S. Samuel
New York rap heavyweight 50 Cent doesn't hold back in his new GQ feature and touches on his current relationship with estranged G-Unit members Tony Yayo and Lloyd Banks. #NewSides
In Fif’s opinion, he invested too much time and effort into his hometown friends without seeing much growth.
Imagine a plant, he says: “If you spent ten years watering it, it’d f*cking grow.” And if it didn’t? “Doesn’t that tell you you need to get new seeds? F*ck this. New seeds–let’s do something different now.” He’d made Banks and Yayo famous by letting them stand next to him on stages around the world, given them every opportunity to succeed, and yet they couldn’t get there on their own. “I enabled these guys,” he says. Now they felt entitled to success they didn’t earn. … I wouldn’t have been a friend if I didn’t help them. But helping them hurt them. Can you see that concept?” (GQ)
Although the “Talk of New York” avoided shouting out 50, he made sure to name-drop G-Unit in an interview earlier this month.
“What’s up Guiana? This is my first here, happy to be here, French Guiana,” Yayo said in an interview. “New York to Miami and Miami to here. It’s my first time in French Guiana. I’m used to just saying Guiana. French Guiana, what’s up? … We here. G-Unit’s in the building. Shout-out to Lloyd Banks. Tony Yayo. Yeah!” (SLM Street)
Alongside Yayo, Lloyd Banks also spoke on traveling overseas and how much it meant to embrace his international fans.
“This is my first time in French Guiana,” Banks added. “First of all, I’m excited to be here. I’m probably just as excited as they are to see me here. It’s a dream for me. I’ve wanted to do this since I was ten-years-old, so, for me to go to new places everyday, I get to go home to my people and tell them where I’ve been. So it’s an accomplishment for me.” (SLM Street)
Discussing Yayo last month, Fif said his longtime pal had come to rely on him for too much.
“I just shot 13 music videos for Animal Ambition,” Fif said in an interview. “With Ya, I put him in like 4 of the joints – I think some people are like milk. They have an expiration date. No matter what you do, they’ll spoil after awhile. What I’m saying to you is I’ve done a lot for them. Being personable with people, they’ll feel like that homeboy code – ‘You got it, so you should give it to me,’ versus what makes sense. If you don’t sustain your value in the marketplace, I gotta pay you the market rate.” (“The Breakfast Club”)
