WorldStarHipHop.com Back Online – 50 Cent Backtracks, Deflects Responsibility – Homeland Security Involvement Unsubstantiated

By
Birthplace Magazine
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WorldStarHipHop back online - 50 Cent denies responsibilityMajor hip hop website WorldStarHipHop.com is apparently back up, after having been rendered inexplicably offline for most of the day, setting off an internet frenzy between one of hip hop’s most successful and vocal members, and one of the largest hip hop oriented websites in the world.

The hip hop web world has been on edge since the high profile seizure of several websites, including hip hop oriented OnSmash and RapGodfathers, by the Department of Homeland Security late last year. Immediately, the general consensus seemed to circulate around the possibility that WorldStarHipHop, essentially an aggregate site for video content, may have suffered the same fate.

In what ended up ultimately being a mildly entertaining twist on the event, soon after reports began circulating that WorldStarHipHop was offline, hip hop mogul 50 Cent, claimed responsibility for the shutdown, an allusion to his animosity with the site stemming from an active lawsuit where 50 Cent alleges unauthorized usage of his likeness.

Later in the day, in separate calls to Angie Martinez’s radio show on New York’s Hot 97, 50 Cent backtracked from his initial assertion that he had a hand in the shutdown, though left the idea open to possibility. For his part, Q, CEO and owner of WorldStarHipHop.com told Angie Martinez the issues were technical in nature, hinting at overloaded servers, denying that 50 Cent nor the government was behind the service outage.

As of about 9 p.m. EST, WorldStarHipHop seemed to be regaining it’s foothold, though initially seeming to struggle to load content, within an hour, it seemed as if things were pretty much back to normal. Some sources tell BirthplaceMag.com (and AllHipHop) that the issue indeed may have revolved around a copyright infringement, but that the issue had been resolved.

We’ll update as more becomes known.

50 Cent call to Angie Martinez’s show on Hot 97
[audio:50-worldstar.mp3]

Q, CEO of WorldStarHipHop.com, call to Angie Martinez
[audio:q-worldstar.mp3]