DINH DOONG

In a recent interview with the TV host, the rapper explains why he once disparaged her audience, and later named his dog “Oprah.”

 

Oprah Winfrey and 50 Cent have ended their six-year feud.

The talk show host and the rapper sat down for an interview on OWN’s Oprah’s Next Chapter to sort out their differences. Among them, Winfrey said she had taken offense when 50 — whose real name is Curtis Jackson — once said of her daytime talk show: “Oprah’s audience is my audience’s parents, so I could care less about Oprah or her show.”

 

During the interview — which took place at the Queens, N.Y., house of Jackson’s grandparents, who raised him after his mother’s death in 1983 — Jackson indicated that he was surprised the interview with Winfrey was actually happening.

 

“This is a huge milestone for me — just being in your presence and on the show,” he said. “That’s a huge accomplishment.” (The two even embraced before the interview got under way.)

Winfrey went on to ask Jackson about his “audience” comment and brought up her own public criticism of rappers’ use of the N-word and misogynistic lyrics in their music.

“I would see moments when you would discuss your feelings on the culture and everything that was wrong with the culture was what was on my CD, and I was like, ‘Oh, she doesn’t like me’,” Jackson said. “I was saying, ‘If I can’t be your friend, at least let me be your enemy, so I co-exist.’”

Replied Winfrey: “That’s interesting. I don’t spend a lot of time looking at people who don’t like me, but I did hear that you said something like I had white women in my audience that were as old as your grandmother. I felt that that was a pointed criticism. Did you say things about me to be provocative, or did you just not like me?”

Answered Jackson: “I was saying it’s a conservative audience — their kids are listening to it, and they look for something that allows them to be a little rebellious — that’s rap and roll.”

Winfrey said she couldn’t understand why her criticism of rap music lyrics led Jackson to think she didn’t like him personally.

“I think it’s so interesting that you thought that because I was against the use of the N-word, violence and singing about violence and misogynism, meant that I did not like you, because I did not know you,” she said.

 

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But the two agreed to disagree about the use of the N-word.

“When you’re actually using it with malice in your heart, you can feel the difference,” Jackson said.

Winfrey also asked Jackson about his decision to name his dog after her.

“That was not a compliment,” she said. “I heard you had a bitch named Oprah.”

“At the time, I was just looking at the situation and I saw I was developing negative feelings for someone who doesn’t even know me — and I gave it to the dog,” he replied.

Meanwhile, Jackson also revealed his softer side to Winfrey, telling her that he paints his grandmother’s toenails because she is unable to reach them and giving her a tour of the pink bedroom he sleeps in at his grandparents’ house.