50 Cent Pulls Out Of Europe

Hours after coming in second to Kanye West in the U.K. albums chart September 16th, 50 Cent canceled a string of European appearances.

The rapper has very publicly stated he will stop writing music as a solo artist if West’s new Graduation album sells more than his Curtis.

"50 Cent is very sad to confirm that due to a last-minute, unforeseen and unanticipated change in his schedule, he will have to postpone his European promotion trip from September 18-25," the rapper’s spokesman told MTV News.

The spokesman did not explain the "unforeseen and unanticipated change."

50 Cent pulled upcoming European appearances at London’s Music Of Black Origin (MOBO) awards and the Vodafone Live Music Awards, both slotted for September 19, plus a September 21 MTV performance in Germany.

First-week U.S. figures released September 19 showed West outselling 50 Cent by more than 260,000, with 957,000 and 691,000 copies sold respectively, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

50 Cent – or "Fiddy" – isn’t the first rapper to threaten to quit.

In 2003, Jay-Z said he had quit but carried on touring and collaborating with various artists. He finally admitted to retiring from retirement in 2006.

Eminem, who’s been the subject of retirement rumours for a couple of years, eventually announced that he was just taking "a break."