Podcast Corner: 50 Cent and Kim Kardashian dip into true crime genre
50 Cent is now host and executive producer of the podcast Surviving El Chapo: The Twins Who Brought Down a Drug Lord while Kim Kardashian's The System is five episodes into an eight-episode run.
The last time we saw Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson, he was hanging upside down at the Super Bowl halftime show in February, as part of Jay-Z's all-star performance. Jackson is now host and executive producer of the podcast Surviving El Chapo: The Twins Who Brought Down a Drug Lord.
Pedro and Margarito Flores were El Chapo's biggest distributors, dealing some $2bn worth of drugs around North America. And then they turned US government informants — and well, the subtitle tells you what happened next.
But how is it that they came to talk on a podcast — for the first time — about their treacherous life story with a rapper whose biggest hit is more than 20 years old? "Randomly, I met these two after I got a necklace stolen in Chicago," Jackson says early on, talking about an area of the city that the police don't go. The twins got the necklace back to him and they developed a relationship. Simple.
After months of legal wrangling, they talk to the twins ("a security nightmare") about their 'rise', earning millions at the age of just 17. This isn't another Narcos story, says Jackson — sure it's got all the action and drama, but "at the end of the day it's about two boys born into a life they didn't choose" — something to which he says he can relate.
Three episodes of eight are released so far, and with asides about learning the business ropes while working in McDonald's, it's as compelling as, well, Narcos.
Meanwhile, perhaps the most surprising moment of Kim Kardashian's The System: The case of Kevin Keith (Spotify only) is when she discusses her involvement in a previous legal case, that of Alice Johnson. The Mississippi woman was serving a term of life imprisonment for her involvement in a cocaine syndicate.
Kardashian says she looked at that case, "and I thought, OK, there's something wrong with our system".
She knew that Donald Trump was the only one who could commute the sentence. "And so I was advised by a friend to call Ivanka and she connected me with her husband, Jared Kushner, who reviewed the case, brought it to the president, and within a few months, we got her sentence commuted."
Johnson had served 21 years by the time she was released. As mic drops go, it's quite the announcement.
The System is five episodes into an eight-episode run, during which Kardashian does a pretty compelling Sara Koenig impression, announcing that the system is flawed.
Interestingly, Tech Crunch points out that The System launched on the same day that the SEC charged Kardashian for “unlawfully touting a crypto security". She settled the case and paid $1.26m.
And for anyone surprised Kardashian is hosting a true-crime podcast, don't forget the Californian celebrity is the daughter of Robert Kardashian, the lawyer who defended OJ Simpson.
