50 Cent: From Hard Times To Hard Rhymes

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to sit down with 50 Cent of G-unit records to discuss his past, present and future.  Read on to find out how the interview went and what’s in store for the head of G-Unit Records.  For the full word for word interview, you will need to pick up the next copy of Felon Magazine where he speaks about M.O.P, Mase, Puffy, Cam, Jay Z and a host of other issues.

THE MEETING

I woke up late on Saturday afternoon a little hung over.  Bad mornings normally follow great nights.  I shook the cobwebs out of my head and remembered that I had to meet with 50 cent in a few hours.  I went through my normal routine then hopped in the car.  Thursday night, I probably generated about 60 questions for the hip hop star in regards to his life, beef and success.  I drove into New York City from New Jersey in about 20 minutes to pick up the lead writer for Felon Magazine, Eddie House.  We couldn’t find a spot to park so we pulled into a garage and made our way to the studio where 50 was doing interviews for various publications. 

We went to the third floor of the office and were greeted by someone from Interscope Records.  I don’t recall her job title but she was heavily involved in just about everything from scheduling the interviews for artists on the roster, making sure the food was right and at the same time giving orders to different people in the building.  We chit chatted for a little while about various projects that we had in the works from both sides of the table and vowed to do additional business in the future.  House and I were then advised to wait on the sofa while 50 wrapped up his interview. 

About 15 minutes passed when we were invited into the room.  It was a large studio.  I looked around but there was no sign of 50.  I walked over to the mixing board and started conversing with an engineer.  As if on queue the engineer left and I heard “What up Yo.”

THE RECOLLECTION & DESIRE TO CHANGE

50 came in the room and greeted me with a hug.  We dapped up, introduced ourselves and sat down.  He picked up a copy of the Felon Magazine and started thumbing through it immediately.  He knew the creators of the magazine.  We started to discuss his youth and growing up.  From his explanation of his past events, you could tell that he was in a different phase now.  This phase was introspective, reflective of his past years and his present being.  He has the mind set of a hustler, a warrior and old wise man.  When asked about his youth coming up in queens, NY, 50 explained his love for boxing and how he was surrounded by drugs and violence.  He would box and really get it in.  He would beat up on older and bigger people although they had the same training.  “Boxing taught me how to fight without anger and tactically break down my opponent.  It gave me the knowledge that no matter how big a person is or appears to be, there was a way for me to win.  It taught me strategy.”  As far as the hustling game, it wasn’t that he was just seeing it like a lot of other artists, but he was deeply involved with it.  He did his dirt and the only thing that pulled him away from it was when his child’s mother was pregnant with his son.  He expressed how he couldn’t accept the repercussions of the game.  He had to make a change.  The irony of the situation was that he expressed how he was his mothers’ inspiration to sell drugs but his son was his inspiration to quit. 

THE BEEF

After discussing his youth in Queens we rolled into the beef situations.  After being shot, 50 was in the hospital.  “I won’t lie, people came to see me but I told the doctors to tell them I was dead or damn near dead” said the Queens Rapper.  “I was in the hospital for 13 days.  I got shot nine times.  If they shoot you in the face and you get hit in all parts of your body, I’d say that they really meant to kill you.  I’m like the weatherman.  I could tell you every time that it’s going to rain.”  50 pulled up his pant leg and showed us his bullet wounds.  There were areas where the bullets went straight through.  He thinks about it often and uses it as a gage when dealing with people and even making business decisions.  We then got into specifics over the beef situation in regards to why he attacks other artists and enemies on tracks and so on.  “It’s funny to me when I hear people talk about me.  You know what, when I hear these dudes like Irv and Preme saying that they just want it to be over, it makes me laugh.  It let’s me know that they’re not built like that.  They’re not really built for this.  They know how I get down.  I really handled my business when I was getting it.  They don’t handle anything themselves.  Let’s say there’s a crew of dudes.  They have a reputation, when things go down, 9 times out of ten they may have had something done but they never did it themselves.  It’s a difference when you do things yourself and when you have someone do the hit for you.  They’re not built like me.”  Some of my so called homies went and did business with the people that were responsible for me being hit right after I got shot.  They did music and movies and so on.  I use my imagination.  If I was dead, would it still have been alright for them to do business with the people that wanted me dead?”  At this point I realized where he was coming from.  “I’m my biggest critic.  I’m great at music.  I’m not good with resolving issues with people.  It’s mostly me being disappointed in how they move.  So if I have a problem with you, it won’t get resolved.  I’ll leave it right there.”  It appeared that 50 was extremely disappointed in some of his past friendships.  He reflects on it daily and it keeps him grounded. 

THE BEEF II

I was curious to know about the Cameron and Dipset situation.  So, I asked him what was going on with it.  50 explained that Cam simply wanted promotion.  “When Cam tried to get at Jay and Nas they didn’t really say much.  They just said nah, these cats are weak and just want promotion.  But not me.  Nigga if you really want promotion I’ll really over promote your ass!  Now look what happened.  Cam got punched in the eye a couple weeks later and didn’t do sh#t.  There weren’t any gun shots firing off or anything.  That was it.  So you see what it is.” 

Another question that I wanted to ask him was why he decided not to go after the entire Dipset and just Cam.  He broke down his philosophy.  “I never had beef with them.  But think about this.  If I come through and hit you up and then go and attack your man before he knows what happens, if both of you survive when he says let’s go get 50, you won’t have any problem doing it because you already feeling some kind of way about it based off what I did to you.  Now if I hit you up and not your man and you tell your man f#ck 50 and we didn’t have a problem, he’s going to be like I don’t know.  He might not be with it.  He damn sure would think twice especially if we were alright.  Also what that does is cause a separation in your camp.  Think about it anyway.  With the record that Jimmy has out, he’s really hot right now.  The style they have right now and the fans are really based off what Juelz and Jimmy are doing.  They’re the ones coming through with the big records and having an affect on the streets.  Cam hasn’t done anything that I can remember lately that’s had an impact.”

JAYZ

I had an idea of how 50 felt about Nas.  I was curious to know how 50 felt about Jay Z.  I had an idea that he respected him but I wasn’t sure because he walks such a fine line with other artists.  So I asked him what he thought about JayZ’s marketing plan and what not.  “Do you know what that told me about Jay Z?  It told me that he is brilliant.  He did a marketing plan that even I couldn’t do.  I wouldn’t have thought of it.  Even if I did I couldn’t do it do you know why?”  I said no.  “Because I’m too dark.  They view me as the bad guy now.”

THE FUTURE

As far as the future for the 50, he’s putting out the Curtis album in June.  In addition, he’s putting out the Before I Self Destruct album as an anniversary album to Get Rich Or Die Trying on February 4th, 2008.  Lastly, he will put out a greatest hits album and then he will be a free agent.  After that, there is no telling what he will do.  But the future looks bright for him. Check for the full length interview in Felon Magazine with Eddie House.