(AllHipHop News) Last October, Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson announced he was releasing a memoir titled Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter. The book is now out, and it features 50 Cent discussing numerous topics connected to his life.
Part of Hustle Harder includes Jackson reflecting on the careers of his G-Unit soldiers Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo. According to the Queens-raised rapper, Banks’ introversion was his own worst enemy.
“Years ago, I told Banks to film a video of his life and posted it on YouTube, introduce people to his lifestyle, let the camera follow him around for a while, and see how he moves. Maybe some he says or does will create a spark, go viral, and then he’ll have some heat around him again,” wrote 50.
The G-Unit leader added, “What I didn’t want him to do sit there writing punchline after punchline, and then grow resentful when no one seemed to care about his mixtapes anymore. They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If that’s so, Banks’ temperament was a little crazy. I’m not saying anything here that I have not said to Banks directly.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_h9AdgH44F
50 Cent went on to say that he encouraged Banks to join Instagram in the early days of the social media platform. However, Banks apparently told his boss that idea was “corny” and deceased Hip Hop icons The Notorious B.I.G. and 2Pac “didn’t do that sh*t.”
In an attempt to relieve himself from guilt, 50 insisted he really tried to help Banks build his legacy, but he felt The Hunger for More album creator was “stuck in either a time or a mind-frame.” Later in Hustle Harder, Hustle Smarter, 50 also addressed how the energy of the “wild” Tony Yayo affected G-Unit as a business.
“Transitioning from a street lifestyle to a more public persona was going to require a new mindset. Yayo didn’t seem to register that. If I got into a disagreement with another artist, Yayo’s reaction was ‘let’s just bang ’em,’ because that would have been his response back in the neighborhood,” explained 50 Cent.
He continued, “If we got $100,000 for a series of club appearances, Yayo wasn’t thinking about putting it in the bank. His first thought would be, ‘Hey, this could get us three and a half kilos of cocaine. Let’s flip those, and we’ll be sitting on some real money.’ Time and time again, I’d have to tell him, ‘Yayo, we can’t do that.'”
