50 Cent Sues Taco Bell For "Diluting the Value of His Good Name"

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Rapper 50 Cent is suing Yum! Brands, and more specifically Taco Bell, after the fast food chain used his moniker in a hip-hop themed ad campaign without asking his permission or paying him a fee. In the lawsuit, Fiddy accuses the Bell of "diluting the value of his good name" when they encouraged the rapper to change his name to "79 Cent," "89 Cent" or "99 Cent" in an open letter addressed to 50 and distributed to the press. It's kind of like when Dr. Pepper penned that open letter to Axl Rose, offering free DP in exchange for Chinese Democracy, except that promotion seemed to make everybody happy. "As Taco Bell intended, many customers believed that 50 Cent had agreed to endorse Taco Bell's products. Indeed, postings on numerous Internet 'blogs' castigated 50 Cent for 'selling out' by his apparent endorsement of Taco Bell," the suit states. Yum! Brands has yet to comment.

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Song Stories

“Everyday People”

Sly and the Family Stone | 1968

"Everyday People" managed to trailblaze in two different ways -- it was one of the first pop hits to deal with the subject of racial harmony, and it utilized Larry Graham's "slap" technique on the bass guitar, which would soon be copied by countless other bassists. Graham once said about his pulsating style, "I'd never done that before … that's where the freedom of creativity came in for the band, that we'd be allowed to do that." In 1978, the song's line "Different strokes for different folks" would be borrowed for the title of the hit television show Diff'rent Strokes.

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