Rapper 50 Cent has filed for federal bankruptcy protection, after a jury ordered him to pay $A6.74 million ($US5 million) in an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit.
The 40-year-old rapper-actor, whose real name is Curtis Jackson III, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in US District Court in Hartford on Monday. He owns a 50,000-square-foot mansion in nearby Farmington.
The filing lists both the assets and liabilities for the "Get Rich or Die Tryin"' artist as between $US10 million and $US50 million and indicates his debts are primarily consumer and not business related.
The filing comes after a New York jury on Friday ordered Jackson to pay $US5 million to a woman who said he acquired a video she made with her boyfriend, added himself as a crude commentator and posted it online without her permission.
The jury this week was scheduled to deliberate on possible further, punitive damages in Lastonia Leviston's invasion-of-privacy lawsuit against Jackson. But the filing may put the trial on hold. Jackson did not appear as scheduled on Monday to testify about his finances because of the bankruptcy filing, his lawyer said.
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"Mr. Jackson's business interests will continue unaffected in the ordinary course during the pendency of the Chapter 11 case," lawyer William A. Brewer III said in a statement. "This filing for personal bankruptcy protection permits Mr. Jackson to continue his involvement with various business interests and continue his work as an entertainer."
The lawsuit stems from a 13-minute video that appeared online in 2009, featuring a wig-wearing 50 Cent as a narrator dubbed Pimpin' Curly. He makes explicit remarks about the images and taunts rap rival Rick Ross, who isn't in the video but had previously had a daughter with Leviston. At the time the video surfaced, Ross and 50 Cent were trading barbs via video, lyrics and interviews.
Jackson got the tape from the man in it, Leviston's boyfriend at the time. The rapper said that he didn't actually post the video but that Leviston's then-boyfriend said she wouldn't mind if he did.
Dan Charnas, author of The Big Payback: The History of the Business of Hip-Hop, said the changing financial fortunes of Jackson is a sign of the times.
"I think what we see over and over again are rap artists joining the great American tradition of being exploited, climbing out of that exploitation and being an entrepreneur and creating equity, the great American tradition of amassing wealth and the great American tradition of squandering it,” Charnas told the Wall Street Journal.
