50 Cent is at it again. Preparing to drop his second album, the rap superstar is on the cover of the upcoming XXL magazine with a rifle-like crossbow, taking aim at a range of rap rivals in print and with one of his most incendiary songs yet.

On the soon-to-be-released “Piggybank,” 50 first lets loose on Fat Joe: “You thought “Lean Back” was big in the club / My (album) did 11 mil, your (album) was a dud.”

50 goes on to lambaste Interscope labelmate Jadakiss, jailed rapper Shyne and longtime foe Ja Rule before settling on newlyweds Nas and Kelis: “Kelis had her milkshake bring all the boys to the yard / Then Nas goes and tattoos the … on his arm.”

XXL editor-in-chief Elliott Wilson says 50, who built his career on a beef with Ja Rule, was genuinely angered by the Ja Rule’s hit song “New York,” which featured Jadakiss and Fat Joe.

“He feels like all these people are combining against him,” Wilson said. “It goes back to his obsession with Murder Inc.”

That would be Ja Rule’s record label, now called The Inc., which is affiliated with gangsters who are very much NOT affiliated with 50. “It all goes back to Queens drug scene gangster beefs,” Wilson says.

What it really all goes back to is record sales.

It’ll be hard for 50 to top his 2003 debut, “Get Rich or Die Tryin’,” which sold nearly 900,000 copies in just four days. But in XXL’s cover story, he urges his rivals to respond to him, knowing it’s good for business.

“50 is like Puffy, he’s a marketing genius,” Wilson says. “He wants to stir it up and be the most controversial artist in hip-hop today … he wants to push everyone’s buttons to gain attention.”

Attention: “The Massacre” hits stores March 8. The new issue of XXL hits newsstands February 1.

Credit: AP