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Carole Baskin found a new side hustle, and it involves 50 Cent.
Weeks after “Tiger King” made her a household name, Carole Baskin traded tiger enclosures for Cameo, and the internet got exactly the chaotic crossover it didn’t know it needed. The Big Cat Rescue founder and her husband, Howard, recorded a birthday shoutout that recited the opening bars of 50 Cent’s “In Da Club,” and the clip traveled so far it landed in 50 Cent’s own Instagram feed.
- Baskin joined Cameo charging $199 to $299 per personalized video and reportedly pulled in more than $100,000 in her first days on the platform.
- The viral clip was recorded for a fan named Charlotte, opening with Baskin’s catchphrase “Hey, all you cool cats and kittens” before she and Howard recited “Go, go, go, go, go, go, shawty, it’s your birthday” while Howard held up a bottle of Bacardi.
- 50 Cent (Curtis Jackson) reposted the video to his Instagram on July 16, 2020, joking that “This song wasn’t music it was magic” while taking a shot at rival label Murder Inc.
The Cameo That Broke Containment
Baskin’s Cameo debut wasn’t polished, and that’s exactly why it worked. In the birthday greeting for Charlotte, she and Howard stand shoulder to shoulder, deliver the line “We gon’ party like it’s your birthday / We gon’ sip Bacardi like it’s your birthday” with the enthusiasm of two people reading cue cards for the first time, and Howard mimes taking a swig from an actual bottle of Bacardi rum. The stiffness is the joke — a 59-year-old big cat advocate and her husband cosplaying a 2003 club anthem, filmed in what looks like their living room.
Cameo greeting videos are typically private, made for one paying fan, but this one didn’t stay contained. Screen recordings spread across Twitter and TikTok within days, turning a $199-to-$299 transaction into a moment tracked by entertainment outlets and, eventually, by 50 Cent’s own social team.
50 Cent Claps Back With A Laugh
On July 16, 2020, Jackson reposted the Baskins’ rendition to his Instagram, framing it as proof of the song’s staying power rather than mockery. His caption leaned into the joke while sneaking in a dig at an old label rivalry: “This song wasn’t music it was magic, it went everywhere in the world then never went away everyday is somebody’s birthday. But the s**t it did to Murder inc Lol??? #bransoncognac #lecheminduroi.”
“This song wasn’t music it was magic, it went everywhere in the world then never went away everyday is somebody’s birthday.”
Getting a co-sign from the artist himself is the kind of validation Cameo talent rarely lands, and it pushed Baskin’s clip well beyond the fan communities who’d been tracking her since “Tiger King” premiered on Netflix earlier in 2020.
Baskin Achieved Widespread Market Presence
The Cameo moment landed on top of an already relentless news cycle around Baskin. She’d recently won legal ownership and control of Joe Exotic’s former Wynnewood, Oklahoma, zoo property through a trademark judgment, a legal win that kept her name in headlines well beyond the docuseries that made her famous. Cameo, in that context, looked like Baskin cashing in on the attention on her own terms rather than waiting for the next lawsuit update or tabloid story to break.
It also fits a pattern the platform has leaned on since its own boom — celebrities from every corner of pop culture, sports, and even trending celebrities circles turning viral fame into paid, personalized clips almost overnight.
A Song That Refuses To Die
50 Cent’s “In Da Club” topped the Billboard Hot 100 back in 2003 and never really left rotation at parties, and its resurgence via Baskin is just the latest reminder of how durable that hook remains almost two decades later. It’s the kind of afterlife most tracks in trending music circles never get — still recognizable enough that two “Tiger King” figures reciting four lines badly could set off a viral chain reaction and a reply from the artist himself.
Baskin’s Cameo page kept booking after the clip blew up, and with 50 Cent now aware of it firsthand, don’t be shocked if “In Da Club” ends up in someone else’s birthday greeting before the year’s out.
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