Is 50 Cent’s ‘beef’ with Shreveport elected official a distraction?

by: Marlo Lacen
 
Shreveport City Councilman Alan Jackson learned no one is safe if they get on the wrong side of media mogul Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson.
 
While the two men share a surname, it doesn’t appear that they will be smiling in photos as they did during the lead-up to the Humor and Harmony Festival nearly two years ago, shortly after Curtis Jackson announced his intentions to bring his G-Unit Film and TV production to Shreveport.
 
When Jackson ceremonially “signed the lease” for Millennium Studios in April 2024, Councilman Alan Jackson started his introduction of the entertainer before a large crowd assembled at Government Plaza by saying, “I want to welcome 50 Cent to our home.”
 
What the local Jackson has learned since then is what many entertainers and online stargazers already know: 50 Cent’s affinity is fleeting, and a person can go from perceived friend to foe overnight. Evidence of this is chronicled in many online articles that have tracked his qualms with everyone from his eldest son to Vivica A. Fox to rapper T.I.’s wife and children, no one is safe.
 
It gets less safe when you add the thoughts, jokes, and opinions of online observers and content creators.
 
One example is comedian Shuler King. King is known for reacting to viral moments, history, politics, and life in general. In a video reposted by 50 Cent, King, who is from South Carolina, discusses Jackson’s Shreveport endeavor, highlighting Jackson’s big-money moves to save Shreveport from itself while criticizing “the politician” who would dare question a process. The politician in question was on record early in support of 50’s endeavors, even before Mayor Tom Arceneaux.
 
While the typical signs of productions underway are nowhere in sight, the spotlight on Shreveport is increasing. Jackson’s latest public online disagreement is now part of the social media discourse. With Shreveport natives, ex-pats, current residents, and folks who didn’t know Shreveport existed watching and wondering, what’s next?
 
The G-Unit buzz and excitement were real
Each 50 Cent announcement related to Shreveport has generated excitement, and the AI renderings show that a solid prompt yields a detailed visual. But what is reality?
 
In June 2024, Orville Hall, G-Unit’s Growth Advisor, told KTAL News that the mogul was implementing a three-phase plan to invest in Shreveport. The first phase, according to Hall, was “revitalization projects and purchasing plenty of real estate.” The real estate purchases have been made; Jackson reportedly owns a lot of downtown property and may have the largest portfolio of any downtown property owner. However, revitalization efforts are slower than acquisitions, especially when they must go through the filter of public-private partnerships.
 
G-Unit Studios is, at best, a work in progress – and at worst, unkempt with ripped awnings and vines growing into fencing in one area, and litter entangled with overgrown grass. It is not quite ready to pump out industry blockbusters, which was Jackson’s original purpose when “eyeing” Shreveport. The last public mention of the studio came when members of Jackson’s team were asked about progress or a potential timeline for productions during a city council meeting. His team retorted that flooding was delaying efforts to get the studio ready for the promised “high production value” content. The City of Shreveport still owns the facility, which is leased to Jackson at a low annual rate, and requires him to provide equipment and make facility and maintenance upgrades, repairs.
 
It was at the time the rampant “flooding” was highlighted that residents learned the clock had been reset and that Jackson was given more time to start what he had been hinting at since a trip to the famed B&H Video during a livestream on Instagram where Jackson could be heard saying, “I’m not renting, I’m buying every single piece of equipment and putting it in my studio.”
 
Humor & Harmony, which was first touted as annual, then semi-annual, then maybe a parade, to maybe in 2026, was supposed to be Jackson’s hitch to draw visitors to Shreveport. Because the city can’t become an entertainment draw without visitors. No word on the festival’s return, however, advertisements for Jackson’s brands are printed on signage wrapped around parking lots along Spring Street, which Jackson also owns.
 
There is no doubt that since KTAL News drone captured the day that Jackson and a small entourage toured Millennium Studios, he has had a massive impact on the city of Shreveport.
 
His Humor and Harmony festival was a test for a small city to host hundreds of thousands of people, and the city did so without any incidents of violence. The lighted dome was a great attraction, the entertainment was high-level, and the food-and-drink experience Jackson curated was high-quality.
 
He doesn’t need to sell locals on his personability or his ability to have a good time. With his recent $500K donation to local nonprofits that support victims of abuse and sexual assault, he doesn’t have to prove to the people that he is generous and has a heart.
 
But action and development are more than just the “motion and allure” of an Instagram scammer hopping on and off private jets and making it rain in the club. And taking the lead on “revitalizing” a city takes more than AI renderings and targeting public officials who simply question a process on behalf of constituents, as Alan Jackson explained after his name was a trending topic.
 
When he announced that he would launch G-Unit Studios in Shreveport, it was like a pressure valve release, or an explosion of fresh air.
 
Creatives in the area were ready, small business owners were hopeful, and positive news had the rest of Louisiana finally paying attention to Shreveport. The studio, where Olympus Has Fallen was shot, a decade before Jackson’s first visit, would go from underutilized to booming again. But two years after he announced his plan to build something inspired by Tyler Perry Studios in Atlanta, there is no sighting of any production, and no visual progress.
 
No signs indicating crew holding areas, no trailers filled with film or TV equipment, not even a groundskeeper on site to spruce it up and cut the vines. Two years after he announced plans to put Shreveport on par with Las Vegas as an entertainment Mecca, we have only controversy, name-calling, and bickering – all elements of the 50 Cent brand.