A judge will weigh defenses in rapper 50 Cent's life rights case

A New York judge has moved up oral arguments in 50 Cent's dispute with ex Shaniqua Tompkins, from January 2027 to September 22, 2026, at 11am in Manhattan. Justice Robert Reed will weigh G-Unit Books' effort to dismiss Tompkins' defenses and counterclaims that day, not decide the entire $1 million lawsuit.

The dispute centers on a 2007 contract in which G-Unit Books says it paid Tompkins an $80,000 advance for exclusive rights to her life story, along with promised royalties. The company accuses her of violating those rights by discussing 50 Cent, their son Marquise, and their relationship on her Instagram Live series, The Unspoken.

Tompkins says she received only $35,000 and signed the deal under pressure from people in 50 Cent's business circle. She has separately alleged physical abuse, including a claim tied to a 2005 confrontation over paperwork for the film Get Rich or Die Tryin', which his legal team has called false and unrelated to the 2007 agreement at issue in this case.

In March, the court rejected G-Unit's bid to win the case automatically, letting Tompkins continue presenting her defenses. AllHipHop first reported the dispute in July 2025, and HotNewHipHop says the fight is far from over. Elsewhere in the hip-hop rapper's year, Diddy accused Lil Rod of feeding stolen footage to a 50 Cent film, and Rick Ross's album Set In Stone missed the Top 20 as 50 Cent piled on.

Tompkins has described why she says she finally left the relationship: "The last straw for me was he hit me in front of my daughter," she said, explaining that she asked herself "what example am I setting for my daughter?" Her court filings separately allege that during the 2005 confrontation, 50 Cent "grabbed me by the hair, dragged to the other end of the office, pushed me to the floor and started choking me," an account his attorney, Lisa Coyle, has called false.