The Reason Everyone Is Talking About The Tip 50 Cent Left At Burger King

Fast-food workers are usually counted among those on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic, along with hospital staff and grocery-store clerks. These are the people who work hard for minimum wage-level pay to bring customers some basic pleasures and a sense of normalcy, with fries on the side. They probably don't come to work assuming someone is going to show up at the drive-thru window to hand them thousands of dollars in cash.

That's exactly what 50 Cent did recently at a Burger King in Queens, New York. The rap legend teamed up with entrepreneur Jay Mazini recently to hand $30,000 through the drive-thru window to the employees on duty that evening. Before 50 Cent walked up, Mazini said he just wanted to show the employees some love.

Watching the employees' reactions on a video posted to Mazini's Instagram account, it's hard to tell whether they were happier to get all that cash or to see 50 Cent in the flesh. The 45-year-old rapper, whose real name is Curtis Jackson, grew up near the Queens Burger King (via Queens Daily Eagle). These days, 50 Cent is better known for his role in the Starz TV drama Power.

Meanwhile, Mazini and 50 Cent showed up at the drive-thru on foot and caused a little commotion, no doubt holding up a line of cars full of hungry customers. Mazini headlined his Instagram post with "Me & @50cent Had to Shut Burger King Down in Southside Queens." A New York City police SUV even rolled up at one point.

While 50 Cent has been getting most of the headlines, credit for the "giving away cash at the drive-thru" idea goes to Mazini. He owns a clothing brand called Mazini Italia and runs the Mazini Academy, a school that claims to teach people how to invest in financial markets. But Mazini may be best known for the happy moments he posts to his Instagram account, handing out free money to unsuspecting strangers.

A few days before he and 50 Cent dropped in on that Burger King in Queens, Mazini and another rapper, Fabulous, passed out $20,000 to the employees at a Checkers in Jersey City. "It's all about humanity in a pandemic like this, you never know what somebody is going through," Mazini said on Instagram, in the caption under the video showing him and Fabulous doing their good deed.