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Thursday, 13 September 2007

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50 Cent weighs in as Kanye West gets Emmy gig

The hip-hop chart battle heats up

50 Cent is singing the praises of Britney Spears and saying Kayne West's outburst about the pop star opening the Video Music Awards Sunday was unwarranted.

"He was upset," 50 Cent told Ryan Seacrest on his KIIS-FM radio show Wednesday, referring to West's backstage meltdown. "He's not used to not being recognized. Period."

West, however, will be recognized in one unlikely place – Seacrest announced Wednesday that Kanye will perform at Sunday night's Emmy Awards.

As for 50 and Kanye, both rappers appeared on BET's 106 and Park on Tuesday, and West said he wished he could have opened the VMAs.

"It was always my dream to open the award shows with 'Stronger', and they talked me into doing the suite thing," he said. "Then when they had Britney open, I said, 'How are you going to have Britney open? Because she's not ready'."

But according to 50 Cent, West was out of line. "He expressed that he felt that Britney shouldn't be actually opening the show – almost like he forgot that Britney Spears sold 50 million records. She did," the rapper told Seacrest. "He is not thinking about her full body of work. She deserved to headline the show better than anybody else that was on it – even in the state that she is in."

Asked if he thinks West will go through with his threatened boycott of MTV, 50 Cent answered: "I don't think he can. I don't think it's possible. I think he [got] carried away in the moment. MTV doesn't need him."

After the two of them appeared together and looking friendly on BET, later that day West bailed on a scheduled TRL appearance. "He's nervous," 50 Cent joked on TRL, making light of West's cancellation. He added: "You think he had a problem with MTV? Nah. He knew he had to be here today ... He was like, 'You don't want to give me no trophies? Okay, I quit.'"

West also pulled out of a scheduled appearance on the Today show, according to the New York Post's Page Six.

A rep for West told the Post, "It was a creative decision. There were problems ... Kanye wanted to do things a certain way with an elaborate light show and he would have had to move indoors for that ... He was very contrite."

By Kim Peiffer and Brian Orloff