*courtesy of Davey D
50 Cent and his G-Unit partners Llyodd Banks and Young Buck came through the San francisco Bay Area yesterday [Nov 17] and kicked it with folks while they promoted their new G-unit album 'Beg For Mercy'. During a special 'meet and greet' held at the Universal records office in SF, 50 entertained a bunch of questions which he answered candidly.
He started off by updating everyone on what he and his crew have in store over the next few months. For starters, he explained that most of the G-Unit album was recorded on a special bus while they were on the road during the 'Roc The Mic' tour. As a result much of the album's subject matter reflected the group's experiences. 50 cited the song 'Groupie Love' as one example.
50 noted that they will be releasing another G-Unit album before the end of the year. This particular offering will be a supergroup of sorts as G-Unit will team up and collaborate with Snoop Dogg and the Dog Pound Crew. While that's happening they will be gearing up to release solo albums from Buck and Llyodd Banks. 50 stated that he was toying with the idea of releasing both projects. Ideally he wants to connect it with a slogan like that reads 'More Bank for Your Buck'. If all goes well the albums will drop and coincide with a super tour that will include Dr. Dre and Eminem. Much of the tour happeing will depend upon when Dre releases his Detox album.
Lastly 50 noted that he is working on a film that will chronicle his life. The director is Terry Winters who is the brains behind the hit series 'The Sopranos'. There's no set release date on that project.
BEEF WITH LIL KIM
During his sit down, I asked 50 whether or not he would do another song with Lil Kim. He said 'No' and explained what really happened between him and Lil Kim and the hit song 'Magic Stick'.
For those who don't know, there have been a number of times that 50 and Lil Kim appeared on the same bill, yet 50 never performed the song with her. Initially people speculated that the two just didn't get along. Others speculated that the fall out came because 50 didn't do the video with Lil Kim.
50 explained that the song 'Magic Stick' was something he wrote and later licensed to Lil Kim. The song was initially written with Miami rapper Trina in mind, hence the opening lines that referenced 'The Baddest Bitch' which is Trina's moniker.
The problem 50 had with Trina was that she added a whole lot of extra things to the song that diluted the original intent. Since Trina wasn't willing to rap the words that 50 wrote he took back his song. Because of the time delay involving Trina, 50 wasn't able to put the Magic Stick song on his album 'Get Rich or Die Trying'.
The Lil Kim connection emerged when word got back to Atlantic Record president Craig Kallman. Kallman had passed on signing 50 Cent after he listened to salty advice from Irv Gotti and Ja Rule. According to 50 they had spoken to Kallman and convinced him that 50 would bring nothing but trouble to the label. Over time Kallman began to see that 50 would've been a great assest to the label. Hence he approached 50 about doing some work on Lil Kim's album.
50 offered up the Magic Stick song to be licensed for a huge amount of money. Since Trina is also connected to Atlantic Records via her label Slip-N-Slide, it was still on the table and known by Kallman. This is where the problem started. Apparently Lil Kim was hard at work and set to release what his now her current single 'Slow Jamz' with Chicago rapper Twista. As we now know the Magic Stick song completely overshadowed those efforts. 50 surmissed that Lil Kim got upset with him when she realized how much money was coming out of her budget for the song. 50 concluded that the price he got for the song was payback for Atlantic Records passing on him after getting advice from playerhaters'.
50 also noted with a sly grin, that he was thinking of selling a line of 'Magic Sticks' [vibrators] , that would be both corded and battery operated. We'll wait and see how that unfolds.
RAPPERS AND THEIR RESPONSIBILITY
50 was questioned a couple of times by concert promoter Lionel Bea about the role rap artists should be playing considering their huge influence over kids. 50 noted that ideally its up to the parents of these kids to explain what it is they are listening to. He felt that his music was made for an adult audience but unfortunately a lot of kids were getting hold of it.
He felt that he should be consistent with what he was about as an artist and not try and play both sides of the fence and cause confusion. He referenced Nas' hit record 'I Can'. While he admits it was a good song for kids, he felt it was a terrible song for adult hip hoppers. He felt that Nas should've made the effort to strictly market the song via avenues like Sesame Street as opposed to coming on the airwaves and causing confusion.
50 noted that Nas had built his career around making aggressive records that deal with adult subject matter. By putting out a song like 'I Can' he misled parents into thinking that Nas is for the kids and therefore its ok to listen to his albums and follow him as an artist. A quick listen to his labums would suggest otherwise.
After these parents let their guard down and allow their kids to be exposed to Nas, 50 felt Nas would come out with other records that are adult oriented. 50 raised the question of how do you go from a record like 'Made U Look' where the chorus has him shooting and gunshot ringing to a kids record like 'I Can'. 'Is he making records for kids or adults?' 50 asked. He basically felt that as an artist he should be clear as to who he is and what he's about and own up to that responsibility.
50 also spoke to what he percieved as a double standard with Hip Hop. He explained that as an artist he wants his artwork to match the lyrics in his songs. He noted that most people whiole listening to a record will look at the visuals both on the album cover and video. As an artist he wants to be true to that vision and have everything he does visually to support the lyrics. He admitted that he wanted to show a gun on his album cover but wasn't able to get that approved. Hence on the mixtape circuit his album covers showed guns.
He explained that he didn't understand why everyone would get upset with him for visually supporting his lyrics while other artists like Will Smith went un-criticized despite having posters for his movie showing him holding two guns. 50 explained that because Will was making the entertainment industry a ton of money, everyone's moral concerns went out the window even though his visual art was much more graphic and in your face than 50s. Folks may recall when the movie Bad Boy II came out Will Smith had huge bigger than life posters of him holding two guns adorning buses and trains in inner cities all over the country.
JA RULE AND MINISTER FARRAKHAN
50 didn't bring up his situation with Ja Rule for the first 40 minutes of his discussion until I asked him whether or not he was going to meet with Minister Farrakhan. He reiterated what many had already heard and thought, that a lot of that was centered around record label executives
attempting to create a buzz around Ja Rule's album. 50 bemoaned the fact that during this historic sitdown with the Minister that there were commercials running encouraging folks to buy his new album 'Blood In My Eye' which was going to be released the next day.
50 went on to explain that initially he wasn't going to meet with the Minister, until his grandmother got at him. He explained having beef with his grandma is something he doesn't want. He respects what the Minister did and has done and believes his efforts were sincere, but he thinks he was used to help sell albums and boost Ja Rule's sagging career. He noted that he didn't wanna get played.
50 went on to elaborate about the beef between him and Ja Rule. He asserted that before 50 released his album 'Get Rich or Die Trying', that Ja and Irv Gotti had attempted to poison the air by calling radio stations and badmouthing him. According to 50 they had made a copy of a 'Order For Protection' and tried to paint a picture that he was scared of them, which he says isn't true.
