The Best Quotes From XXL’s G-Unit Roundtable, Part One

It's a G-Unit takeover at XXL.

This week, we revealed our G-Unit cover for the upcoming October/November issue, which hits newsstands on Oct. 17. We got special access to The Unit by returning to 50 Cent's famed Connecticut mansion where the last XXL G-Unit cover story was shot. After a day of interviews, photo shoots, and a G-Unit-hosted BBQ, EIC Vanessa Satten sat down with the crew for a lengthy roundtable that dives head first into why they broke up in the first place.

While part two of the roundtable drops tomorrow, here's a complete breakdown of the best quotes from part one. 50 Cent, Young Buck, Lloyd Banks, and Tony Yayo opened up with extensive details about why they stopped talking together, the rich history of G-Unit's rise, former beefs and allegiances, and more. Here are the best quotes from our G-Unit roundtable.

On Young Buck's attitude during the May 2008 cover shoot:

Young Buck: I just remember, basically ...

50 Cent: He was crazy.

Buck: We have been separated. I was crazy. We have been separated from each other for a while. That was right around the time when, you know, let me get everything back together, so when I came back around, I was still on my crazy shit.

On 50 Cent describing G-Unit:

50 Cent: Banks is the detailed writer. And that points drawn from everything. Lazy Lloyd on his arm is the real deal. Before anything happens, he could be outside of everything that is happening there. And Buck, he can get into his own pockets too. But he's off in his own head. Going around doing the Young Buck thing.

On 50 Cent Wanting Beefs:

50 Cent: The way I was brought up, if that who's you actually down with, then we share those issues. If not, I don't have to fuck with the other people they are dealing with. I don't need none of it. You understand? It's because I like it and I want it. I want to rap, I want to run around and write music and do those different things. I don't have to. I could be upstairs in my house and go to sleep and do different shit.

On Holding Grudges:

50 Cent: I'm a Cancer, I can hold on to this shit. It can be a long time and I'll see somebody and feel the same way I felt when I see him. So it will feel like there will be no way to resolve the situation. They've been around me - somebody has done something and then they left. Like Fredro [Starr]. I said when I see him, Ima smack the shit out of him? ... I already said I was gonna smack the shit out of him while he was in the street. By the time I run into him, Yay's in jail. Buck, he was there. But I felt the same way I felt when I said I was gonna slap the shit out of him.

G-Unit's explanation of the industry at large:

50 Cent: Certain things are effective, certain things are not. You gonna have people that are astrayed. If you took somebody out of that neighborhood and put a million dollars in their possession, it's gonna kill them. It's gonna kill them because they'll get nice things, and if they don't have any money to spread around to build that actual support system ...

Banks: Then they'll be self-centered, they wouldn't know what to do make shit work. I was sitting at the crib like, we did too much. I wasn't in a hurry. Fuck music. But I was upset with the music business as a whole. I wasn't in a rush to lose my friends, so to speak. You understand what I am saying? That same fan that was telling you, "Yo, you gotta do your own thing!" Was the same nigga cursing me out if I was gonna step on the Summer Jam stage. You know what I am saying? Once I started to figure this shit out, y'all just want everything. You want 100 verses. 100 videos. Kumbaya. You want all that shit. It don't go that way all the time.

On G-Unit's fallout:

50 Cent: My crew, 'cause initially it is all mines, right? Bricks all in the sales. We had more success than we anticipated after Get Rich Or Die Tryin'. It goes boom. Now, Hunger For More is there. The same group that's there would have been big guys there if it was just 50 Cent's crew. But now, they work for Banks. The road manager. The tour people. I don't care if they were just carrying bags. Actually, Slowbucks comes from the bag era.

So everybody that was there, broke off in themselves. There was Banks crew. Yayo's crew. And these are all guys that come from the original crew that just broke now. And naturally, everybody getting paid. We just have all relationships with everyone from a longer period of time than usual because we was all around at one point in the very beginning. When you leader of your actual crew and you actually leading them, it can get uncomfortable when someone else comes around and they view him as the big [homie]. You the big homie, and then I come and they go, "Oh, the big, big homie." What you mean? The big, big homie? What I am saying to you is the big homie don't necessarily like the adjustment these niggas is making when the guy comes around saying is the big, big homie 'cause he's actually providing the way that they eat.

Previously: Editor-In-Chief Speaks On XXL’s New G-Unit Cover
G-Unit Is On The Cover Of XXL’s New Issue
All 81 G-Unit Mixtapes In One Place