Murder Inc. Plot Thickens

Federal investigators believe that convicted drug dealer Kenneth “Supreme” McGriff and employees of rap label Murder Inc. plotted to kill 50 Cent as revenge for a song detailing McGriff’s past, according to newly released law enforcement documents.

Internal Revenue Service criminal investigator Francis Mace wrote in the 2003 document, which was an application to search Murder Inc.’s office, that investigators believed the May 2000 shooting of 50 Cent (real name: Curtis Jackson) was revenge for the song “Ghetto Koran.” Apparently, the song recounts some of McGriff’s history as the head of one of New York’s most violent drug crews.

Following the shooting, 50 Cent declined to provide any information and the case was deemed closed. In a later interview, when police asked who shot him, the rapper wouldn’t answer directly but said agents should read his lyrics, according to the document.

The allegations are laid out in a previously sealed search warrant affidavit contained in a routine motion filed in late August by the defense attorney for Murder Inc. founder Irving “Irv Gotti” Lorenzo. Lorenzo is charged in a racketeering case for using his label to launder more than $1 million in McGriff’s drug money.

Murder Inc. has since changed its name to The Inc. Execs said the label’s image was hurt by the court filings.

Investigators also believe Murder Inc. employees were involved in McGriff’s ongoing effort to kill 50 Cent. Mace cited text messages to McGriff from associates tracking the rapper’s whereabouts.

Since the 2000 attempt on his life, 50 Cent has hired a “substantial security team” to guard him because he fears for his safety, the document said.

Meanwhile, federal agents and police detectives were looking into links between the McGriff-50 Cent rivalry and the killing of Run-DMC’s Jason Mizell (aka Jam Master Jay). Investigators are trying to determine if Mizell was shot to death in 2002 for defying an unspoken recording industry blacklist of 50 Cent, according to documents.

Mizell was a mentor to the rapper when he was starting out in the 1990s. The murder of Mizell in his New York recording studios remains unsolved.

A former attorney for McGriff, Robert Simels, said he is familiar with the document and it represents “much ado about nothing.”