Entertainment

'Vanderpump Rules' Is Robbing Us of the Fofty Beef

Let's revisit the feud that put Lala Kent, Randall Emmett, and 50 Cent in the Celebrity Messiness Hall of Fame (since Bravo wont).
Alex Zaragoza
Brooklyn, US
Fofty
Brad Barkett (L); Jean Baptiste Lacroix (R)

"I'm sorry Fofty" stands high in the ranks of unforgettable celebrity soundbites, up there with "How Sway" and "fuck it, we'll do it live." It originated from a celebrity feud involving the king of messy online drama, rapper-actor-producer 50 Cent, and Randall Emmett, a Hollywood producer and the fiancé of Vanderpump Rules star Lala Kent. The show may have neglected to cover this perfectly meme-worthy moment, so we'd be remiss if we didn't recount it about one year later, as the end of Vanderpump Rules' eighth season draws near.

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It all started on April 26 of last year when 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, posted a clip on Instagram of Kent boasting that Emmett gifted her a Range Rover the day after having sex with him on their first date. He captioned the post, “10 seconds left in the 4 quarter hoe’s are Winning. Do you want A range rover, yes, bitch yassss. Then just run out and suck a dick. LOL smh.” He also called Emmett, who is said to be the basis for the character "Turtle" in Entourage, a "sucker" in the comments.

Kent, a notoriously bulldog on Vanderpump Rules, didn't take too kindly to the post, responding, "She swears she’s a thug from south side Jamaica queens & she’s up in here watching Bravo. Someone has forgotten where they come from. Coming for me on the gram!? I smell fish coming from fifty’s direction.” I asked a much younger person who explained that Kent effectively called 50 Cent a Bravo-watching pussy. Brave, really. That was enough to awaken the beast in 50, a 44-year-old man who gains his physical and spiritual strength by eating drama for breakfast, like Popeye eating spinach or Kylie Jenner getting a fresh round of fillers.

After Kent's comeback, 50 swung back hard, alleging that Emmett, his former co-producer on the Starz drama Power, owed him $1 million from a business deal, and demanded payment by the following Monday. 50 posted screenshots of texts from Emmett where he begged the rapper to ease up on him, claiming he was heading to the ER because the situation was possibly giving him a heart attack. Within those messages was the typo that would take this feud into the Celebrity Messiness Hall of Fame. "I said I'm sorry fofty," pleaded Emmett, and a new catchphrase was born, and in the words of Drake (another recurring target of 50's ridicule), nothing was the same.

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For months Fofty didn't relent, posting a cross stitch reading "forgive me fofty"; a photo depicting Bruce Banner as 50 and The Hulk as Fofty, his monstrous alter ego; photos of friends and colleagues in different Fofty-themed shirts he himself sold and made good money off of; and various internet videos and other posts captioned with a reminder to Emmett that 50 wants his #MoneyByMonday. There were countless memes; accusations of cocaine use; the #metoo movement was dragged into it; Emmett's ex-wife got in the mix, as did Chrissy Teigen, who noted she would never want to be on Fifty's bad side, posting "please love me fofty" on Twitter. 50 even posted that Emmett should ask Teigen for help in the matter. The man was relentless in coming for Rand, assuring him that it would all go away once the check cleared. That was certainly a promise that couldn't be made considering screenshots are forever, and the people just don't forget beef of this magnitude.

During an appearance on Watch What Happens Live in August, 50 answered a lightning round of answers in a segment titled "Spill the FofTEA." 50 told host Andy Cohen he had no regrets about taking his beef to social media, saying "It got me paid right away." Kent appeared on the show in September, and when asked about the situation she said, "I feel really badly for Rand at times because he signed up to be a movie producer, and he just happened to fall for someone who's like very out there and outspoken." However, Kent said she listened to 50 Cent's "In the Club" on her 30th birthday and took pride in having gotten under the rapper's skin. "I think I really dinged Fofty's ego. In fact, I know that because I have a receipt to prove that, which I would never post because I ain't that girl. I ain't beefing unless I'm gettin' paid on 'Vanderpump,' yo," she said.

At the beginning of 2020, it seemed like the players in this drama everyone had moved on. But fans of Vanderpump Rules (myself included) frothed at the mouth, waiting to see the primo, grade A beef play out on the show when season 8 premiered in January. But four months into the season, which wrapped filming in August, and there's been no mention at all of the dreaded fofty affair. Save for a small dustup between Kent and her sometimes-enemy James Kennedy, who commented of 50's posts and posted a meme alluding to the scandal, there's been no in-depth rehashing of the feud that blew up the internet. Considering Kent's insistence on existence of receipts, and the first anniversary being the paper anniversary (the material receipts are generally made out of), I have to ask why the fight has been mostly omitted on Vanderpump Rules. Why hasn't Kent addressed it on the show where it would, indeed, get her Vander-paid, yo? With six more episodes left in the season, there's still time to drag the squabble out a little more, especially if 50 is still at it.

We can safely assume he is. In March when stay-at-home orders were put in place, Kent and Emmett postponed their wedding, and 50 promptly turned to social media to post a screenshot of the announcement with the caption "wasn't nobody going to this shit anyway." This came just weeks after 50 pledged to stop arguing with people following the death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, which caused him to reevaluate his choices. His break from messiness was short, but we knew our king would return.

The beef still stands, at least on 50's side for his own personal amusement. That means the fofty saga continues, and we're all blessed to be on the sidelines of it.