50 Cent has denied using Ozempic to achieve his dramatic weight loss.
The 48-year-old rapper sparked speculation he was using the diabetes drug loved by Hollywood celebrities looking to stay trim when he recently dropped more than 40 lbs (about 18kg).
He has now hit back at the speculation in a video posted to Instagram in which he insisted exercise was the key to his weight loss.
50 – born Curtis James Jackson III – said: “Everybody talking about weight loss. I was in the gym. I was working out, man. Who says Ozempic?
“I was running. I was running. “I was doing what I had to do.”
The ‘In Da Club’ performer also said he weighed 253 lbs before starting his fitness journey, adding: “You seen me on tour. I was running around. I was 253 lbs.”
He added he is now down to 210 lbs, then changed the subject to talk about fellow rapper YFN Lucci, 32, pleading guilty to a gang-related charge.
50 had been trolled over his weight loss by people claiming he must have been using Ozempic.
Before he put out his Instagram video, a source close to the Grammy winner told Page Six he had been on a “rigorous” training program for eight months.
The insider added 50 started training for “three hours a day, every day” before he kicked off his ‘Final Lap Tour’ last summer.
50 has previously been targeted over his weight, with trolls attacking him with fat-shaming remarks after his appearance at the 2022 Super Bowl halftime show.
Comic Nick Cannon, 43, was among those who poked fun at 50 at the time, joking the rapper looked like he had “a pack of hot dogs on the back of his neck” and called him “fat”.
He said: “You looking at them pictures from ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin’, now it’s get thick or die fryin’.”
Along with his new exercise regime, 50 revealed earlier this month he was giving up sex to focus on his career goals.