50 Cent Associate Shot

Authorities are investigating the shooting of a twenty-four-year-old member of rapper 50 Cent's G Unit posse at ten o'clock last night. The victim was shot in the leg in the lobby of New York's popular Hot 97 hip-hop/R&B radio station while 50 Cent was making an on-air appearance.

The attack occurred shortly after the rapper made a live statement that he was ousting West Coast gangsta rapper -- and breakout hip-hop star -- the Game from his G Unit group. (When he discovered the Game a few years ago, Dr. Dre pushed for his inclusion in the hip-hop faction.)

Last Saturday, the Game, whose Dre-produced debut, The Documentary, debuted at Number One in January, had made an appearance at Hot 97, at which he dismissed comments 50 Cent makes against Queens rapper Nas in the track "Piggy Back," leaked before the official release of 50's upcoming album, The Massacre. Perhaps in an effort to avoid an escalating battle, the Game even suggested he might collaborate on a track with Nas.

"Everywhere we go, there's people hanging around," Game associate Roderick Johnson told Rolling Stone after a shooting at the Game's home in early February. "We know history...We look at Biggie, at Tupac. We aren't going to let nobody get so close to our man." One of the Game's closest friends and one of his older brothers were both fatally shot by gangbangers.

The Massacre, 50 Cent's follow-up to his 2003 blockbuster debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin', hits stores Thursday.

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Song Stories

“(We're Not) The Jet Set”

George Jones and Tammy Wynette | 1973

George Jones and Tammy Wynette were still married when they recorded the tongue-in-cheek "(We're Not) The Jet Set." The lyrics, written by Nashville songwriter Bobby Braddock, who also penned Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" and Jones' "He Stopped Loving Her Today," make fun of the good life by declaring, "We're not the Jet Set/We're the old Chevrolet set." Braddock recalled that while writing the song, he needed the name of a city that evened out the rhyme he had with "Riviera" and "Missourah." “I got out a Rand McNally atlas," he said. "In the first part are the maps. The last part is an alphabetical listing of cities. I wanted a rustic, small-time sound. I went to the listing for Missouri. And I found 'Festus.' I loved the sound of it."

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