50 Cent Confirms It: Eminem and an Unreleased Tupac Verse Are on the Street Fighter Theme — and There's No AI Involved

Update, September 2, 2026: the theme song is still unreleased, and the 2Pac record under Paramount’s new trailer is not it — it is a 1995 Mike Tyson recording that has been in the campaign since April. See No, the 2Pac Song in the New Street Fighter Trailer Is Not the Eminem Track.

For seven months this was a promise on an Instagram post. On July 24, 2026, 50 Cent said it out loud on national TV: him, Eminem, and a genuine unreleased Tupac recording, all on one song, for the Street Fighter movie. No AI. Estate-approved. Coming "shortly."

Every so often a rumor grows legs, walks around for half a year, and then one morning a rapper strolls onto a morning show and turns it into a fact. That happened this week. On July 24, 2026, during an appearance on NBC's TODAY show, 50 Cent confirmed that he has built the theme song for the upcoming Street Fighter movie around three voices: his own, Eminem's, and Tupac Shakur's — the last of those pulled from a real, previously unreleased recording rather than any kind of artificial recreation.

Put plainly: an official commercial release is about to pair Eminem and 2Pac on the same track for the first time ever. That has never happened. Let that sit for a second before we get into the details.

What 50 Cent Actually Said

Asked about new music during the TODAY segment, 50 kept it simple: "I did something currently, me and Eminem and Tupac… It's actually for the theme for Street Fighter, the movie." He said the song is "coming out shortly" — language that lines up with a rollout ahead of the film rather than months down the road.

The two questions everybody immediately asks about a 2026 record featuring an artist who died in 1996 are (1) is this an AI voice, and (2) did the estate sign off. 50 answered both head-on. He was emphatic that no AI was used, and that the Tupac vocal is an authentic, unreleased recording. On approval, he framed it as a collaboration that got the blessing it needed: "We worked on it, and got it right" — adding that Tupac's family and estate "loved it."

That last part matters more than it might look. The Shakur estate has historically been protective to the point of litigious about how Pac's name, likeness, and unreleased material get used. An estate that "loved it" is not a small hurdle cleared — it's the whole ballgame for a project like this.

Why This Is a Bigger Deal Than a Movie Tie-In

Soundtrack singles come and go. This one is different for one reason: the names on it have never actually shared a song in a way that counts.

Eminem and 50 Cent are the easy part — they've been making music together for over two decades, from "Patiently Waiting" and "Don't Push Me" in 2003 to "Crack a Bottle," right up to "Gunz N Smoke" on Dr. Dre and Snoop's Missionary in late 2024. Their chemistry is a known quantity.

Here's the classic that started it, if you need a reminder of how well these two lock in together:

The Tupac piece is what makes this historic. Eminem has spent his entire career citing Pac as his single biggest influence — he curated and produced Loyal to the Game, the 2004 posthumous Tupac album, for Afeni Shakur. But an official track with both men rapping side by side has never existed. Not a mashup. Not a fan edit. A real, cleared, commercially released record. If this lands the way 50 describes it, that's a genuine first in hip-hop history.

From "I'm Gonna Get Em On Deck" to a Finished Song

We've been tracking this one since it was barely a whisper. Back in December 2025, 50 posted a promo image of himself in character as Balrog and wrote, "I'm gonna get @eminem on deck to make some music for this movie Street Fighter. New Music on the way!" For months after, it stayed exactly that — a promise with no receipt. We laid out the full case, and the odds, in our earlier piece on 50 Cent's Street Fighter soundtrack promise.

The July 24 TODAY appearance is the receipt. What was a hopeful Instagram caption in December is now a finished, estate-approved record that a global studio is about to attach to a tentpole film. The clock that was ticking has, apparently, run out in fans' favor.

The Movie It's Attached To

The 2026 Street Fighter reboot hits US theaters on October 16, 2026, directed by Kitao Sakurai and distributed by Paramount. It's a full Hollywood production with a cast pulled straight off the arcade select screen: Andrew Koji as Ryu, Noah Centineo as Ken Masters, Callina Liang as Chun-Li, and David Dastmalchian as M. Bison. The supporting bench is stacked with Jason Momoa as Blanka, Roman Reigns as Akuma, Cody Rhodes as Guile, and Orville Peck as Vega. 50 Cent plays Balrog, the boxer-turned-muscle for Bison — which is exactly why he's the one steering the soundtrack.

Set in 1993, the plot throws estranged fighters Ryu and Ken back into the ring when Chun-Li recruits them for the World Warrior Tournament, only for a deeper conspiracy to force them to face their pasts and each other. A movie about legacy fighters coming out of the shadows for one more war is, frankly, the perfect canvas for a song that resurrects Tupac next to the two biggest rappers of 50's era.

What to Actually Watch For

A few things to keep your eye on between now and October:

• The release window. "Coming out shortly" almost certainly means a single lands well ahead of the October 16 premiere to drive the marketing. Expect it as a lead promotional track.
• Which Tupac recording it is. Pac left a deep vault of unreleased verses. Whether this is a full performance or a woven-in verse will shape how the song plays.
• Eminem's role. 50 has the mic on the acting side; the open question is how prominent Em is on the record — full verse, hook, or production fingerprints too.
• The "no AI" framing. In 2026, with AI vocals everywhere, 50 leading with "no AI" is a deliberate line in the sand. It's a promise fans will hold him to the moment the song drops.

50 Cent has had a loud year on every front — his London boxing drama Fightland premieres July 31 on Starz, and he just turned 51 on July 6. But of everything on his plate, this is the one that could echo the furthest. A cleared, AI-free, estate-approved song with Eminem and Tupac on it isn't a soundtrack cut. It's a moment hip-hop has been waiting thirty years for, and it's apparently already finished.

Details and quotes via 50 Cent's July 24, 2026 appearance on NBC's TODAY show, as reported by Billboard, Complex, The Source, HipHop-N-More, and Hot 97. Film details via the confirmed Street Fighter (2026) cast and Paramount's October 16, 2026 release date.