In the summer of 2002, 50 Cent changed the direction of the game. He dropped his breakout mixtape, 50 Cent Is the Future, successfully jacking other artists’s beats and remaking the songs to be his own—sometimes creating a more memorable product than the original. The tape’s legacy is layered. First, not only did it solidify Fif as hip-hop’s next rising star, but it introduced his G-Unit crew—at the time comprised of Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo—to a massive audience. In addition, it shifted the focus of the mixtape game from DJ-compiled projects to artist-driven discs. For years, others have tried to mimic the model, with attempts at dismantling peers’ products for new songs. Following up Monday’s video of 50 Cent reminiscing on the tape himself, XXL caught up with many of the artists whose songs were remade, from Prodigy to Raekwon, as well as Sha Money XL, who produced the only two original tracks on the release, to get their reflections on 50 Cent Is the Future. —Jakei Cho (@jaekicho), Adam Fleischer (@AdamXXL), Mark Lelinwalla (@XXL_Mark) and Neil Martinez-Belkin (@Neil_MB)