Lloyd Banks & Tony Yayo: Shooters, Part 1 & 2

[Elano]

Prepping to release the G-Unit collective's sophomore salvo, Shoot To Kill, Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo reveal some of their targets.

video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcVP_pj9cLU&eurl=http://allhiphop.com/blogs/features/archive/2007/11/02/18815842.aspx

Being a part of one of the rap game’s biggest groups today puts a lot of eyes on you.  Two individuals in particular stand out one. One for his notoriety and outspoken nature, the other for his ill punch lines and lyrical flow, Tony Yayo and Lloyd Banks, respectively. The G-Unit generals spoke to AllHipHop.com about the future of the group and the T.I. situation, addressed past rumors and provided us a glimpse into what they are doing for 2008.

Yayo and Banks are focused on the future of G-Unit and trying to recapture the hunger that brought them to this point in time.  Banks and Yayo have been absent from the scene some time, and they both had a lot to say regarding their hiatus from the charts.  From their responses, it’s easy to see their starving to get their position back.

AllHipHop.com: So Yayo, you have to be more excited that you are apart of the process of this G-Unit album since you were locked up on the first album.  Has being on this album changed things a lot?

Lloyd Banks: It changes it a lot. Coming up rapping, before I actually got on, before anyone got one, any one of us, that was my battery. You know what I’m saying? I went off of what his last verse was and really didn’t pay attention to anything else that was out there.. because I felt like that was all that I needed. So, when [Yayo] got locked up it was like, ‘Damn!’. That’s why he was on the Hunger For More album. I held my project back to make sure that he was on that.

Tony Yayo: First day I got out I came and recorded on Banks’ album.

Lloyd Banks: Cause I know when I do shows, 9 times out 10, he gonna be there. I needed something for him to come out and rock. Fresh out the jail cell, you know what I’m saying? So, this album is going to be the same drive, because we all coming from the same place.

Tony Yayo: Banks is hungry again, period.

Lloyd Banks: But he makes me even more [hungry]. You know how that is. Being onstage. I look to my right, I know if I make a mistake he gonna catch it. That applies on the stage, in an interview, wherever you at.

Tony Yayo: G-Unit we on a whole other category than a lot of rappers, to me. And its not like to brag or boast, but like I said, we get the checks but we never get the trophies. I mean, you look at what 50 sold, what Banks sold,  what I sold, what Buck sold,  as a whole. What 30 million records sold? No group has done that yet, as a whole.  So, it’s like, when you look at that, you gotta give us the credit.  People see sales is down now, so [they say], ‘Oh, G-Unit is falling off!’ But sales is down for everybody. You got rappers doing 1,900, 4,000, 5,000 units. I look at it like, ‘Man, lets just have fun with it.’ You know, we made a lot of money and went though a lot of things. When you get a lot of money egos change, because now I can go to the bank and withdraw what I want to do, buy that car I wanna buy, so if you haven’t made enough money yet, you haven’t changed. We’ve changed, all of us, as men. You understand what I’m sayin? And we back, Man.

AllHipHop.com: When you say that you haven’t brought home any trophies, is that something you want?

Tony Yayo: I mean we want trophies, but it’s like our music is so aggressive, what we rhyming about, we know we’re not going to get any trophies. Dudes like Kanye and Common Sense will be nominated way ahead of a Lloyd Banks or a Tony Yayo. Cause people see the aggressiveness in the music. But that’s where we came from.  Kanye is rapping about being a college dropout. I’m rapping about being a high school dropout. And to me, 70% of people tune into what their environment is. In our environment there was nothing there. 50 lived down the block from me, Banks lived down the block from me, and with everybody in my neighborhood the thing was to sell drugs.

Lloyd Banks: We came a long way, man. We exceeded everybody else’s expectations a long time ago. Way before we did ours. There was a point when the mixtape first came out, 50 Cent Is The Future, where it’s me, Yayo and 50 on the cover at [that] point, Man, I didn’t even know where this was gonna go. We was riding around super dirty. You know what I’m sayin? Super Dirty. Like if we had gotten knocked one time, we wouldn’t have been here talking to you now. Not saying we were satisfied or content with that, but to be honest with you, I didn’t know where we was going to end up if that deal didn’t come through. If Yay didn’t call me like, “Yo, the deal went through.’ I honestly couldn’t tell you what was going to happen in the 8 or 9 months. I was happy at that point. So, to get here now, at the point we are now and have sold as many records as we did…. Forget about the sales, let’s just talk about the overall influence of the hood, mainstream America, everywhere…

Tony Yayo: When you go overseas and people know a Lloyd Banks record in Japan or Africa and they know “So Seductive” in Estonia, and we go to Ireland and they know Lloyd Banks.

Lloyd Banks: We’ve put in a lot of work, Baby.  What are we on like 25 mixtapes right now?  We made a mixtape in a matter of two days. 8 records a day type sh*t. The grind was always there, it was just like nothing stays in one place in one time. To me, it just feels like it ain't the time for the real ni**a right now.

Tony Yayo: And the hate come from… because sh*t , I was locked up for two years and when I came home, I came home to money, I came home to condos and everything. Banks was totally different. I pinched myself to see if I was f*cking dreaming.  That’s why I got locked up 12 hours later, because I was f*cking trying to play catch-up and was just so hype. I had a condo, cars, everything waiting for me. So, the hate comes from…when you see groups like Fat Joe’s Terror Squad and D-Block and Black Wall Street, these artists haven’t gotten these things and they been in the game. How long has Fat Joe been in the game? He been in the game for about 15 years now. Jealous-ones envy.  [Fat Joe] was rhyming before Biggie, before  Big L, before Tupac, some of the greatest. So, really the truth inside is how he feels is like, ‘I deserve that sh*t! I been in the game for 15 years!’

Lloyd Banks: And that’s how it go on the block too.

Tony Yayo: When you look at Jadakiss and all of them, D-Block and all of them, it’s the same thing with them. They was rapping next to one of the greatest rappers alive, Biggie Smalls… And what have they accomplished from doing that? They’re not 30 million albums sold. They haven’t sold any records, they’re doing deals with independents, they haven’t accumulated what G-Unit has accumulated, as a whole. This is where the anger comes from.  As well, as The Game.

Lloyd Banks: In a matter of three or four years. If you could look at me in my face and tell me you haven’t been moved  or inspired by us to get in the f*cking studio, your 100% lying, period. Half the records that came out, right now it’s G-Unit against the whole industry.

Tony Yayo: Yea, it’s G-Unit against the world and in this industry shit ain't no f*cking love.

Lloyd Banks: But I could careless, because I could show you my phone right now, I don’t got a rap n*gga number in my phone right now.

AllHipHop.com: Y’all don’t think that maybe you have fueled some of the hate?

Lloyd Banks: You know what it is, a lot of people don’t see the way we fit in, man. We grew up together. If you look at the industry, there’s make-ups to break-ups everyday. Look around. Look how easy it is to manipulate a ni**a and get him to feel like if you go over there you’ll be better. We don’t live by them values.

Tony Yayo: Cause its business with them, with us its friendship. It’s different. 

Lloyd Banks: Ni**as  wanna get in where they fit at. A lot of ni**as see how tight we are and don’t see how they fit in.

Tony Yayo: Ni**as might go through they sh*t, but what happened to loyalty.  80% of these rappers haven’t been on the street. They haven’t been on the street because they have no values, I have values. What happened to knowing you could have money around your man and no money be missin? What happened to you could trust ni**as with your kids and nothing happen to your kids? What happened to you could trust a motherf*cking ni**a with anything? You don’t find ni**as like that no more. So, when you find a ni**a that’s loyal to you and is loyal to what you’re doing, that’s why I’m in the situation I’m in. Cause I was always with 50 from the beginning. Banks always knew I was loyal. Banks was my man, he lived right across the street from me. I was just kissin his grandmother’s feet, cause I gotta fly to Vegas. You know what I mean? So, its like we family. It’s different. Ni**as like Game, they come around. Game’s Momma was calling ni**as phone like, ‘I can’t believe it. Congratulations! I’m happy for what you did to our son.’. Yea, cause your son was a bum before we knew him. Fif wrote the records for him. The reason why I don’t like these dudes is cause I don’t understand what was the reason to flip. You coulda still gotten money with us.  It was really a big problem like that, but f*ck him. And it’s dude’s insecurities, like I don’t want be a 50. A lot of people look at G-Unit like, “Are they in 50’s shadow?” No, Lloyd Banks sold two million records with Hunger For More. Young Buck went platinum. I went gold and my album came out when I was on house arrest. But we don’t get the trophies and we don’t get the recognition from Hip-Hop. MTV didn’t even want me on the red carpet. [VH1] Hip-Hop Honors and sh*t, I didn’t see no invites in the mail. But you know what, f*ck em.

AllHiphop.com: Well the perception might be a little different. Sometimes people see you in concerts and think that you can do anything cause your G-Unit. If you can express what kind of scrutiny y’all go through. Why can’t you do whatever you want as people think you can?

Lloyd Banks: Cause some sh*t just ain't meant to be done. I mean, we rap, we’re talented, don’t get me wrong. But, before we were rappers, we was people too and this sh*t is not accepted.

Tony Yayo: In the industry, they want you to hold your tongue like even Violator and Interscope, there are certain events that they don’t want Yayo around, because Yayo has bad publicity for smacking a 15 year old kid right now.  But you know what, I’m guilty until I’m proven innocent. You know how it’s supposed to be how you innocent until proven guilty? I’m guilty until I’m proven innocent. And it’s like certain venues be like, “We don’t want Yayo to walk the red carpet next to 50, or we don’t want that.” Listen, these motherf*cker care about 50’s money. My whole thing is, Bro, I don’t care about 50’s money. I don’t care about Bank’s money. If we was to be broke tomorrow, I would be with them figuring out who we would be going to rob.

AllHipHop.com: But isn’t that a part of your aggressive nature, that might have brought that on? You are street cats, and everybody knows how aggressive ya’ll are. Is everybody on red alert, now that Yayo’s comin?

Tony Yayo: Yea, of course they on red alert.

Lloyd Banks: They should be! But them ni**as claim that they abide by the same law, so they should know too. They should look out for just more than The Unit. Every group from New York that claims to be from the street has to abide by the same law, period. Ain’t nobody exempt from that.

Tony Yayo: I was talking to Miss Info one day, right and she said to me, “Y’all different, y’all don’t want to go to Puffy’s all white party or go to a Russell Simmons event.” And we just different, man. It’s not like I’m trying to prove anything or trying to be hood.

Lloyd Banks: It’s the Champagne Era. I never really gave a f*ck to be honest with you.  You could say that’s helped me in ways or that’s hurt me in ways. That was just me. I had trust issues. Let alone, it’s hard for a ni**a to just come in the game like that. We didn’t have like [BET’s] Freestyle Fridays and all that sh*t. Like I went straight from the street to the camera. So, hey, excuse me for not blending in like the rest of these ni**as, but that’s just me, I have trust issues. To this day, I don’t f*ck with ni**as. I might say, ‘What’s up?’ and keep it movin. Cause ni**as is the same, they can get on a record tomorrow and talk about you. Take kindness for weakness and they look at it that way. We don’t care, not about the next man and what he doin’.

Tony Yayo: With me, the thing is, I’m just a street ni**a, the epitome of a street ni**a. All these other ni**as talking like, ‘Yo, I’m street I’m this and that.’. To me, being street is loyalty. I got a sister. My sister go and spit on a ni**a, right? Then the ni**a go and spit on her. I don’t even wanna hear the story, ni**a. That’s the same thing with [Banks] or the same thing with Fif. That’s the same thing with all the ni**as that’s in my clique.

Lloyd Banks: I don’t understand why that’s so shocking. I don’t give a f*ck if I’m 100% wrong, he could be 110% wrong, and that’s my ni**a.  You wrong, until it’s all over and you go and talk about it.

[Elano]

PART 2

AllHipHop.com: Let’s address the rumors about the whole G-Unit camp. A couple of months ago, it seemed like 50 Cent had some issues. There was some controversy about all y’all doin you and the whole G-Unit had a conference call. From that meeting what came from that?

Tony Yayo: I feel like any ni**a that get money, [50] just felt like he needed more support from [us] to be around. That’s anybody. It’s hard being an artist cause you got a lot of stuff you gotta worry about. He gotta worry about himself and he got a label he gotta worry about. So, sometimes 50 is crazy and he goes through his things, but him and Banks is like family. We from the same hood, so there’s a difference. I don’t care if ni**as stop talking for a year and a half… it’s business.  And after the business that’s where the friendship comes in. You know when I’m with 50 and I’m around him, it’s hard when your friend is your boss. But you gotta deal with it. You don’t use 'em, cause everybody want him. I feel like people try to use me, cause I got money now.  He feels like people try to use him. 50 feels like people try to use him for certain things.  But right now we back together like a family supposed to be. Cause me and Banks always talked, but he went through his thing, like I said. The heart attacks with [Banks’] mother, his father just passed away, it’s a lot to deal with. Outside media look at it like they don’t know what’s going on. But get in our personal life and see how we live. Hip-Hop Police following us. Like right now, I’m out on bail, baby on the way,  Hip-Hop Police follow us everywhere we go...our lives are movies. If you had a reality show on us there would be millions of people that would want to watch to see what we got going on, and why we ride around in bullet-proof vehicles and why we got bodyguards. You know why I got a bodyguard? So, I won’t have to pay someone $50,000 for punching them in the g**d*** head. Cause that happened before. Other rappers don’t get lawsuits because they don’t have lawsuit-money.

 Lloyd Banks: Other artists advances are like $250,000. That’s what I pay in lawyers fees, between me, my ni**as funerals. That sh*t ain't expected. They are all things that a lot of people ain't dealin with and we are. That’s why when you make a lot of money and he got 20 people with him, it’s important. From brothers, to sisters, to cousins, to third-cousins, to aunts that never said nothing to you… There’s a lot going on. It’s the lifestyle that brings on…like, B.I.G. said, ‘Mo’ Money, mo’ problems’. I wouldn’t have expected it. I didn’t understand. When I used to see like [the] whole cast of Different Strokes in jail your like, “What’s wrong with these ni**as? They famous.” You don’t understand until you in that limelight. A lot goes on. The music, don’t get it twisted, we could go into the studio today and a monster can come out with 5 or 6 records so, that’s never been a problem, it’s just like there was an off switch and now it’s on.

AllHipHop.com: So Banks, what’s the next move? The streets haven’t heard from you in a minute.

Lloyd Banks: I’m always in the studio, the main reason they haven’t heard me for a minute, and I stress it all the time, is rap is not rap all the time. My clock move 12 hours a day. My sh*t go by like that and with your average person it’s 24 hours a day. While I’m jumping from Japan to Germany, Germany to Switzerland, Switzerland to back here.. real sh*t is still going on. And that doesn’t get addressed to the public all the time. Some sh*t has to be your Life. And the fact of the matter is I was going through a lot of stuff. My father passed around this time last year...like weeks after my album came out. I’m not going to lie to you, that’s not something you prepare for. If your ni**a pass, you runnin the block with him everyday…you know the consequences. The most it would be shocking, but you can deal with it. My pops was 45 years old…still in that life and died at a time when I wasn’t prepared for it. A ni**a dies you like, ’Damn, well, he was wildin’ out…” Pops dies its like, “Shit, I been running around. I never even had the time to actually have that relationship.” So, sh*t f*cked me up. Had me feelin like…with all the politics, the game turned from actual business and talent to being to the politics sh*t. And I was wasn’t feelin’ that. I was like, “F*ck all this sh*t! I don’t care about none of this shi*t!” I went through that mode, for a while. It might have hurt my record sales. Most definitely, cause I wasn’t there to promote the album. My mother was back and forth to the hospital, [she] had two heart attacks. My brother crashed my cars, damn near killed himself. I had a lot of sh*t going on at that time, man. To be honest with you, I love music, but I really wasn’t thinking about it at that time. Now that I’m back where I need to be, it’s a problem. Cause I’m not sparing nobody. Motherf*cker say something about me,  your addressed tomorrow. Whether it be AllHipHop.com or whatever. Because at this point, I really don’t care. The music is what feeds me, my family, so I’m going hard.  They can expect new material from me, group material, as well as Green Gang Records, what I’m doing next. I’m looking for artists right now, so if you’re hot, holla at me, make sure you get your music to me. That’s the next move.

AllHiphop.com: So, Green Gang Records that’s your next move? Do you have distribution?

Lloyd Banks: Green Gang. Nah, not yet. I got artists that I’m f*cking with now. No more games.

Tony Yayo: My next album is done. It’s actually called, I Am 50’s Tax Write-off. Pick if up if you want to. Basically, I’m back to having fun. I don’t got Interscope to pick my single...I’m basically having fun. I was watching something on TV, I think it was Hanna Montana.. You know I got kids, so I’m watching the Disney Channel and [Hanna’s] father said, Once you stop having fun with this sh*t then you need to stop. It went from us in the beginning to having fun cause we didn’t have nothing, we didn’t have sh*t, then it got to a level where it stopped [being] fun because  ni**as was selling so many f*cking records that we felt like we had to hit a certain bar.  I went gold on house arrest and that’s good as a motherf*cker. But in my mind, I was saying, “Damn, I ain’t that platinum artist. I let it bother me a little bit. It f*cked me like, “Damn, everybody from G-Unit go platinum.” But then I thought about it and, Hey, I went gold. I was in a cell. I used to be a bum-ass ni**a in Southside Jamaica on the corner pitchin rocks to the fiends. And the same ni**as I did it with are still on the corner, doing the same thing. So, what the f*ck am I mad about a gold album for?

AllHipHop.com: Do you want to comment on the T.I. situation at all?

Lloyd Banks: It’s bad for Hip-Hop, man. It’s gonna hurt him, it’s gonna hurt Hip-Hop even more. There’s a lack of good artists out there.

Tony Yayo: I just hope he’ll be alright. Cause I been in situations. Been in the FEDs, I been in the State and it seems like when you try to do good… We targets, man. Believe it or not, young, black men, period. That’s why when I see people say, “Stop the violence in Hip-Hop.” Hip-Hop is feeding families to get off the streets. Y’all want us back on the corner.  That’s what it seems like to me. The ni**a got set-up , man.  Grom a b*tch-@ss ni**a. That’s all it come down to. Another ni**a doin good and another ni**a set him up. That’s why I don’t fuck with everybody, because there’s a catch-22 to everything. I read between the lines, b*tch-@ss n*ggas set him up. You know what I mean?

Lloyd Banks: Keep your circle small. Sh*t is crazy right now.

Tony Yayo: For what reason, I don’t know. I just know I would never do business with a bodyguard like that anyway. But to him, all I can say is, “Hold your head up and I hope you aight. Hope you can get the least time possible.” That’s it.

AllHipHop.com: Let’s talk about the tour. It’s a 50 Cent tour, but is all G-Unit going?

Tony Yayo: Yea, of course.

Lloyd Banks: We start off in the UK, everywhere in the UK and then India and  I believe Africa…and everywhere. We going to about 50 days straight. That’s why when you look at it, people calling us [50’s] shadows and sh*t.. I don’t understand that sh*t because a lot of the opportunities that have come to be is based off my affiliation. My first tour was a 50 city tour, like everywhere. So, that was a lot to put on a new artist. I just was blessed for that. And I feel blessed right now to still be able to be relevant and have people hear what I want to say.

AllHipHop.com: With the digital age, how has that changed Hip-Hop in the last couple years?

Lloyd Banks: It got to the point in the last couple years, that I could [now] bring my little cousin in here and he’d like, “Yo, where the Soundscan at?” Like 5 years ago, a hood ni**a wasn’t getting his hand on a Soundscan. [Laughs] He didn’t really care. Now it’s to the point where that’s moving and you’re going to have to find a new way to rate an artist. How you would consider to rate an artist now is different, because the same way tape decks are out, soon you not going to have a CD deck either.

Tony Yayo: Yea, they gonna find a new way to figure out how record labels can get money. I mean, you seeing a lot of record labels now, signing dudes who have deals through downloads.

Lloyd Banks: Straight through ringtones.

Tony Yayo: A lot of rappers you see, no disresect, the game has changed. Like icons we looked at coming up, like Biggie, Tupac, Big L, Pun, Common, NWA, these are dudes that I wanted to be like. But now, you got Ringtone Rappers, and it’s not like I’m trying to hate or nothing. You got dudes like Soulja Boy, who’s a Ringtone Rapper. His record got downloaded on Myspace and he had two million hits and that was like one of the biggest hits on Myspace. That’s what got the interest of Jimmy Iovine and everybody at [Interscope Records], right?

Lloyd Banks: Mmm-hmm.

Tony Yayo: Because before you had to give the streets at least two or three records or, four or five records or a mixtape.

Lloyd Banks: New York artists can’t just get signed to any label and come with, “This is the new single,” they like, “Oh, where’s the old single?” You know what I’m sayin? We had to grind.  We had to really go hard, to the point where they started saying Banks and Yayo as a separate. But like [Yayo] said, it’s that Ringtone Rapper sh*t.

Tony Yayo: It went from us being on a song. and they just saying, “50 Cent and G-Unit,” to us being on a song and them saying, “50 Cent, Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo of G-Unit.”

Lloyd Banks: At the end of the day, every other crew, name a crew in New York City right now, that don’t have tension, right now, between each other that didn’t actually show signs of not having loyalty towards each other. Like being unloyal. Name a group. You can’t.  No one is intact but The Unit. That sh*t gotta count for something. So, while you was yelling D-Block or you was yelling Dipset or you was yelling Terror Squad. You’ve seen friction from every one of those groups.

Tony Yayo: Half these ni**as ain’t been through half the shit me and [Banks] or 50 been through. Through our struggles, what made us to where we have. But they compare themselves to us now. It’s like right now, they’re calling Lil' Wayne, The Greatest Rapper Alive. What happened to Jay-Z? What happened to Nas? What happened to f*cking 50? What happened to Eminem? To me, when we talk about Hip-Hop and we talk about rap and music, let’s talk about the business aspect of it too. I have respect for Jay-Z. I have respect for 50 Cent and I have respect for Eminem, as businessmen and as artists, and Dre too. Lil' Wayne hasn’t  gotten to where they have, as artists, lyrically or  money-wise or business-wise or anything. I’m not a hater. The kid make good music. But to me, I never got at a Jay-Z or a Nas or an Eminem, unless they had something to say against me. And I would think twice getting at Eminem. Matter of fact, I would think four times before I tried to battle Eminem, cause I wouldn’t. Jay-Z, come’on, man. You talking about the big dogs of rap.

Lloyd Banks: These ni**as don’t stand behind the things they say in a record. They just good when it comes to apologies.

AllHipHop.com: Are rappers basically entertainers now?

Lloyd Banks: I mean, you tell me. When you start telling me that a ni**a could put a butterfly on his eye or a ni**a could claim to be a gang member and [not] really be, or a ni**a could kiss another ni**a in the mouth and it be okay, then yeah, it’s turned into entertainment. But that’s why we don’t fit into that bracket.

Tony Yayo: It’s WWF, man. It’s wrestling.

Lloyd Banks: That shit ain’t supposed to be cool or ok. If that sh*t happened ten years ago, man, listen, it wouldn’t have happened. I know because the rappers I looked up to, they was from the street like we are, period. From Slick Rick to Kane to everybody. .That sh*t, wouldn’t have existed, period. That sh*t gotta count for something. You can’t just be the nicest rapper.

Tony Yayo: A rapper has to be somebody. You can’t just have a record.

Lloyd Banks: If you got a little brother, right, if he got a picture on the wall, it’s gonna be a ni**a that got all those things. He’s talented, he’s credible too, at the same time. Cause you want to be like him, he from the street too. Let’s not get it twisted, the music comes from here and happens to reach the outside and out of the country. But it comes from our neighborhood. That’s where it started. A kid ain’t gonna have a picture up of nobody that’s gonna come and go next year. He wants something he can believe in. If your character don’t even exist how can he…

Tony Yayo: Do you know how it feels to go through the hood? Like, we just did a show in Philly, some of the roughest, that’s where people get this sh*t from, man. What we rhyme about the aggression you can go to some spots in Philly, we can go to Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, we can go to Soundview in the Bronx, what the f*ck do you see?

Lloyd Banks: There’s certain sh*t that has to happen. Same way they gotta wear suits in the NBA, [laughs] you got to be real in the rap game.

Tony Yayo: This is where we from. The aggression is always there. Streets of Baltimore, streets of D.C, everywhere.

Lloyd Banks: Put it like this, if it’s certain entertainment and you ask, “What the game been missing, right now?” G-Unit. It’s missing real ni**as from the hood, who happen to be talented and that’s it. Cause everything else out there is not that. It’s forming allegiances.

Tony Yayo: Don’t say this record or all the stuff you hear about in the newspapers and sh*t made us sell records it’s not that. It’s, “On Fire”, it’s…

Lloyd Banks: 50 Cent Is The Future, Beg For Mercy.

Tony Yayo: If you go look at that mixtape plaque out there, you can see how much work we put in. We damn-near started the mixtape game. I mean, mixtapes was always there, but the way we did it. Rapping over Raphael Sadiq and like old L.L records, sh*t ni**as thought we wouldn’t rhyme to, we just brung something different.

Lloyd Banks: Rest In Peace Just-O too. That sh*t made me who I am now.

Tony Yayo: First mixtape award…

Lloyd Banks: That plaque is the most important plaque I got. You know what I’m sayin? More than a Grammy or whatever the f*ck. I’ve been nominated for all that sh*t and I really don’t care. I won it with the street. If I didn’t deserve it, they would have booed. That’s something you can’t take back from a ni**a. You can’t say G-Unit didn’t change the game, in every form or fashion, from the mixtapes to the mainstream. I just don’t want the people to get confused. Not the fans, cause the fans know. The people from the outside looking in that think that this just happened. Nah, before it happened like this we were sitting on the block, talking about, “When I get this car…” I can’t even say Bentleys, because at that time it was probably a Benz.

Tony Yayo: You know a house where sprinklers come out your lawn.. we got Bentleys and sh*t like that now. Things that we never had. That’s why me, I’m one of the most humblest ni**as. You could catch me in Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx. I’m one of the humblest n*ggas there is, when it comes to my fans, because I remember not having a fan. So, when we go through hoods like Philly and little kids is screaming at us… We ain’t superheroes, not even they mom or they dad, sh*t makes me feel good. That they bought  the G-Unit video game, or the Lloyd Banks album, or the Tony Yayo album,  or the Curtis album, we always gonna have our fans that stay by our side.

Lloyd Banks: We always gonna be making music. Outside of all that rap sh*t, man, leave me alone, don’t say nothing. These [other rappers] are good apologizers. That’s it.



video :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJGrDBrhzrE&eurl=http://allhiphop.com/blogs/features/archive/2007/11/05/18815854.aspx