Eminem Turned Down Millions To Perform At World Cup With 50 Cent

Eminem had a chance to lose himself in the music, the moment (and the money) at last month's World Cup, but opted to let it go.

Rather than drop some bars in Qatar for $8 million, Slim Shady decided to stay stateside.

After all, what's another $8 million when you're reportedly worth $230 million?

The hip-hop legend's desire to punt on performing was relayed by fellow hip-hop artist 50 Cent. Had Eminem opted in, 50 would've joined him in Qatar, for considerably less.

"Because of the Super Bowl, I got an inquiry about World Cup and they had a budget of $9 million," 50 Cent said during an interview with Real 92.3's Big Boy's Neighborhood."I would've taken one and then the other eight would have been for him."

50 Cent and Eminem could've performed at the World Cup, but Eminem declined. (Photo by Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images).

Eminem Wasn't Interested

As 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson III, tells it, he took the offer to Eminem's team and they quickly shot down the idea. "They're like, 'He's not gonna do it,'" 50 Cent remembered. "If you would do a one-off show, maybe you would do the biggest live sporting event in the world."

Unless you're Eminem, apparently.

50 didn't elaborate as to why Eminem, real name, Marshall Mathers (or Slim Shady, depending who you ask), passed. My best guess is that even $8 million wasn't enough to sit on a plane for 18-20 hours (assuming he's flying from 8 Mile, near Detroit, obviously) to perform inside a stadium that wouldn't allow any hooch.

And it's not like he hasn't already performed on one of the world's biggest stages that happens to coincide with a sporting event. Last February he performed alongside 50 Cent, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige and Kendrick Lamar at Super Bowl LVI.

In the midst of, ya know, real football.

Then again, maybe it wasn't the fact that he already has hundreds of millions of dollars, or the long flight, or the having been there, done that. Maybe upon receiving the invite, he was just upset that World Cup officials forgot about Dre.

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