50 Cent Burns Gucci Clothing After Blackface Controversy
50 Cent is sending Gucci up in flames.
The rap mogul has decided to burn his Gucci clothing following the blackface controversy involving the fashion brand. In an Instagram video, 50 lit his $480 Gucci T-shirt on fire. The tee started to burn before the flames eventually reached his hands. He tried to blow them out before dropping the tee into a pile of more Gucci clothes.
“I gotta get rid of all the Gucci I have at home,” he wrote in the caption. “I’m not supporting their brand anymore.”
He also shared plans to donate the pricey threads to the homeless. “Yeah I’m gonna pass on Gucci, I’m giving all mine to the homeless so the right demo can wear it,” said Fif.
50 is among those in the hip-hop community speaking out against the designer brand over its wool balaclava jumper, which features an oversized neck with a red cutout for the mouth. The $890 piece from Gucci’s Fall Winter 2018 runway show sparked outrage on social media for its depiction of blackface.
Gucci is pulling this $900 sweater after people called out the brand for evoking blackface pic.twitter.com/CSDhUBjAaJ
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) February 9, 2019
Following the backlash, Gucci apologized for the “offense” caused by the sweater and removed the product from its website. “Gucci deeply apologizes for the offense caused by the wool balaclava jumper,” the company said in a statement. “We consider diversity to be a fundamental value to be fully upheld, respected, and at the forefront of every decision we make.”
T.I. and Soulja Boy have also called for a boycott of the luxury fashion house. “Until further notice, Gucci is canceled,” said Soulja. “I’m shocked and I’m appalled. And I feel disrespected. I supported y’all brands, I spent hundreds of thousands of dollars, and y’all came up with a shirt with blackface in it. Gucci is canceled.”
One celebrity who isn’t bothered by the controversy is Floyd Mayweather, who scoffed at the boycott. “I’m not no follower, I do what the f*ck I wanna do,” he told TMZ while shopping at the Gucci store.
In the wake of the controversy, Gucci chief executive François-Henri Pinault has pledged to increase cultural-sensitivity training for employees to ensure that products don’t offend the African-American community.
“We didn’t understand the sensitivities of the African-American community, which is reflected in that mistake,” Pinault told reporters. “We can’t be content with saying we’re sorry.”