This past Saturday (April 21st) 50 Cent was in London as a guest on the Tim Westwood’s radio show. Topics ran wild from his new album (producers and guests), Eminem, Dr. Dre, Yayo, Young Buck and more.
50 starts off immediately talking about C.U.R.T.I.S. (which will be releasing June 26th in the U.S.). How he’s been in the studio with Dre, Kanye West, Pharrell, Swizz Beatz, Polow Da Don, and will.i.am. And how most will make the final cut, while some will be left off as the album will be 18 tracks deep.
What’s the direction? How did you make it happen?
This album feels like Batman Begins. It feels like Get Rich or Die Trying. The punchlines, some of them have a child’s innocence to them. The only record that reflects on my financial state is Straight to the Bank, and that’s why I started that way.
We're in an era of records not selling.
It needs people to put stronger efforts to create full albums of quality material. When you have the material being held to Dr. Dre, Eminem and my standards before we can actually release it. That’s the formula to keeping the material good enough for everyone to enjoy themselves,” 50 replied. “There’s artists in the U.S. that got a little momentum going but there records aren’t selling. Like MIMS, Rich Boy. Because there’s only one record in connection with them artists. … They didn’t give the general public enough to make them happy with spending their money on the disc.
Eminem?
They also should be looking forward to Em. Cause Em is working. Some people were under the impression that that was his last record, ‘cause he called it Curtain Call. … The return of Batman and Robin.
The Cam’ron beef is crazy.
That’s the competitive nature of hip hop. It don’t come from anything in the street that would make it turn into that. I already moved away from that. You can’t continue to beef with someone that isn’t intelligent enough to know when they lost. What you’ll do is, you’ll exhaust yourself on it and the general public on you talking about it.
What’s the setup for the album?
This record, I’m gonna release four records before the actual album releases. This song that you should look forward to hearing is called Come and Go, its produced by Dr. Dre. It’s like In Da Club pt. 2. Another record I wanna release is called Follow My Lead, it’s featuring Robin Thicke. And Amusement Park,” 50 answered. “I’m shooting a video for all four of those records. Away from the television networks, I have the opportunity to play four different music videos from 50 cent at the same time. You can always go to YouTube on the internet and check it out at your leisure. … I feel like people are ready to hear me and see me again.
So what’s you take on the Tony Yayo situation. (see: Shooting at Tony Yayo's Mother's Home)
People who shoot houses aren’t really a big threat. People who shoot people are. [Laughs] Ain’t nothing changed. When they talk about the house his mom lives in, that’s the house we grew up in. And the music is a direct reflection of the environment we come from. That where the aggressive content comes from. So sometimes they be like ahh hip hop music this, hip hop music that. But, it’s actually real. There’s always indications on some level that it’s actually going on.
Why does hip hop hate woman?
Hip hop loves women. I love women. If you look at what they do. Women are twice as marketable as men. When you want to sell a magazine to a woman, you put a woman on the cover. When you want to sell a magazine to a man, you put a woman on the cover. We all want to see beautiful women. So when you put a beautiful women in your music video, it becomes exciting [in these days and times] for males AND women. … Hip hop didn’t make up the word ‘bi*ch’. That word was there long before. We’ll utilize it, because there are women out there that have an attitude. Countless amounts of times I’ve heard women call women bi*ches.
Don Imus?
It’s not the statement ‘nappy headed hos’ that got him fired. It’s the advertisers pulling advertisements, that got him fired.
Virginia Tech Tragedy?
When Columbine happened, they blamed it on Marilyn Manson. Virginia Tech, the guy just walked in the school and killed 30 people. And he’s a big Led Zepplin fan. You got Ozzy Ozzborne and his followers at that point that is totally getting overlooked. Rock sales are actually increasing at this point. So I guess they would rather they kids paint their fingernails black and worship Satan. I guess that’s what you’d like over listenin’ to hip hop.
Are you mad at Young Buck?
Nah actually me and Buck got off the phone earlier today. I spoke to him. What it is, people generally make assumptions based on what they hearing in the music. And they got an example of Buck being willing to handle a situation with Dr. Dre at the award show. So he’s not that comfortable with everybody being kind of antsy or afraid when he comes around. So he wanted to tell everybody there ain’t no problems. In doing so, he kind of separates himself from me. Cause I’m not willing to reach out to those people and tell them I don’t have a problem with them. Cause I didn’t initiate the problem. To think that you can resolve a situation with someone who actually created it from nowhere is not really smart.
Any tracks from Timbo on the album?
Yea, I got a song from Timbaland featuring Justin Timberlake.
In your whole body of work. What is the favorite joint that you’ve done?
Favorite song? Man, probably In Da Club. That one was timeless. It’s a celebration of life. Everyday it’s someone’s birthday. The song’s relevant all over everyday.
What was your favorite moment of your career so far?
When I found out my first weeks sales. On the first album. On Get Rich or Die Trying. It was unbelieveblae to me. Did like 822,000 the first week. And the second week was really mind boggling cause I did another 800 something thousand. And you know how you usually expect to do a 40/50 percent decrease. And I didn’t do nothing. I didn’t decrease nothing.
Low moments?
It’s the sacrifices to build other artist. When I did Best Friend I was doing that to keep Olivia warm. When I could’a easily been doing I’ll Whip Ya Head Boy. I could’a been doing Trick Get In My Car when I was doing the Outta Control Remix with Mobb Deep. I always sacrifice, I always make decisions to go in different directions to try and help people around me.
http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.5147/title.50-cent-speaks-on-new-album-eminem-yayo-buck-more
audio: http://www.zshare.net/download/50_cent_tim_westwood_interview-mp3.html
50 starts off immediately talking about C.U.R.T.I.S. (which will be releasing June 26th in the U.S.). How he’s been in the studio with Dre, Kanye West, Pharrell, Swizz Beatz, Polow Da Don, and will.i.am. And how most will make the final cut, while some will be left off as the album will be 18 tracks deep.
What’s the direction? How did you make it happen?
This album feels like Batman Begins. It feels like Get Rich or Die Trying. The punchlines, some of them have a child’s innocence to them. The only record that reflects on my financial state is Straight to the Bank, and that’s why I started that way.
We're in an era of records not selling.
It needs people to put stronger efforts to create full albums of quality material. When you have the material being held to Dr. Dre, Eminem and my standards before we can actually release it. That’s the formula to keeping the material good enough for everyone to enjoy themselves,” 50 replied. “There’s artists in the U.S. that got a little momentum going but there records aren’t selling. Like MIMS, Rich Boy. Because there’s only one record in connection with them artists. … They didn’t give the general public enough to make them happy with spending their money on the disc.
Eminem?
They also should be looking forward to Em. Cause Em is working. Some people were under the impression that that was his last record, ‘cause he called it Curtain Call. … The return of Batman and Robin.
The Cam’ron beef is crazy.
That’s the competitive nature of hip hop. It don’t come from anything in the street that would make it turn into that. I already moved away from that. You can’t continue to beef with someone that isn’t intelligent enough to know when they lost. What you’ll do is, you’ll exhaust yourself on it and the general public on you talking about it.
What’s the setup for the album?
This record, I’m gonna release four records before the actual album releases. This song that you should look forward to hearing is called Come and Go, its produced by Dr. Dre. It’s like In Da Club pt. 2. Another record I wanna release is called Follow My Lead, it’s featuring Robin Thicke. And Amusement Park,” 50 answered. “I’m shooting a video for all four of those records. Away from the television networks, I have the opportunity to play four different music videos from 50 cent at the same time. You can always go to YouTube on the internet and check it out at your leisure. … I feel like people are ready to hear me and see me again.
So what’s you take on the Tony Yayo situation. (see: Shooting at Tony Yayo's Mother's Home)
People who shoot houses aren’t really a big threat. People who shoot people are. [Laughs] Ain’t nothing changed. When they talk about the house his mom lives in, that’s the house we grew up in. And the music is a direct reflection of the environment we come from. That where the aggressive content comes from. So sometimes they be like ahh hip hop music this, hip hop music that. But, it’s actually real. There’s always indications on some level that it’s actually going on.
Why does hip hop hate woman?
Hip hop loves women. I love women. If you look at what they do. Women are twice as marketable as men. When you want to sell a magazine to a woman, you put a woman on the cover. When you want to sell a magazine to a man, you put a woman on the cover. We all want to see beautiful women. So when you put a beautiful women in your music video, it becomes exciting [in these days and times] for males AND women. … Hip hop didn’t make up the word ‘bi*ch’. That word was there long before. We’ll utilize it, because there are women out there that have an attitude. Countless amounts of times I’ve heard women call women bi*ches.
Don Imus?
It’s not the statement ‘nappy headed hos’ that got him fired. It’s the advertisers pulling advertisements, that got him fired.
Virginia Tech Tragedy?
When Columbine happened, they blamed it on Marilyn Manson. Virginia Tech, the guy just walked in the school and killed 30 people. And he’s a big Led Zepplin fan. You got Ozzy Ozzborne and his followers at that point that is totally getting overlooked. Rock sales are actually increasing at this point. So I guess they would rather they kids paint their fingernails black and worship Satan. I guess that’s what you’d like over listenin’ to hip hop.
Are you mad at Young Buck?
Nah actually me and Buck got off the phone earlier today. I spoke to him. What it is, people generally make assumptions based on what they hearing in the music. And they got an example of Buck being willing to handle a situation with Dr. Dre at the award show. So he’s not that comfortable with everybody being kind of antsy or afraid when he comes around. So he wanted to tell everybody there ain’t no problems. In doing so, he kind of separates himself from me. Cause I’m not willing to reach out to those people and tell them I don’t have a problem with them. Cause I didn’t initiate the problem. To think that you can resolve a situation with someone who actually created it from nowhere is not really smart.
Any tracks from Timbo on the album?
Yea, I got a song from Timbaland featuring Justin Timberlake.
In your whole body of work. What is the favorite joint that you’ve done?
Favorite song? Man, probably In Da Club. That one was timeless. It’s a celebration of life. Everyday it’s someone’s birthday. The song’s relevant all over everyday.
What was your favorite moment of your career so far?
When I found out my first weeks sales. On the first album. On Get Rich or Die Trying. It was unbelieveblae to me. Did like 822,000 the first week. And the second week was really mind boggling cause I did another 800 something thousand. And you know how you usually expect to do a 40/50 percent decrease. And I didn’t do nothing. I didn’t decrease nothing.
Low moments?
It’s the sacrifices to build other artist. When I did Best Friend I was doing that to keep Olivia warm. When I could’a easily been doing I’ll Whip Ya Head Boy. I could’a been doing Trick Get In My Car when I was doing the Outta Control Remix with Mobb Deep. I always sacrifice, I always make decisions to go in different directions to try and help people around me.
http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.5147/title.50-cent-speaks-on-new-album-eminem-yayo-buck-more
audio: http://www.zshare.net/download/50_cent_tim_westwood_interview-mp3.html
