This weekend I took a ride about 30 minutes outside Manhattan over to Bayonne, New Jersey, to pay a visit to two of my favourite artists in the game. Both 50 and Akon were already hard at work by 10am on Sunday morning shooting the video for 50’s monster hit “I’ll Still Kill” at a giant warehouse set in the middle of nowhere.

As we arrived on set, the first thing we see is a brand new red Pontiac G8 racing up and down the strip doing doughnuts and 180s in the dirt — with 50 behind the wheel. At one point, 50 spun the car around at such a high speed that he nearly lost it completely (although he won’t admit it) causing the guy from Pontiac to have a small heart attack. This was no regular Pontiac G8 though. The red sports car complete with black racing stripe was one that 50 himself had customised and the engine had been upgraded to a massive 550 break horsepower — which is faster than most sports cars on the road. Apparently it does 0-60 in under 4 seconds.

After playtime was over, 50 came over, greeted us and took us into the giant warehouse to meet the video’s director, Jesse Terrero — an old friend of 50’s who directed both “Wanksta” and “Candy Shop.” Jesse described this video shoot as “Bourne Supremacy” meets “Unleashed,” and from what I could gather it sees 50 flexing his acting chops as he goes up against some assassins that have been sent to kill him. Interesting stuff.

The always calm-and-collected Akon then walked onto set and without missing a beat, said hello, grabbed 50, walked in front of the camera, the music kicked in, the tape started rolling and within seconds, both rappers were hitting their cues perfectly as if they had both worked side-by-side for years.

The atmosphere on set was fantastic all day and in between all the fun, from 50 taking us for a ride in his new sports car, to kicking a football around with Akon, we did manage to get some work done (if you can call it work).