50 Cent ‘can’t pay electric bill’

50 Cent is struggling to pay his household bills, it has been claimed.

The 40-year-old rapper filed for bankruptcy in July. As part of the filing, 50, real name Curtis Jackson, was told he must ask for court approval before paying any bill.

And now TMZ.com have revealed that 50 has requested permission to access money to pay a host of bills, including electric, gas, cable, Internet, phone and trash removal.

But being one of the most famous rappers in the world, 50 has bills to match his reputation in size.

The outlet reports that 50 told the judge he would need $10,597 just to pay the gas and electric.

The huge bill is due to the fact that 50 currently lives in a 50,000 square foot mansion in Connecticut, formerly owned by boxer Mike Tyson.

50 has been in the centre of a huge legal battle over the past few months.

In July, he was ordered to pay Lavonia Leviston after he shared a sex tape of her online without permission.

Jurors awarded Leviston $2.5 million for violation of civil rights and using her image without permission, $2.5 million for intentional infliction of emotional distress and $2 million in punitive damages, making 50 Cent's total debt to her $7 million.
50 then filed for bankruptcy.

Leviston's lawyer Elizabeth Austin then claimed that the insolvency case was a means of delaying her client being given her money.

"[Jackson] filed this bankruptcy as a strategic move to delay and frustrate [the sex tape case] and since that did not work, [he] is now trying to use the bankruptcy proceeding to frustrate [Leviston's] attempts to protect her rights as a creditor," Austin wrote in new legal documents. "[He is trying to] hide behind a wall of professionals who appear to have free rein over all of [his] affairs and finances, [but he] has a duty to answer to his creditors."

50's largest creditor is Sleek Audio, a company owed $17 million from its claim he stole their idea for headphones.