S. Samuel
New York rapper 50 Cent recently discussed his music empire and how he created a rap crew in G-Unit that would go on to outshine other groups like Eminem's D12 and Nelly's St. Lunatics.
In Fif’s perspective, he sacrificed his own career just to make sure Unit artists like Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo could receive recognition.
“A lot of people here may not know every member of D12 by name or every member of the St. Lunatics but chances are, they recognize who was a part of G-Unit and it’s because I was so conscious of the people around me that, after the first record took off – and Interscope Records really didn’t want – Why do you want a G-Unit record when you can have a 50 Cent record when that one is the largest debuting hip-hop album? You want another 50 Cent record. So I was adamant about positioning them properly because those crews, with D12 and St. Lunatics, had people that spearheaded them like Eminem and Nelly that had so much success, those projects would take two years before they would finish.” (Hard Knock TV)
He also took note of what happened with Eminem and Nelly in contrast to the crews they put on.
“They would come out and be such a huge success that they’re traveling and they’re touring with so much going on that their crew would be there and they would turn into those guys that were just in the background,” Fif added. “When you launch two albums before you get to them, people start to see them like they see this backdrop like, ‘You’re the guy in the background with Nelly, I know you. You’re the guy with Nelly.’ They know you for that instead of what you do as an artist. I didn’t want that to happen so I made the G-Unit project at that point and it kinda offered them different things to the point where I was actually writing the music. Like, helping them with their albums.” (Hard Knock TV)
Earlier this year, Curtis Jackson talked about possibly reuniting with his original G-Unit team.
“The original G-Unit, maybe. We might do something. I’ll be honest with you. Some of these new artists on the label I don’t think are working as hard as they could. I don’t know how hard they want to work or how much they want it. I could see the original coming back together though.” (ESPN)
Last week, Brooklyn rapper Fabolous revealed he turned down an opportunity to join Fif’s Unit during its prime.
“People always asked me why I didn’t join a crew or stuff like that, I don’t know if that would have changed my legacy or if I would even still be here today,” Fab said when asked if there is anything he would have done differently with his rap career. “I remember at one time 50 was offering me different things to come and be a part of G-Unit and I didn’t really do it because I didn’t want to kind of, it was at the time where they were signing Mobb Deep, Ma$e and all of those kind of guys and I just didn’t know if I wanted to be under something. I’ve always kind of had my own lane and everybody just respected me for what I do so that would have been a different turn and probably could have been successful, but successful for how long, you always got to think about it too.” (“The Breakfast Club”)
Check out 50 Cent’s interview:
