50 Cent must pay in headphone case

Rapper 50 Cent has been ordered to pay a Florida earphone manufacturer more than $16m in connection with a failed partnership to produce the entertainer’s line of headphones, federal court records show.

The Bradenton Herald reports that 50 Cent, whose real name is Curtis Jackson III, was ordered to pay Sleek Audio nearly $4.5m in lawyer fees and $11.7m in damages.

The US District Court in Miami affirmed the award in late March after a three-year legal battle.

Records allege that Jackson, a Sleek partner, stole the designs of over-the-ear headphones he asked the company to conceptualise and manufacture. Jackson has been selling headphones of a similar design under the 50-Over line with another manufacturer.