You read Part One, which led up to The Massacre. Now you have it, so checkout what 50 had to say on less pressing, deeper issues. Also, read in on what 50 was saying about the Game before their beef popped off. Very Serious! Part 2 shows a side of Curtis Jackson you have yet to see.
AllHipHop.com: So at this point in your career, how much is it about the music, and how much is it about the business. 50 Cent: I love the music. I didn’t have a plan B if this didn’t work, like I said the hardest thing wasn’t getting shot, it was not knowing what I was going to do with my life after being shot. They dropped me from Columbia, wasn’t returning my phone calls. Because I was shot. So I will tell what run through my head. S**t, I should of shot one of these n***as. Because if I would of shot one of them n***as, they would have been too scared not to do business with me. Fear lasts longer than love. A person that loves you can hurt you. But if you’re afraid, they’ll remember that you’ll do something. They respect that more. But in business, I don’t try to intimidate. Instead, I try to explain how lucrative it would be to do business with me.
AllHipHop.com: At one point on a freestyle, you said "F**k the hood"? what did you mean by that?
50 Cent: I am the hood. I have my hood tattooed across my back. I don’t see anybody with their hood tattooed across their back. I see gang members with their set tattooed across their back in the penitentiary. I have Southside tatted across my back because everything you hear me speak about, this hood brings it forth. Not even with Southside, the whole New York City, you don’t see me walking around screaming Queens all day. Geographically damn near every Southside sounds like the hood.
AllHipHop.com: So what do you mean when you said that?
50 Cent: I meant f**k the hood. Because I know for a fact that everybody in the hood doesn’t want to be there. It feels different if you view me, as I want hood. People think I went Hollywood when I said that. Let me be honest with you, I do things to keep people talking. They have nothing better to do go to the barbershop. I ain’t there, but I’m in there. "That n***a 50 said ‘f**k the hood,’ f**k him." If I wasn’t me, I probably won’t like me. That’s the truth. I’m killing them.
AllHipHop.com: I was talking to somebody and they said that a Black man can’t make this much money so fast with out selling apart of himself.50 Cent: That’s not true. I haven’t compromised myself yet. And I think the experience I had at Columbia Records made that possible. Because when I wanted to blow up, I wasn’t ready. You know when you rush and you think you’re ready and you’re really not? And me being shot was a learning experience. Because the phone stops ringing and you know who’s real and who’s fake. And as I progressed, I see that those were people that I didn’t need around me.AllHipHop.com: So with G-Unit, a lot of y’all have cases now can you speak on that?
50 Cent: It’s kind of hard to escape it. It’s the life. With Yayo, his situation stems from old situations. In the beginning, he was on the run. And why he did that was because, his mentality was that if he goes in now, the world wouldn’t know whom Tony Yayo is. He felt he would be coming back to nothing. If he went in, people would look at him as 50’s new artist, Tony Yayo. He knew me all my life. It works for him, because he got a chance to establish who he is before he goes in. The only way he would of went in is from the police catching him. That’s the way we were raised. "Catch me I you can, I’m the ginger bread man."? [laughs]
He probably won’t like it if I say this, but I’m actually glad that he has the beeper on his foot. It keeps him away from getting in trouble. Yayo was exactly what we were. We were in a ’93 Dodge Caravan. Riding with six n***as, six pistols, six vests. And because he missed that, you will see it in his behavior. He be like, "I’m rich n***a,"? everybody else is like "Whatever."? Banks bought a home that cost 2.5 million dollars. Buck got a really nice home in Nashville – which costs less, but it’s bigger and Yayo don’t want that stuff. He’s like "Wait a minute, you got 18 bedrooms in your house? What these n***as want to buy a house for, these n***as is stupid."? It doesn’t make any sense to him. He want to buy Bentleys, Ferraris and just stay at one of your houses. And he’s exactly where we were at. The first sign of success drives by on four wheels where I’m from. The largest asset in my family is my grandmother’s home. It’s worth about 175,000 [dollars].
AllHipHop.com: Does she still live there?
50 Cent: Nah, I moved her. So before the records, the largest asset [was] the house. So can you imagine yourself in an expensive car? I think it’s positive for a moment just so he can’t adjust in think if Yayo was out and about, you cant tell him "Don’t go to the hood."? That’s the first stop, with all the diamonds on. So he can’t be comfortable like that with out shooters. But then you out there available for the situation to take place.
AllHipHop.com: Recently, Game’s Compton crib got shot up. Do you have any comments on that?
50 Cent: With Game’s situation, I think they should expect more. He’s a Blood. They in Los Angeles. That’s Crip capital, baby. There’ a lot of f***ing Crips out there. And not even using that as an issue, he should expect more because the n***a lives right in his hood. He bought the block he used to live on. So n***as is like, "Now there’s some paper here." There’s no real gang s**t in New York. You may have your few knuckleheads here and there, but if you tell me a place where I can’t go, and people coming down asking me why I’m here, who I’m here to see, then I’ll feel like that’s a gang. You could go anywhere. If you going to visit your aunt, ain’t no n***as gonna come out and be territorial. That’s not our structure. We built on a drug dealer structure. If the finances are around, I don’t care who he is; he’ll get laid out. The shooters won’t mind, they just want to work.
AllHipHop.com: What about your son? Do you feel like you created an environment for him where…
50 Cent: He’s different.
AllHipHop.com: I’ve seen you in the same clothes.
50 Cent: That’s the only thing. I think he’s special. I think he’s the best part of me. I think that he have all of my good qualities and I think that all the things I had to go through to get where I’m at, he didn’t receive that. He’s sheltered because I don’t allow him to be out and about. The most he could do is hear it on record. And he do the bop and make his face mad and I like to watch that because he looks like me [laughs] I trip off of that. But we’re different. Even the schooling – I make him go to school where he has to wear uniform. He tries to be as helpful as possible, and he likes to solve problems. Like with family or anything going on, he would want me to come because someone is there that he knows I don’t talk to. He’ll call me like, "I want to see you"? and I’m like why you want to see me? And he’ll be like "I just want to see you now. I ain’t see you in such and such:"? He’ll make it make sense. And when I come there, there be someone that I don’t talk to. And I be like, "You brought me because of this?"? and he be like "You should talk to him"? and I’m like "You’re eight, stop that s**t,"? but he really tries to solve problems.
AllHipHop.com: What kind of family problems might you have?
50 Cent: I got a little cousin that’s a fraud. He raps like he me, and he ain’t start that s**t until I got on. He’s a f***ing fraud. I don’t even talk to him. I tell you why. I don’t want it to be my fault when n***as get their hands on him. I tell his mother, he won’t stop and you haven’t been making an effort to make him stop. They tell him, "Oh you sound like [me] a little bit."? I’m like, "No, you haven’t gone through the same things I have. If he was in this room, he wouldn’t know that n***as is on him. He doesn’t have that street sense to know if n***as wanted to hurt him. He calls himself 25, so he can associate himself with 50. I don’t talk to him because I know n***as would get their hands on him. And you know that I wear a bulletproof vest, have a bulletproof car. I have that as simple precautions because common sense tells you if Biggie died in a car, Tupac died in a car, I got shot nine times in a car. It’s like [normal to] start bulletproofing the cars now.
AllHipHop.com: Is there any truth to Supreme being involved with your mom’s death?
50 Cent: No my moms was out during the "Cat" era. It was cool, she was around that age bracket. The old heads can’t respect you when you can be their children. This n***a came home, he with me. I’m 19 in a Benz, he 40 in an old Bronco trying to get back on his feet. Chasing the same b***hes I chase.
Editor’s Note: In the mid-eighties, Ja Rule and 50 Cent’s role models were drug kingpins like Lorenzo "Fat Cat"? Nichols, Howard "Pappy"? Mason, and McGriff.