50 CENT CRITICIZED FOR DOWNPLAYING SEXUAL ASSAULT OF 'POWER' ACTOR MICHAEL RAINEY JR.

50 Cent has been slammed for insensitive comments he made about the sexual assault of Power star Michael Rainey Jr.

After the 23-year-old actor was groped during an appearance on TyTy James' Twitch livestream by the streamer's younger sister, 50 offered his take on the incident in a since-deleted Instagram post on Monday (June 10).

Largely dismissing the unwanted touching, he wrote: "Wait sexual assault [frowning face emoji] from a male perspective this was an aggressive advance. LOL HE's fine no charges are being pressed."

The rapper and media mogul was criticized for his remarks, with one social media user commenting: "The fact that 50 Cent came out and said Michael Rainey (Tariq from Power) was NOT sexually assaulted and that's he's fine when he clearly felt uncomfortable and immediately left when that girl touched him in his private parts is part of the problem in todays society.

"Women can be predators too. Women can sexually assault others as well and women need to be held accountable. If he did that to her his whole life and career would be up in FLAMES. We have to protect our young black men too!"

Another said: "50 Cent posted on Instagram mocking & downplaying his lead actor for experiencing sexual assault in front of the whole world. He called it 'an aggressive advance.' But I'm supposed to believe this man cares about victims..."

A third critic put it more bluntly, writing: "50 Cent is great at being a terrible human."


Rainey Jr. himself issued a statement on the incident, footage of which has gone viral online.

"At this point, everyone has seen the video circulating online. I am still in shock and don't fully know how to process what happened last night," he wrote on his Instagram Stories.

"This is an unfortunate situation that I do not condone in any way. I can't take it lightly because I know I would be in serious trouble if the roles were reversed."

He added: "The fact is, sexual assault is never okay, regardless of gender or status. We're all human and we should respect each other. Most importantly, we should respect ourselves always."

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TyTy also apologized to Rainey Jr. for what happened on the livestream, saying: "After the actions that occurred during my stream last night I would like to sincerely apologize to Michael and his family for what took place.

"My little sister was completely wrong and out of line. What she did was very inappropriate and unacceptable. I am truly embarrassed and disgusted by her actions."

"I completely respect whatever direction Michael wants to go in this situation," he continued. "After watching the clip, I was completely taken aback by what she done [sic].

"I will take extreme precautions with future streams to avoid similar issues and have banned her from participating in future streams. I do not condone any type of assault."