Since Chronic had asked for more to be posted, I went to the mag site and they have a portion of the article up:
If you’re mad that 50 Cent’s on top, don’t wish him gone. Take him out. Go ’head, he dares you. The G-Unit general is ready for all comers. Don’t cross him.
50 Cent might very well be the most hated man in new York.
Not that it much bothers him—it’s a distinction the Queens MC has coveted, in fact, since 1999, when his underground street salvo “How to Rob” gave tongue-in-cheek stick-up lessons at the expense of most everybody else in the rap industry. But to hear 50 tell it, two years after the multi-platinum success of his debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin’ put him front and center in the entertainment-biz viewfinder, the hate is reaching epidemic proportions.
“I can feel it when I come back to NYC,” he says, sitting in a dusty old warehouse in Los Angeles, prepping for a photo shoot on this mid-December afternoon. “There’s a lot of envy there.” If it is indeed jealousy that has 50’s critics and foes foaming at the mouth, 2004 presented reasons aplenty. The New York Times reported that the enterprising MC raked in well over $50 million during the past year. This from a G-Unit clothing line, a shoe endorsement with Reebok, Formula 50 Vitamin Water, a deal to make a movie based on his life and of course the Interscope-distributed G-Unit Records—which launched G-Unit crewmembers Lloyd Banks and Young Buck to stardom, signed Compton rappers The Game and Spider Loc to start a western branch, and got into the R&B market with Queens songstress Olivia.
Last June, 50 rubbed a lot of folks wrong at Hot 97’s Summer Jam concert when he disparaged his hometown Jamaica, Queens neighborhood and mocked headliner R. Kelly by pretending to urinate on the stage. Former G-Unit associates threw chairs and bottles from the crowd. 50 threw them back.
More recently, the G-Unit boss’s ire has been raised by Ja Rule’s comeback hit “New York,” a musical statement that find 50’s longtime nemesis recruiting Fat Joe and Jadakiss for a show of East Coast solidarity. 50’s response? A two-fisted diss cut called “Piggy Bank.”
Out here in L.A., there’s trouble of the legal variety, as Young Buck was recently charged with stabbing a man at the Vibe Awards show—an incident largely attributed to the long-standing troubles between Death Row heavy Suge Knight and one of 50’s mentors, Dr. Dre.
On the eve of the release of his new album, St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, though, 50 remains unflappable. Dressed in a chocolate-brown, pin-stripe gangster suit, he finds inspiration from O.G. Chicago mobster Al Capone, the man behind the infamous 1929 incident from whence 50’s taken his title. Yep, 50 Cent has revenge on his mind, among other things.
You say you feel envy in New York City. Are you speaking of the fans’ reaction to your success?
No. I think it comes from the creative... I think it comes from the New York rap artists. I don’t think people like me very much in the hip-hop industry. And I can understand why. You could take everybody’s previous releases and they didn’t sell as many records as I sold with my first album.
You recently released a song, “Piggy Bank,” attacking some of your fellow artists. Fat Joe and Jadakiss both appeared on Ja Rule’s “New York,” but they haven’t made any direct statements against you, have they?
I made a record that places names and obvious people’s acts. I speak about people generally, and they making it like, “This is Fat Joe, this is Jada and this one and that one...” That’s ’cause it’s visible to the general public’s idea. When they hear it, they go, “Oh, that’s what he’s doing, and that’s what that one’s doing...”
But doesn’t such a record inflame your image as the bad guy? The guy that loves starting beefs?
You know what’s crazy? I’m responding to the actions of others. I’m not actually starting it. In their interviews, they say, “Fuck 50,” off the record. But they won’t say it to my face. And the difference between them and me is, I don’t have a problem saying, “Fuck them” in front of them.
What was it exactly that upset you? Just the fact that they appeared on a track with Ja Rule—who you’ve had such a public beef with over the years?
It’s not even that. It’s more like, finally your true feelings are coming out. A person dislikes you so much that subconsciously they start saying things, doing things. And you see it and you go, Yo, where’s that from?
I think people are surprised to hear that you have beef with Jadakiss, an artist that has been compared to you…
[Cutting in] You know what? I don’t even see him as competition. When you can’t break a million records, and you call yourself going platinum... I know your numbers is 800 and change, and you can’t get over that hump? [As XXL went to press, sales of Kiss of Death stood at 922,000.] And you haven’t put out a record with your voice on the chorus? He’s a great rapper, but he’s not a great songwriter. I got artists under me that are better than him. They sell more. And when you’re in the music business, you in the business of selling music.
So you don’t buy into the whole artistic credibility thing?
Nah, there’s no such thing as artistic credibility. Now that doesn’t mean I’m going to sell out to sell more albums. I’m going to be true to myself as an artist. But we’re in the music business and artistic credibility won’t help you out when your mortgage is due, in the day-to-day, in real life. I try to deal with reality as much as possible.
This past summer your appearance at Hot 97’s Summer Jam concert at Giants Stadium was met with a mixed reaction from the fans. What was your take on that?
It’s positive. When I’m in New York City, nobody remembers these other guys. They remember us. But the truth is, where I come from, I got a shady background. And because of that, I meet people who have that shady lifestyle that envy me. They look at me and go, “Yo, why he can do that and I can’t?”
If you’re mad that 50 Cent’s on top, don’t wish him gone. Take him out. Go ’head, he dares you. The G-Unit general is ready for all comers. Don’t cross him.
50 Cent might very well be the most hated man in new York.
Not that it much bothers him—it’s a distinction the Queens MC has coveted, in fact, since 1999, when his underground street salvo “How to Rob” gave tongue-in-cheek stick-up lessons at the expense of most everybody else in the rap industry. But to hear 50 tell it, two years after the multi-platinum success of his debut album Get Rich or Die Tryin’ put him front and center in the entertainment-biz viewfinder, the hate is reaching epidemic proportions.
“I can feel it when I come back to NYC,” he says, sitting in a dusty old warehouse in Los Angeles, prepping for a photo shoot on this mid-December afternoon. “There’s a lot of envy there.” If it is indeed jealousy that has 50’s critics and foes foaming at the mouth, 2004 presented reasons aplenty. The New York Times reported that the enterprising MC raked in well over $50 million during the past year. This from a G-Unit clothing line, a shoe endorsement with Reebok, Formula 50 Vitamin Water, a deal to make a movie based on his life and of course the Interscope-distributed G-Unit Records—which launched G-Unit crewmembers Lloyd Banks and Young Buck to stardom, signed Compton rappers The Game and Spider Loc to start a western branch, and got into the R&B market with Queens songstress Olivia.
Last June, 50 rubbed a lot of folks wrong at Hot 97’s Summer Jam concert when he disparaged his hometown Jamaica, Queens neighborhood and mocked headliner R. Kelly by pretending to urinate on the stage. Former G-Unit associates threw chairs and bottles from the crowd. 50 threw them back.
More recently, the G-Unit boss’s ire has been raised by Ja Rule’s comeback hit “New York,” a musical statement that find 50’s longtime nemesis recruiting Fat Joe and Jadakiss for a show of East Coast solidarity. 50’s response? A two-fisted diss cut called “Piggy Bank.”
Out here in L.A., there’s trouble of the legal variety, as Young Buck was recently charged with stabbing a man at the Vibe Awards show—an incident largely attributed to the long-standing troubles between Death Row heavy Suge Knight and one of 50’s mentors, Dr. Dre.
On the eve of the release of his new album, St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, though, 50 remains unflappable. Dressed in a chocolate-brown, pin-stripe gangster suit, he finds inspiration from O.G. Chicago mobster Al Capone, the man behind the infamous 1929 incident from whence 50’s taken his title. Yep, 50 Cent has revenge on his mind, among other things.
You say you feel envy in New York City. Are you speaking of the fans’ reaction to your success?
No. I think it comes from the creative... I think it comes from the New York rap artists. I don’t think people like me very much in the hip-hop industry. And I can understand why. You could take everybody’s previous releases and they didn’t sell as many records as I sold with my first album.
You recently released a song, “Piggy Bank,” attacking some of your fellow artists. Fat Joe and Jadakiss both appeared on Ja Rule’s “New York,” but they haven’t made any direct statements against you, have they?
I made a record that places names and obvious people’s acts. I speak about people generally, and they making it like, “This is Fat Joe, this is Jada and this one and that one...” That’s ’cause it’s visible to the general public’s idea. When they hear it, they go, “Oh, that’s what he’s doing, and that’s what that one’s doing...”
But doesn’t such a record inflame your image as the bad guy? The guy that loves starting beefs?
You know what’s crazy? I’m responding to the actions of others. I’m not actually starting it. In their interviews, they say, “Fuck 50,” off the record. But they won’t say it to my face. And the difference between them and me is, I don’t have a problem saying, “Fuck them” in front of them.
What was it exactly that upset you? Just the fact that they appeared on a track with Ja Rule—who you’ve had such a public beef with over the years?
It’s not even that. It’s more like, finally your true feelings are coming out. A person dislikes you so much that subconsciously they start saying things, doing things. And you see it and you go, Yo, where’s that from?
I think people are surprised to hear that you have beef with Jadakiss, an artist that has been compared to you…
[Cutting in] You know what? I don’t even see him as competition. When you can’t break a million records, and you call yourself going platinum... I know your numbers is 800 and change, and you can’t get over that hump? [As XXL went to press, sales of Kiss of Death stood at 922,000.] And you haven’t put out a record with your voice on the chorus? He’s a great rapper, but he’s not a great songwriter. I got artists under me that are better than him. They sell more. And when you’re in the music business, you in the business of selling music.
So you don’t buy into the whole artistic credibility thing?
Nah, there’s no such thing as artistic credibility. Now that doesn’t mean I’m going to sell out to sell more albums. I’m going to be true to myself as an artist. But we’re in the music business and artistic credibility won’t help you out when your mortgage is due, in the day-to-day, in real life. I try to deal with reality as much as possible.
This past summer your appearance at Hot 97’s Summer Jam concert at Giants Stadium was met with a mixed reaction from the fans. What was your take on that?
It’s positive. When I’m in New York City, nobody remembers these other guys. They remember us. But the truth is, where I come from, I got a shady background. And because of that, I meet people who have that shady lifestyle that envy me. They look at me and go, “Yo, why he can do that and I can’t?”
