50 Cent has a Marley moment

Rapper 50 Cent is undoubtedly in the royal family of social media trolling. The American rapper knows just how to stir up a conversation in the comments section of his Instagram account, and he did so recently with a photoshopped image of himself resembling Bob Marley.

Sporting Marley's lion dreadlocks courtesy of the perks of technology, the Hate It or Love It mogul used the words of Marley to caption the image. Well, somewhat.

"No women no cry, no women no cry. LOL," he said on the post, which received more than 300,000 'likes'.

The words were inspired by Marley's 1974 No Woman, No Cry, an empowering anthem co-written by Marley's Trench Town neighbour Vincent 'Tata' Ford. 50 Cent's pluralisation of the word 'woman' did not go unnoticed by social media users, most of whom took the post light-heartedly.

" No WOMAN no cry, not women!" user Mercuree said, before bursting out in laughter.

Another user, Rany Elmoreno, recommended that 50 Cent make a remix to the song.

Marley's own son, Rohan, even commented: "You crazy bro."

No Woman, No Cry holds the number 37 spot on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

On a trip to Culture Yard in Trench Town recently, Property Manager Clifford Bent told The Gleaner that the song was inspired by domestic abuse Ford witnessed while living at the dwelling.

The track later appeared on Natty Dread, the 1974 raved album recorded by Marley and The Wailers. It is, however, the live version of the song (found on Marley's 1975 Live album) that has garnered more acclaim.

The song has since been covered several times by acts including Jimmy Cliff, Nina Simone and The Fugees.

Ford, who is also credited on Marley's 1976 Rastaman Vibration album, died in 2008 at age 68 after succumbing to complications from diabetes and hypertension.

- S.G.