50 Cent tossed his hat into the audio market with his Sleek by 50 headphones, which sparked some ire from Dr. Dre, who was one of the first to enter the industry with Beats by Dre. During an interview with Gizmodo, Fif said he doesn’t exactly look at it like competition with the West Coast veteran and that the market isn’t narrow enough to put one ahead of the other.
“It depends on how you look at it. The category itself, how big is it? Is he in direct competition with me, or Bose or Sony? At this point, it’s just me creating what I feel like is the higher standard,” he said. “This is what I sit in the studio for after recording for the mastering process, to feel like it’s completely up to par and standard, so when people hear it, it registers the right way.”
50 did note that many rappers license their name for a product without overseeing the business side of things. With artists like Ludacris and RZA coming out with their own headphone lines, Fiddy is steering his company’s ship.
“For them, it’s a licensing agreement. They just put their name on it, and they really don’t have any control over what their company decides to sell under that brand later,” he says. “I’m actually CEO of the company.”