Is 50 Cent perpetuating the absentee dad cycle?
OPINION - It seems Jackson, despite his wealth and perhaps doing better earlier in is son’s life, has fallen into that same cycle of absenteeism that his father created for him...
Funny enough, I’ve always thought of Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson as a good father. Years ago when Jackson was heaviest into the promotion of his G-Unit clothing line, he appeared in a series of ads with his son Marquis, then about 10 (as he is shown in the pictures here), and Jackson seemed uber-proud of his progeny. Even off the magazine pages, Dad and son dressed alike with their du-rags tied identically, their hats sitting just so on their domes, and their baggy jeans from Dad’s clothing line slung around their hips similarly. In so many of the images, Jackson drapes an arm around his son, protectively.
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, Jackson credited his son with changing with his life, saying he couldn’t continue to sell drugs once he was born. On a scale of 1-10, he rated himself an 8 as a father. “I look at my son as having the ability to create a better version of myself,” Jackson said wistfully of Marquis.
Remembering those images, that video makes me wonder how the Jacksons—father and son—went from that to well, the string of expletive-filled messages Jackson sent to his son in January. What went wrong?
Backstory on an unfortunate incident
Earlier this week, Radar Online published a lengthy text conversation between Jackson and his son after a visit went inexplicably wrong. In the conversation, Jackson says when he knocked on the door of the home, someone turned the lights off and he saw his son looking out of the window. Marquis denied doing that, and immediately, Jackson became irate that the boy had wasted his time. “Good luck in life. Your gonna need it,” he typed dismissively.
The conversation quickly went down hill from there with Jackson typing, “f**k you” to his son, questioning whether he was the child’s father—anyone who’s ever seen Marquise knows he’s the splitting image of his father—and insulting the child’s mother in graphic terms as a woman who had been promiscuous when Jackson dated her. As a final blow, he added, “Tell your mother she won. She has you and [I’ll] make another. I will have nothing to do with you. Don’t text me ever again.”
To the 16 year old’s credit, Marquise actually acted more like the adult in this situation by not sinking to his father’s level. Despite Jackson’s harsh words, the kid maintained his composure firing back with “Pops ur trippen now,” “no need to get upset,” and “No need for all that.” He’s either the most mature teenager in the world, or he’s accustomed to his father’s verbal missives.
Did 50 Cent disown his son over fight?
It was a shameful tirade, one that many people derided Jackson for. But on his Twitter account after the story broke, Jackson didn’t apologize. He took the whole thing a step further, claiming that Marquise’s mother, with whom Jackson has a tumultuous relationship, was actually the one responding to his texts—not his son. “She hate me for Winning, it’s hard to replace me,” Jackson tweeted. And then he added that he had deleted his son from his will. “When I pass away all my physical property’s and MOST of my money go’s to charities and TIFFANY LIGHTY,” he wrote, referencing the daughter of his former manager Chris Lighty who committed suicide last year. “When I’m done she can be 50cent.”
This whole drama is as sad. Jackson’s immediate flip out on his son points to a built up frustration and also a hurt that he didn’t or couldn’t properly articulate. If you can read beyond the curses, it’s clear that Jackson felt rejected by his son’s alleged reaction to seeing him, and he completely lost it. (Of course, that in no way justifies the way he spoke to his child.)
Perpetuating the absentee dad cycle
I suppose it should come as no surprise to anyone who’s followed Jackson’s battles with other rappers, and er, Oprah, that he’s not the most emotionally mature adult, but I expected him to be better than that when it came to parenting his child, whom reportedly he hasn’t talked to or seen since this text exchange. Why? Because it’s his child, and Jackson is the only father the kid has, and while cursing at him is bad enough, disowning him—in private and public—is just plain cruel.
Someone needs to act like the adult in this situation—and as the actual adult, the father, the onus is on Jackson.
Maybe Jackson doesn’t understand the extraordinary role a father has in a child’s life, as he was not raised with one. Oprah asked him in that aforementioned interview — whether he’d ever longed for a father, and Jackson sidestepped the question to talk about his grandfather who was a father-figure to him. Close, but not enough.
It seems Jackson, despite his wealth and perhaps doing better earlier in is son’s life, has fallen into that same cycle of absenteeism that his father created for him. It’s a tragedy in and of itself, made even worse by being played out in a public forum. Hopefully, this situation between father and son will work out eventually for the highest good.
Demetria L. Lucas is the author of “A Belle in Brooklyn: The Go-to Girl for Advice on Living Your Best Single Life” (Atria), in stores now. Follow her on Twitter @abelleinbk.
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