Does 50 Cent have something to hide? The rapper (a.k.a. Curtis Jackson) seems to think so: He recently lobbied XXL magazine to kill a feature on his former manager, Chaz "Slim" Williams, founder of Black Hand Entertainment.

Though the story ended up running as scheduled in the November issue, Williams claims the episode is proof that Jackson has fabricated large chunks of his crack-slinging, gun-toting biography. "I'm one of the individuals that really knows the truth about him," Williams tells Radar. "So I would imagine he wouldn't want his credibility tested. I guess he just didn't want to face the truth."

The piece on Williams was conceived as a reponse to a cover story on 50 in the September issue of XXL. In that article, the rapper claimed he came strapped to a peace summit with rivals from Murder Inc., and suggested that Williams had foreknowledge of a previous attempt on his life. When 50 got wind of the follow-up story he called XXL editor in chief Elliot Wilson and demanded the story be spiked, according to Williams, saying Interscope would pull its ads otherwise.

Williams claims he got a call from someone at the magazine wondering "if there was an alternative they could use, like maybe put the story on the Internet," he recalls. "I said, 'I need the same platform he has. I can't keep having him come up and say things that aren't true.'"

While Wilson, who didn't respond to a query from Radar, ended up running the piece, Williams claims the fact that he even considered pulling it lends credence to an industry rumor that XXL has a mutual-back-scratching relationship with Interscope and its artists. His rival's attempt to squelch the story, meanwhile, is cited by Williams as proof that 50 has embroidered his own legend more than a bit over the years. "It's obvious to me that he's scared of the unknown," says Williams. "He knew I had the truth about what happened back then, and if you're lying about the past, why would we believe what you have to say today?"

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