NEWS

50 Cent's insults prompt local janitor's family to speak out

Cameron Knight
cknight@enquirer.com
Rapper 50 Cent accused CVG janitor Andrew Farrell of being high in a video posted to Instagram. His mother and stepfather, Amanda and Ken Kramer, were quick to defend him.

Curtis James Jackson III, known as rapper 50 Cent, accused an airport janitor of being on drugs because he wouldn't respond to him in a video posted Sunday on Instagram.

50 Cent appeared Saturday at the Eastgate Jungle Jim's International Market to promote Effen Vodka.

The video, which has since been removed from Jackson's account, shows a man pushing a cart of cleaning supplies through the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport. Jackson accuses the man of being high and attempts to get him to respond. The footage has been captured and saved to YouTube. It contains graphic language.

Instagram user rusty_stone9 quickly identified the man in the video as Andrew Farrell, a 19-year-old Conner High School graduate.

"I went to school with him," the user wrote. "He has extreme social difficulties just to let you know. He has a hard enough time getting through life without jackasses like you making fun of him. I hope you feel good about yourself. You just lost a huge fan."

She also tagged Farrell in the post, whose most recent Instagram photo has been flooded with support from all over the world garnering comments from users in Canada, Holland, Scotland, the Netherlands and Croatia. Farrell thanked the commenters several times.

"I was just starting work," Farrell said in an interview Monday. "Pushing my cart, minding my own business."

He said the rapper was walking with a group of people when he turned on his cellphone camera and got "all up in my face."

"Why would you attack my kid like that?" Farrell's mother, Amanda Kramer said. "It doesn't say much about his character when he has to attack a kid he doesn't even know."

50 Cent's insult leads Holy Grail to boycott Effen Vodka

Farrell's stepfather, Ken Kramer, said Farrell worked hard to make it to his 2015 graduation. He said despite his family offering to help, Farrell found the janitorial job at the airport by himself.

"Everything he said about him is not true. He gets up. He goes to work. He does his job. He goes home. He doesn't bother anybody," Amanda Kramer said, with Ken Kramer adding he helps out around the house as well. "He doesn't talk to people very often. He's got a social anxiety disorder. He also has a hearing impairment."

Moving forward, the family said they would like to set the record straight and receive an apology. The Enquirer's attempts to reach Jackson and his representation were not successful.

"I want people to know that he's a good kid. He doesn't get in trouble. He's not a drug addict." Amanda Kramer said.

Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson.

Farrell and his parents know that despite Jackson deleting the video, it will live on. One upload of the video to YouTube had received more than 900,000 views Monday night. However, they note that most of the comments have been supportive of Farrell.

"It's nice to know that there's people that he went to school with that maybe he didn't talk to, but that know his character," Amanda Kramer said. "All this kind of bullying that people are doing on the Internet, whether you're a celebrity or not, it's got to stop. It hurts people, and it takes a long time to recover from those kinds of things."

The Cincinnati store in which 50 Cent promoted Effen Vodka this past weekend has since pulled the brand from its shelves. Jungle Jim's announced in a news release that it has removed all Effen Vodka products from its Fairfield and Eastgate stores, and also pulled the liquor from the bars of the Oscar Event Center and Paradise Pavilion. 50 Cent was at the Eastgate location for a bottle signing Saturday.

50 Cent was in town in March to promote Effen Vodka at the Party Source as well. The Bellevue store announced on its Facebook page that it will no longer sell the vodka after seeing "such a deplorable and disgusting display." Holy Grail, a well-known Cincinnati watering hole across the street from Great American Ball Park at 161 Joe Nuxhall Way, also joined the boycott.

Farrell's parents both said they're very proud of their community for standing up for Farrell.

They also said they're extremely proud of their son.

"It shows the man that he is, to walk away," Ken Kramer said.