50 Cent has claimed he rejected an offer of $500,000 (£373,000) from Donald Trump’s team to support the then-Presidential hopeful in the run-up to the 2016 election.

The hip-hop star −worth an estimated $15m− made the assertion during a recent appearance on radio station Hot 97, telling host Ebro that the mogul’s staffers believed an endorsement from him could help sway black voters.

“Before he got elected, they were having issues with the African American vote,” the 42-year-old star said. “They wanted to pay me $500,000 as part of the campaign to just make an appearance.”

At the time, fellow rapper Jay-Z was in Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s corner. As the election entered the final stretch, Hov held the Get Out the Vote concert aimed at rallying black voters, but it failed to help secure her the White House

Although 50 Cent, real name Curtis Jackson, could have treated himself with the extra cash, he says that accepting the proposal would have hampered his career like the other black stars that appeared to support him. Chrisette Michele’s decision to perform at Trump’s pre-inauguration ball provoked fierce backlash from the black community and made her the target of online ridicule. It also cost her the opportunity to work with Spike Lee.

“I was like, nah, that’s not good money,” the Get Money or Die Tryin hitmaker explained. “Yeah I’m not gonna do that … that’s not worth it.

During the promotional pitstop for the next series of Starz drama Power, Fiddy also offered his candid assessment of Trump’s time in office and the current state of America.

“His presidency is an accident. If you were a president by accident, you might do some of the things Donald Trump is doing,” he said. “I think he was [campaigning] to build his profile for a bigger deal on television, and everything else.”

He added that he “didn’t think anything has divided people as fast” as Trump has.