another 50 interview (chronic magazine)

[STILLDRE IS THE GODFATHER]

Chronicmagazine.com: “When did you first start rapping?”

50 Cent: “Professionally, ’98.”

Chronicmagazine.com: “Is that when you realized that you were really serious in ’98?”

50 Cent: “Yeah. I ended up working with Jam Master Jay for the very fist time. That was the first time I ever went to the studio and attempted to make a record for real.”

Chronicmagazine.com: “Was it a mixtape or demo?”

50 Cent: “It was like a demo. The first record I made was with Jay.”

Chronicmagazine.com: “How did you get into the whole mixtape
arena?”

50 Cent: “That’s like entry level hip-hop…Once you go in the studio…and record a record that you think is a hit, you’ve got to test it. So, you put it on a mixtape. Your A-class mixtape DJs are DJs that have radio airplay. The B-class DJs have the most stores and your C-class DJs are your local mixtape DJs. Once your A-class DJs put a record on their mixtape and they get a [good] response…they play it on the radio. I think that’s the most effective marketing tool. Once you generate enough interest for the bootleggers to bootleg a CD, I think you should have them bootleg your CD to the point where it’s excessive. It only hurts an established artist to be bootlegged. It hurts you if your album is old shit or if your record is wack …and it gets out that [your album’s] not hot.”

“It’s just so many things that go into an album these days. Now, my album is being packaged with a DVD. It’s almost like the making of the album. It has studio excerpts. It has live performances. It has a lot of things that could be sold separately…but it’s free with the actual CD.”

Chronicmagazine.com: “Did you ever battle [rap]?”

50 Cent: “No, I never battled. You know why? Because I never [saw] any money in battling. To be honest with you, I’m from the bottom. The music business is a business where no [prerequisites] are necessary. Eminem is a drop out, I’m a drop out. I’m a drop out that [now makes] more money than his teachers.”

Chronicmagazine.com: “Were mixtapes a business angle or are you just not into the battling?”

50 Cent: “A business angle. I’m not open to a rapper’s battle. A rapper just talks about you or gets in your face and says some shit to you…I’m not really with that. If I have a real issue with a person, I’ll address it, but if we’ve never had [any] differences or problems, it ain’t nothing for me to really talk about. It would have to be jealously that stems that; wouldn’t it? If there’s not an issue, there has to be a reason. It has to be in your best interest to disrespect me.”

Chronicmagazine.com: “Talk about how you hooked up with Eminem.”

50 Cent: “I had deals on the table with a few other [labels] like J Records, Jive Records, Warner Brothers, Capital, Universal. Usually you handle your business meetings during business hours, Monday through Friday, 9-5. I got a phone call from Theo, my attorney. Theo and Paul Rosenberg, who is Eminem’s management, he gave him a CD of my music, Guess Who’s Back. Em didn’t get a chance to listen to it because he was in the middle of finishing up the The Eminem Show. When he had the opportunity to listen to it, he was like, ‘Yo, this is it right here.’ At the time, he said he was a little bored with hip-hop because it was the same shit by the same artists, and the same crews. It was just nothing new. So, when he heard it, he was excited. He told Dre about it and they had me fly out. He called me on a Friday at 9 o’clock at night and was like, ‘Yo, we need you to come out and meet with us tomorrow.” (laughs)

Chronicmagazine.com: “Out of nowhere?”

50 Cent: “Yeah, really. It was out of nowhere. I wasn’t that excited with the initial phone call because I had [been to] so many meetings before that it really wasn’t [fun]. The creative part is my pleasure, the fun part for me. With business, you have to be able to separate the [artistry]. Some artists are so into the [art form], they might as well be painters with a smock and French accent because they’re going to get ripped off. (laughs) Some people’s talent is to write music or sing, or rap and other people’s talent is to take advantage of those people.”

Chronicmagazine.com: “Why Shady and Aftermath over everyone else?”

50 Cent: “At the time,…I was like, ‘Yo, ain’t nobody gonna censor me here.’ Can you see them saying, ‘No, 50, don’t say that.’”

Chronicmagazine.com: “Not Em. Dude puts it out there.”

50 Cent: “Creatively, there’s no place that I fit better…After we talked, I knew [Shady/Aftermath] was the one…”

Chronicmagazine.com: “What’s up with the the G-Unit now?”

50 Cent: “G-Unit is a beautiful thing to me. I put LLoyd Banks and Tony YaYo on. I signed them a year and a half ago… when I was in the middle of shopping for my deal. I had deals [on the table], but this is my third record deal, so I wanted to [sign] the right deal. I was really patient. Universal had a label for me for G-Unit after the first mixtape went out. They heard it on the street and saw how far it was actually going. I wasn’t really interested in the deal because of Universal as a company. Universal has so many talented artists there that they just throw balls against the wall. If they stick, it’s a hit, if it doesn’t, move to the next one.”

Chronicmagazine.com: “Are y’all going to do anything together soon?”

50 Cent: “Absolutely. The street releases are all three of us together. In August, because we’re still in negotiation stages,…you should see the G-Unit, with all three of us.”

Chronicmagazine.com: “How is this deal with Shady and Aftermath different from the one with Columbia?”

50 Cent: “Well, the deal at Columbia was for $250,000 and I got $65,000 in advance.”

Chronicmagazine.com: “Big difference.”

50 Cent: “I had a deal with JMJ [Jam Master Jay], so I negotiated for a release, and I gave Jay $50,000 and the attorney that negotiated the release with Jam Master Jay and negotiated the contract with [Columbia/ Trackmasters] got $10,000. So, I was left with $5,000. I was selling crack through the whole album with Columbia because I had no option. How do you live off of $5,000 for over a year? You don’t. And then [be expected] to move around like you’re a rap star. How do you do that?..”

Chronicmagazine.com: “Are you still cool with Trackmasters?”

50 Cent: “No, we don’t have a relationship anymore. Me and Poke [of Trackmasters] had a relationship [directly] after [my release from the label]. I would still go kick it with him and shit in the studio and make music. I think I recorded eight records and they were trying to give me two records. They wanted me to write music for Blaque. I wrote a couple of choruses for them, but then I fell back because I had to get my own shit together. I didn’t want to just sit around and just [write songs for other people]. I didn’t even have a discussion with them…I just didn’t deal with them anymore. But, one thing [Poke] did have me do was [write] the chorus for [LL’s “Paradise”].”

Chronicmagazine.com: “With Amerie?”

50 Cent: “Yeah.”

Chronicmagazine.com: “Do you do a lot of that?”

50 Cent: “Yeah, but now they’ve got to pay me. I’ve helped people make hit records.”

Chronicmagazine.com: “Have you always got the credit for it?”

50 Cent: “No and even when you look at that [LL and] Amerie record, my name isn’t there. We had a legal situation with that because they didn’t put my name in the credits and they ended up [paying].”


Enter to win the 50 Cent Giveaway here.

Come back next week for Part II of our interview with 50 Cent.

[Kill]

Had some interesting questions/answers, good post