The team’s manager Richie Brown has explained that a parent of one of the AFC Rumney players had worked with 50 Cent on a recent tour, and was urged by some other keen parents to “see if you can get some sponsorship out of him for us”.

Brown commented on the matter, “He said he would ask the question – worst case scenario was [50 Cent] would have just said no. Thankfully he didn’t, he agreed to it. He sponsored our away kit first of all, and then we were a little bit cheeky. We asked for a little bit more, and he sponsored us again for our tracksuits.”

 The team plan to debut their new kits next week for their first away game of the season. Richie Brown said the team are also “going to get a few photos taken and sent over to him, then hopefully he can give us a good luck video or something to acknowledge it all. We’re massively appreciative of everything he’s doing for us right now. We love the support.”

We feel absolutely over the moon that our u14s Girls have been sponsored by World Known Superstar Actor / Music Producer @50cent @gunitbrand

He has provided our girls with a brand new, top quality tracksuits & away kit which we look forward to wearing this season

Thank You pic.twitter.com/l957VejqJx

— Cardiff BluebellesFC (@CBluebellesFC) October 5, 2023

After being discovered by rapper Eminem, New York born 50 Cent shot to fame back in 2003 with his smash hit “In Da Club”. Additionally, G-Unit was an American Hip-Hop group that included 50 Cent, alongside Tony Yayo and Lloyd Banks.

Due to the rapper’s mid-naughties fame, team manager Brown seems to think that despite the players being excited, the sponsorship is an even bigger hit with the parents. “I’m sure more of them know who he is than the players because of their ages, but the buzz around the team and the whole club really is amazing and its all down to him.”

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A post shared by D12 (@d12officialpage)

The group will be heading over to the UK for a 6 date run of shows to commemorate their album with fans.

D12 was formed in 1996 by rapper Proof, who assembled other rappers local to Detroit, Michigan to be part of the ensemble. The group originally consisted of Proof, Bizarre, Mr. Porter, Kuniva and Bugz.

Global superstar Eminem later joined the group in 1999, along with Swifty McVay, following Bugz’s death. However, only Swifty McVay and Kuniva will be present on the upcoming tour.

The supergroup were signed to Eminem’s Shady Records and released two albums. Their debut, 2001’s Devil’s Night, launched them to success by reaching the number one spot on the US Billboard 200 chart and sold 372,000 copies in it’s first week. The album also saw D12 become an award winning group, as they were celebrated as the Best Hip-Hop/Urban Artist (International) at the 2002 ECHO Awards.

D12 followed this with their second and final album, D12 World, which turns 20 years old next year. The lead single “My Band” was a smash hit, which led to the LP also landing the number one spot on the US Billboard 200 chart.

“My Band” reached the top spot in Australia and on the US Rhythmic Top 40, the Top 5 in the UK and Germany, and Top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, making it a fan favourinte, and one of the group’s most successful songs to date. “My Band” is certified platinum in Australia, New Zealand and United Kingdom, and gold in Germany, Norway and United States.

The group disbanded in 2018, just two years after founding member Proof tragically passed away in a shooting in 2016. Many believed this to be the cause D12’s split, and Eminem soon confirmed this in the form of lyrics in his 2018 song “Stepping Stone” from the album Kamikaze. The rapper mentions D12 multiple times in the track, which includes lyrics such as “‘Cause the truth is, the moment that Proof died, so did the group“, and “It’s not goodbye to our friendship, but D12 is over”.

Tickets for the D12 World 20th anniversary tour will go on sale Friday 22nd September at 10am. For more information and to purchase tickets, click here.

Tour dates:

06/12/2023 – O2 Ritz – Manchester

07/12 – XOYO – Birmingham

08/12 – Electric Ballroom – London

09/12 – SWX – Bristol

11/12 – Tramshed – Cardiff

12/12 – Engine Rooms – Southampton

“Whenever I Want”, which was released on the 3^rd April, is Mura Masa’s first material released as an independent artist since his 2015 debut EP Someday Somewhere. The track was released on Mura Masa’s new label Pond Recordings. The artist from Guernsey wrote on his Twitter that the single is the “first of a new series of records” and that it is the start of a “new era” for him.

new music tomorrow. Love u x pic.twitter.com/hNxpNMRyeH

— xander (@mura_masa_) April 2, 2023

The song samples vocals from the beginning of American hip hop collective Outsidaz’s track “Macosa” featuring rapper Eminem and sets it to a scatty jungle beat.

Sending the viewer on a nauseatingly dizzy trip, the music video features a 360-degree rotating camera rig and stars fans of the artist spinning in a warm-lit liminal rave setting. The video was shot by London-based directors known as the Reids, brothers Ed and Will, who have previously worked with brands such as Nike, Adidas, Converse, Stone Island, Dazed Magazine, i-D Magazine, and Hypebeast.

Watch the video for “Whenever I Want” below:

Mura Masa, aka Alexander Crossan, takes his alias from the legendary Japanese swordsman Sengo Muramasa. He first started making electronic music using Ableton Live at 16 and later uploaded it to Soundcloud where it was picked up by BBC Radio 1 DJs. His self-titled debut LP was nominated Best Recording Package and Best Dance/Electronic Album at the 60th Annual Grammy Awards in 2018 and he took home the award for Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical the following year for his remix of Haim’s track “Walking Away“.

One of Crossan’s best-known tracks is 2016’s “Love$ick” featuring American rapper A$AP Rocky which skyrocketed to number one on the Spotify Viral charts in both the UK and the US. Recently, the artist achieved huge success with the single “Boy’s a Liar pt. 2” he co-produced for Pinkpantheress and Ice Spice, which peaked at number three on the US Billboard Hot 100.

Known for his collaborations, Crossan’s discography is crammed with a variety of other stars such as Charli XCX, Nile Rodgers, Christine and the Queens, Damon Albarn, Slowthai, Clario, Lil Uzi Vert, Shygirl, Ariana Grande, and Stormzy. For his LP demon time, he collaborated with Lil Uzi, Shygirl, & PinkPatheress on his cover of “Baby Cakes”  and with Pa Salieu & Skillbeng on his single “Blessing Me”.

Mura Masa also announced he’ll be playing two dates in California this month in between his performances at the Coachella weekends.

Liam spoke to the BBC about the lyrics. He said he “feels sorry” that Eminem has effectively resorted to “shock tactics”.

Liam said: “It all just felt like an old comedian who can’t get on the telly anymore just saying something outrageous,”

He further added: “I just felt a bit sorry for him. I just felt like he’s jumping the shark a bit.”

Liam took to Twitter, posting a very short message aimed at the US rapper as seen below:

Eminem can get to fuck.

— Liam Fray (@What_Liam_Said) January 19, 2020

Eminem’s eleventh studio album, ‘Music To Be Murdered By’ was released on January 17. The Courteeners recently released the last single, ‘Hanging From Your Cloud’ from their new album, out on the same day.

They are now on course to challenge Eminem for the number one spot in the UK Album Charts this week, with ‘More. Again. Forever’.

NME responded positively to the sixth effort from the Middleton music makers.

It reads: “‘More. Again. Forever’ strikes a mature balance. It’s escapist in its sound but humane in its approach to the world. It’s experimental but familiar, and tests what the band are capable of while proving to be their more focussed work to date.”

The ten-track record from the band contains previously released singles ‘Heavy Jacket’, ‘Better Man’, as well as the titular song ‘More. Again. Forever.’

In an interview with NME, Liam opened up on the band’s sixth album, hailing it as ‘groove-based’ and ‘escapist’.

Fray added: “To us, the songs have just got to be explosive and blow you away live.”

He went on: “There are only a couple of delicate moments, which is why it’s a shame that the album’s not there yet for the tour. Maybe we’ll just have to do a few more gigs next year.”

Kamikaze – out now

The album’s artwork is also a neat reference to The Beastie Boys’ 1986 album Licensed To Ill. See the tracklist below:

1.The Ringer
2.Greatest
3. Lucky You (feat. Joyner Lucas)
4. Paul – Skit
5. Normal
6. Em Calls Paul – Skit
7. Stepping Stone
8. Not Alike (feat. Royce Da 5’9′)
9. Fall
10. Kamikaze
11. Nice Guy (feat. Jessie Reyez)
12. Good Guy (feat. Jessie Reyez)
13. Venom – Music from the Motion Picture

While executive production was handled by Eminem and Dr. Dre, a load of other artists were involved, too: fellow Detroit rapper Royce Da 5’9″ features on ‘Not Alike’, rapper-poet Joyner Lucas guests on ‘Lucky You’, and Canadian singer Jessie Rayez appears on ‘Nice Guy’ and ‘Good Guy’, with Mike WiLL Made-It, Boi-1da, Ronny J and Tay Keith also listed as producers.

Kamikaze is Eminem’s first release since Revival, which came out late last year to mixed reviews. In the Editors’ Notes on the Apple Music release, more detail is uncovered about the thoughts behind the new record. Having ‘heard the doubts about his relevance’, in Kamikaze he ‘issues [his] brutal rebuttal': ‘Kamikaze feels like 2002 again—Eminem blowing off steam and blowing up the high road, rapping angry, yet in total control’.

Amongst Eminem’s lyrical victims are ‘Auto-Tune rappers’ in ‘Not Alike’, South-African hip-hop group Die Antwoord in ‘Greatest’, and Donald Trump, for whom he reserves a special contempt in ‘The Ringer’. Balanced against his attacks, though, are lyrics of concern and possible regret, as Eminem traces his diminishing fanbase to his explicit anti-Trump activism. In a strange turn on ‘The Ringer’, Slim even claims that he was approached by secret service agents for possible terrorist links:

‘Cause Agent Orange just sent the Secret Service
To meet in person to see if I really think of hurtin’ him
Or ask if I’m linked to terrorists
I said, “Only when it comes to ink and lyricists.”

But Justin Vernon, Eminem’s collaborator on ‘Fall’, thinks the song went too far. Featuring some of Kamikaze‘s harshest and most offensive lyrics, in ‘Fall’ the rapper takes shots against young rappers like Tyler, The Creator.  In a series of posts yesterday on his Twitter page, the Bon Iver frontman expressed regret at the appearance:

Eminem is one of the best rappers of all time , there is no doubt. I have and will respect that. Tho, this is not the time to criticize Youth, it’s the time to listen. To act. It is certainly not the time for slurs. Wish they would have listened when we asked them to change it

— blobtower (@blobtower) August 31, 2018

After a brief musical detour with 2013’s The Marshall Mathers LP 2, Revival will see the MC complete a musical trilogy of albums, which also includes 2009’s Relapse, and 2010’s Recovery.

Em first announced his return with the track ‘Walk on Water’, a collaboration with Beyonce, which was also performed by the pair, to open the recent MTV European Music Awards.

The build-up to Revival has been masterful, stirring fans up into something approaching a frenzy, with a series of cryptic posts, involving fake pharmaceutical adverts, which were financed by Eminem’s label Interscope. A hotline, a TV ad, and a website were all found, advertising medication for a fictional ailment called ‘Atroxus Rithimus’, with all three featuring direct lyrical references to Eminem’s Oscar-winning track ‘Lose Yourself.’

More evidence of new @Eminem album. Online ad for Revival in the @freep was placed by Interscope Records. pic.twitter.com/fmI8Xvc9ai

— Maxwell White (@MaxWhiteWXYZ) October 26, 2017

Here’s what happens when you call 1-833-243-8738, the number for Eminem’s new album, “REVIVAL” pic.twitter.com/yWbf2Zk9Hr

— Ryan Christensen (@rnchristensen) October 26, 2017

Things have been taken further still by Eminem’s mentor, and fellow hip-hop icon Dr. Dre, who posted a Revival advert on his Instagram page, with the caption ‘Use as prescribed by your doctor’, crucially revealing that the album would be released on December 15. As yet we know no further details of the album’s length, tracklisting, or features list, but given the wait for the album is less than three weeks, expect these to drop shortly.

Use as prescribed by your doctor. @eminem

A post shared by Dr. Dre (@drdre) on Nov 28, 2017 at 12:05pm PST

The website is named ‘askaboutrevival’ and you can see it here. It is cleverly riddled with Eminem lyrics all over the website and has a short advert for the drug on the home page, which all seems to be a huge marketing scheme to promote the upcoming album. The biggest giveaway however is that the E in ‘Revival’ is backwards, exactly like how Eminem has it on all of his logos.

Some quotes on the website that strengthen the connection to Eminem are “REVIVAL could be music to your ears” and “seize the moment”, a great one liner from the 8 mile track “Lose Yourself”, which is also quoted in the video when the actor says “I won’t waste my one shot”. The website also displays “but if you have them you should for sure seek medical attention, I need a doctor”, which clearly hints at Eminem’s smash hit with Skylar Grey, as well as the tune playing in the background of the video and when you call up the Revival hotline. Calling this gets you through to a pre-recording of the side effects of the medication, and ends with “Thank you for continuing to hold – we give you some serious fucking credit for sticking with this”.

This comes after Eminem, whose real name is Marshall Mathers, manager posted a photo on Instagram yesterday (October 25) promoting another artists release Trail By Fire by Yelawolf. But the secret lies in the background of Interscope records owner Paul Rosenberg’s photo, where you can see an advertisement for the non-existing drug ‘Revival’ on a large billboard poster on a building. He even captioned the image ‘look what arrived in the shady offices today’. Again another hint at Eminem, who also uses ‘Slim Shady’ as a stage name. See it for your self here.

Eminem’s label Interscope records seem to be responsible for the fake medication idea that supposedly treats ‘Atrox Rithimus’, and this isn’t the first time they’ve done something like this. In 2009 the award winning rapper promoted the release of his album Relapse by creating a similar fake website that was for a fake rehab clinic named Popsomp Hills (Pop Some Pills).

There has been no official announcement regarding Marshall’s next album release date or if the title really is ‘Revival’, but it seems to be pretty obvious that it’s going to be, and makes sense as its very similar too his previous album names Relapse (2008) and Recovery (2010). Earlier this month Eminem appeared on the BET Hip Hop Awards, where he freestyled a very political based rap against USA President Donald Trump, that earned a lot of media attention, and made it clear he is still relevant and ready to release new music, so the wait is on.

The confirmation of the Detroit rapper as a headliner has fuelled rumours surrounding Eminem, with many speculating that he is readying himself to release new music this year.  This August’s festival will be the first time that Eminem has returned to the festival since his triumphant set in 2013, and Festival organiser Melvin Benn was elated to see him returning, telling the press “Eminem returning to Reading and Leeds is beyond exciting. His 2013 headline performance was incredible and I can’t wait to have him back.

“In addition to our third and final headliner – joining Kasabian and Muse – we’ve announced over 70 additional acts to this year’s lineup – it’s looking stronger than ever.”

A third wave of acts were announced for the weekend, as well as Eminem, including  Haim, Circa Waves, INHEAVEN, Avelino, Bear’s Den, Toothless, Blossoms, Cabbage, Everything Everything, Giggs, Milky Chance, Ray BLK, Sundara Karma, The Amazons and Tom Grennan. Reading and Leeds takes place over the August Bank holiday  weekend (25th-27th) in the UK, and tickets are available now.

Despite having agreed terms with the festival’s promoters AEG, a Freedom Of Information request by The Daily Mirror shows that the deal was vetoed by Royal Parks, the body that runs Hyde Park, due to concerns that his lyrics would unsettle other Hyde Park visitors.

The decision was referred to Boris Johnson, however, his chief of staff Sir Edward Lister said: “Until receipt of both emails I had no knowledge of Eminem and his style of music and still do not.” It was then adjudged to be a decision for Royal Parks to make.

The Daily Mirror’s article goes on to speak of how AEG’s Jim King responded to the initial decision by stating “I don’t want to split hairs but I do question how easy it is for any offensive lyrics to be heard and actually understood outside of our event site,” adding that he was not “aware of any other case whereby he has been prevented from performing in the UK”.

Tickets for the rapper’s show at Wembley Stadium on July 11th went on sale this morning very briefly before selling out completely. The second date, announced for the following day (July 12th), has already seen a significant portion of tickets sold despite not being announced until after tickets for the first performance had already sold out.

When speaking to BBC Radio 1’s Zane Lowe earlier this week, the rapper announced that he is not currently looking to do lengthy tours. Instead, he is hoping to focus on selling out big arena shows as “right now, that’s working for [him]”.

It has been less than a year since Eminem came to the UK to perform at Reading & Leeds Festival 2013, meaning that his fans in the UK won’t have had too long to wait before getting another opportunity to see him perform live.

To see if you can get your hands on tickets, try the Ticketmaster website.