50 Cent
On the same day that his book, The 50th Law, co-written by The 48 Laws of Power author Robert Greene, hit #9 on the bestseller list, rapper 50 Cent was reportedly rushed to the hospital.
Initial word of the event was noticed and quickly repeated throughout the social world of Twitter, and while in the past, such alerts have turned out to be false, similar tweets were seen from known friends and associates, such as Tony Yayo (@tonyyayo).
However, a posting on his highly-trafficked website www.thisis50.com explains:
…employees say that 50 Cent was listening to Fat Joe’s new album, “J.O.S.E. 2” when all the sudden, he collapsed. Doctors say after performing a Cat Scan and EKG there seems to be some damage to his auditory cortex, which is the region of the brain that is responsible for processing sound.
The “news” was then followed by a link to download a pirated copy of Bronx rapper Fat Joe’s new album, with the toungue-in-cheek warning “DOWNLOAD AT YOUR OWN RISK!”. The twitter-fueled marketing ploy is an extension of past “beef” between the two artists.
Say what you will about 50 Cent, but using the proven by-product of Twitter to facilitate false rumors to his advantage is a shrewd move in a time when obtaining online buzz becomes more difficult as more entities master established methods.
The following video was later released:
