Know I’m Saying

50 Cent’s eyes are bleary. His head is throbbing. He hasn’t slept in 28 hours. He arrived at Milk Studios, on Manhattan’s west side, straight from the airport. He flew in from Toronto this morning, after pulling an all-nighter on the set of his movie, Get Rich or Die Tryin’. “I wouldn’t miss something for Yayo,” he says. “Under any circumstances, I wouldn’t.” He’s come to pose for pictures, to lend his star power to the fourth solo artist to emerge from his G-Unit Records (Lloyd Banks, Young Buck and Game—all platinum). And while he’s here, we figured he could give us his take on things: the status of his relationship with Game; the diss songs recently released against him (Fat Joe’s “My 44,” Jadakiss’ “Checkmate,” Sheek Louch’s “Clickety Clank”); the reaction to his quadruple-platinum sophomore album, The Massacre; and the future of his company.

I’m getting ready to change that impression that I created in the beginning. I’m trying to change people from viewing G-Unit as a group to just viewing us as G-Unit Records, the company. ’Cause the individuals are too strong to be placed in a group form. There’s never been a group in the history of music to this point that has come in as a group—four members or more—that has been able to separate and each one of them be a success. There’s always one member out of the group that doesn’t do it. If it’s not that, it’ll be a fucking Justin Timberlake. But where’s the rest of the boys?

G-Unit as a group, that’s over. It’ll never be the same, ’cause everybody’s here physically available to create they own material, and I’d be slowing them down to not allow them to work at the pace that they capable of. Buck’s already got over 25 records towards his next album. So how do I tell him, “No, we gonna do G-Unit’s album next,” when you got 25 records by yourself? I’m listening to them and I like the records. Nah, you gotta put your next solo album out. And Banks is ready with his record. Yayo’s release, and then the soundtrack to the movie... There will be a single off the soundtrack leading into Buck’s or Banks’ record. They should expect us to have something representing G-Unit at all times.

There’s not gonna be another label to come in and give us a run for our money. It’s not gonna happen. The reason why? They’d have to be led into this business. And who’s gonna bring them in? For artists, your shot is secured if you’re down with us. And I’m making it an option for them to come meet with me. I’m open.

G-Unit sticks together. A portion of our success is credited to that. People from the outside have to be strong enough artists to stand on their own to get my attention. I don’t have no problems with an artist wanting to have his own crew, or be his own separate thing, as long as what he’s doing is accurate enough to generate finances for the company.

But if you say you want to fuck with people I don’t fuck with, that ain’t gonna work. That ain’t gonna work at all. That says we don’t have a relationship. Anybody who has a relationship with you doesn’t want to fuck with people who you don’t fuck with. I don’t just hate people for no reason. They do things that make me uncomfortable, to make me say things or take that position with them. I don’t usually resolve anything. That’s why even going to the press conference, when I go with Game, is big for me.

Anybody, not just G-Unit, anybody that you’re down with… You should not blatantly go against what everybody else in your camp is doing. Then you alienate yourself, and you can’t expect those people in that camp to be receptive to helping you in any way. Game will understand my actual value when it comes time to make his next album and I won’t participate in any of the creative side.

I think the press conference went well. I think we accomplished being in the same room with each other and not having an altercation break out. Me and Game haven’t had communications since. He’s not G-Unit… It’s family, and your dedication to us, versus just paperwork. G-Unit is closer than usual on an artist level. We have relationships like they’re my younger brothers. Banks, Buck, Yayo, Spider, Olivia, it’s different. We got different relationships. And at the same time, what I’m trying to do is… take the Olivia project. I view that as an opportunity to diversify a section of G-Unit. Everything is street-orientated and aggressive at this point. Now, she’s a female R&B solo artist—it’s different. Everything else that goes on with G-Unit, I want to turn it into an actual record company like Interscope. I think Interscope is the best possible company. Internationally, they move records beyond the other labels. If you look at the other artists that release records, they ain’t selling no records outside of the country.

G-Unit would still be under Interscope Records. Like the Universal Music Group with Def Jam, all of that under the same umbrella. So, as a company grows to the point that you have a roster that dominates, I’ll be in that position anyway.