Pine Knob Music Theatre on Sunday night (September 17), and it was only right that he brought out his close friend and hometown hero, Marshall Mathers, as a surprise guest.
Walking out on stage to a roar of excitement from the crowd roughly halfway through the show, Em performed his vigorous verse on 50’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ track “Patiently Waiting” before the rap veterans uncorked their 2009 hit “Crack a Bottle.”
Before departing the stage, Eminem showed love to 50 Cent while saying a few words to the Motor City audience.
“Detroit, make some noise for one of the best friends that I’ve ever known, 50 Cent!” he said. “And also, make some noise for Hip Hop’s 50th birthday, y’all … Detroit, I love y’all, man.”
Fif later shared a video of the moment on Instagram and reciprocated the love. “Bro when I do anything with EM people just go crazy they know he really my boy,” he wrote in the caption. “I love him till death!”
Check out 50’s post, plus more footage from Eminem’s surprise appearance, below:
50 Cent and Eminem’s relationship dates back to 2002 when 50 signed to Em’s Shady Records, along with Interscope and Dr. Dre‘s Aftermath Entertainment.
That deal — which came just two years after a young 50 was shot nine times, dropped from his previous label Columbia and effectively blackballed by the industry — set the stage for his blockbuster debut album, 2003’s Get Rich or Die Tryin,’ and subsequent rise to stardom.
The pair have remained close friends ever since, and that loyalty was evident in the lead up to last year’s star-studded Super Bowl Halftime Show, which Eminem apparently threatened to pull out of if 50 Cent wasn’t involved.
“I said to JAY-Z, I have to ask this straight up. ‘Who is gonna perform at the NFL?’” N.O.R.E. recalled during a Drink Champs episode with fellow Super Bowl performer Snoop Dogg in April 2022. “And he said to me, ‘The white guy called for 50 Cent.’
“I said, ‘Who is the white guy? Jimmy Iovine?’ And he said, ‘No, Eminem called directly for 50 and he said, ‘I can’t do it if I can’t bring 50 with me.’’ That’s spiritual.”
50 Cent Reflects On 20-Year Partnership With Eminem & Dr. Dre: ‘You Can’t Rewrite History’
Looking to return the favor, 50 Cent is currently working on a TV series based on Eminem’s classic battle rap movie 8 Mile, which he hopes will further his close friend’s already substantial “legacy.”
“This shit is expected to be just as big as the feature film, just huge. It’ll be huge,” he said in an interview with Men’s Health last month. “The interest in it is because the time period that 8 Mile was capturing further back, so as we move it into modern times you’ll see things about how we function now, how technology changed the way people enter the music business.”
As for 50’s Final Lap Tour, its North American leg wraps up in Toronto, Ontario on Friday (September 22) following stops in Baltimore, Maryland (September 19) and Holmdel, New Jersey (September 20).
The sprawling trek, which kicked off back in July and celebrates the 20th anniversary of Get Rich or Die’ Tryin’, then journeys across Europe between September 28 and November 21, before wrapping up with shows in Asia, Australia and New Zealand.
As its name suggests, the Final Lap Tour could mark 50’s last time on the road.
“I won’t be running around like this no more. I gotta do my film and television stuff and got a lot of other things going on behind the scenes that I gotta work on, so I won’t be out touring as much as I’ve been touring,” he said in an Instagram video in May. “I’m having fun this time because it’s set up to enjoy myself — we not feeling pressure.”
