What lessons does rapper 50 Cent have to offer children? Well, there’s the one about not selling drugs to undercover cops. And then there’s the one about diving off the stage and into the crowd to hit someone who throws a water bottle at you. If you ever doubted that getting shot nine times is an unpleasant experience, he could teach you that. And then there’s his Twitter feed, which would make for a pretty good case study on misogyny in hip hop.
Alas, Fiddy is preparing to educate kids on something entirely different: bullying. GalleyCat reports that the dubious role model has signed a deal with Penguin Group’s Razorbill imprint to write a YA novel called Playground. The semi-autobiographical story will follow a 13-year-old bully who learns to take responsibility for his actions. “I wanted to explore how a kid becomes a bully. I drew on events from my own childhood and adolescence, but was excited to see the story take on its own life. This book would have been very helpful for me growing up and now that I have a teenage son, it is my goal that this will have a positive influence on all teenagers,” 50 Cent said in a statement.