50 Cent’s empire is under siege. Clearly, the lyrical assault by various posses, crews and cliques has been a partial construct of the Southside, Queens native. Although his adversaries have come back at him as if they were avenging a brother’s death, Fiddy’s gate has withstood the battering – and thrived amidst the adversity. He’s lost The Game, but gained M.O.P. and Mobb Deep. Critics never fully warmed up to The Massacre, yet the effort continues to move units in bulk.
Although he may be condemned for being disingenuous, 50 isn’t misguided. His moves are calculated. The 29-year-old is resolute in his goals and that translates into success for himself and those around him. Forever quizzical, AllHipHop.com asked 50 about his game of chess, multiple beefs, new friends and how he prevents his fortress from being leveled.
AllHipHop.com: Where is your head at right now? You’ve got a lot to be happy about…
50 Cent: You know what it is, today, like I woke up this morning, right, and I feel like, you know, I got a chance to really think. See because I got up early and everything that’s going on, like you know how you wake up before business hours? You get a clear head. It’s the time I like to actually speak to the people who I delegate responsibilities to. Everybody has to be huge, around me. There is no artist under 50 Cent. Everybody’s just around me. We understand our positions – and that’s what defines who is in the boss’ seat.
AllHipHop.com: And how is “everybody”?
50 Cent: Both Banks and Buck have some offers right now; I started executive producing films – so that’ll be the chance to see me involved in it behind the scenes while they’re actually acting as their selves.
AllHipHop.com: In lieu of the trials and such, how is Buck holding up?
50 Cent: Aw, Buck is a great man, great spirit. Every night we’ve been forming, you know, happily, you know, god willingly, everything will work its way out. You know, you’ve got little issues, but that was all on the shelf.
AllHipHop.com: What about Mobb Deep. What about them attracted you?
50 Cent: Well, yeah – I’ve always been a Mobb Deep fan [and] I had the opportunity to actually make them a priority on my list of things to promote. It doesn’t make any sense for me to just go out and make records. If an opportunity comes for me to do business with them when it makes sense to me I’ll jump to the opportunity. You know, and with Mobb Deep particularly, they’ve been putting out good music since, wow, like six, five, six albums?
AllHipHop.com: Well, what about M.O.P.? Even Dame recently expressed ideas that they were still signed to him…
50 Cent: Yeah, well, you know, some people just don’t – they don’t want to let go. Dame realized he lost in that situation. M.O.P.’s talent, like some of the lyrical content matches my albums, the M.O.P. record. It’s just, well the difference is the market and the promotion. And I feel like I’ve done a great job of marketing myself to the point that my first album, every album that’s been released through me period, has scanned over 1.5 million records.
AllHipHop.com: How do you intend to market them? That’s a challenge…
50 Cent: I put them in the gym. As far as that, there’s certain things that you know. Like I’ve watched artists and I pay attention to the game, period. I watched D’Angelo put out a bad album, and it sold because he was in condition. The song itself was called “Untitled” for Christ’s sake. It’s those dramatic changes so it’s obvious. If you can physically – forget about music. Forget about whatever you know about music, right? And just turn to yourself for a second. Generally speaking about women, right, if a woman can look at you and say she likes you before you open your mouth. As soon as you say the right thing to her it’s a go. I feel like if generally people look at you and like what you’re saying before you open you’re mouth, when you say the right thing they go, “I like him.”
AllHipHop.com: What about the M.O.P. sound? That was always a discussion-topic while the Roc album brewed…
50 Cent: Well, I take the ante up. I can take records, you know, they got classic material already that they’re ahead of me doing the deal with them. It’s like I don’t want to alter who they are creatively as an artist. Because what they’ve done in the past is what made them appealing to me. So, you know, I want them to create the right records and I’ll help, I mean, I’m executive producing the album so I’m going to go pick and make the record, they’re going to have the best producers in the world on the album. They’ve definitely got materials, Dr. Dre, Eminem, The Neptunes, Timbaland. As they enter the formats that their music hasn’t made it to before, like Top 40 and Pop radio, which has been that similar, look, Game’s record wouldn’t have sold what it sold, if I wasn’t on it.
AllHipHop.com: What was your response to Summer Jam and “300 Bars”?
50 Cent: I don’t respond to it. I’m not going to respond to it. Let me explain something to you, this is a guy that I went out of my way to work on this project because of my relationship with Dr. Dre. We’re splitting the 50% of the profits on Game’s album with Dr. Dre. You know, and I did what I had to do to make the project successful and then what you find afterwards is you start to see in his character that he thinks in like a new XXLhe’s saying it. He’s saying, “I’m the man.” What he’s going to find out is the only record that’s harder to make than your first one is your second one.
AllHipHop.com: The pressure is high for artists these days.
50 Cent: And when he goes into it without any support from me or anybody around me, because he’s been so disrespectful to everything that we stand for, then he’s on his own. He’s going to find himself by himself, you know what I’m saying? And in Dre’s situation, if Dre moved forward to support him creatively, I feel like he was supporting him all the way. Because there’s some, like, he had to get his input. There’s two parties. Everybody else is signed to 50 Cent. I actually set up his press so he can say disrespectful things about me. But I won’t sabotage. I’ll watch him destroy himself.
AllHipHop.com: What about Jimmy Henchmen? You know, because of the street background and the outspoken attitude, some people expected you two to end up allied…
50 Cent: You know what, let me tell you something all right. I can care less, like I can care less, like I have no issues with street s**t. The way you handle your business, it’s important that you do it the right way, you know what I’m saying? If you’ve got people who don’t actually understand it, and feel like they can do whatever they want because they’ve got a certain type of aura around them…[it’s not good business]. It’s like Black History [Month] every month for these kind of people – they’re living off this s**t that happened ten, fifteen years ago. Half of this s**t didn’t even do it themselves, it just was credited to them. So that s**t doesn’t move me, not even a little bit.
AllHipHop.com: A lot of money was spent in the G-U NOT campaign…
50 Cent: After his actions, you know what I mean, following that. Trust me, if he put his bank account in a publication, I would disclose how much finances I had just to show you the difference. He thinks that being just special towards me is going to establish him. But what it does is, it proves to corporate America he’s still the idiot that he was ahead of time. Because you don’t see me say anything negative about him. And what I was looking forward to from the project that I was involved in with him was being able to donate the proceeds to charity.
AllHipHop.com: Speaking of finances and that, how has The Massacre enhanced you?
50 Cent: I don’t think anybody who has plans to be successful should plan to go through what I’m going through. Money changes things, man. And the person who tells you that finances don’t change you – if money don’t change you, it’s because you’re not making enough. Because it will change you, you know what I’m saying? It will change your thought process because as you become successful you’re going to act with a circle that is more successful. They think on a higher level. [Success] ain’t an accident.
AllHipHop.com: Nas recently put out “Don’t Body Yourself.” Did you see that coming?
50 Cent: You know what, I’m gonna tell you: in all honesty when I released [“Piggy Bank”] and I heard [the various responses] I heard Jadakiss say some things, you know what I’m saying? And the general public hadn’t said one word about Nas, right? And this is a credible MC, at one point. Now, you get the implication of the general public feeling like he doesn’t count right now. Because the first thing they would say is, “Oh, what do think Jada gonna do or what you think Fat Joe…” do you see what I’m saying? They didn’t even put him in the loop. They wasn’t saying, “What you think Nas is going to do?” because his last album was so bad they didn’t even care. You know, and even his choice of music from the response, it’s not enough. It’s not good enough.