50 Cent
Interview By David Friedman
From Murder Dog Vol. 10 #1
Like rap fans everywhere, I’ve been hearing all the hype about you since you signed with Shady/Aftermath. But based on the songs I’ve heard from you so far, it’s clear that you’re as good as people say you are. How do you feel about being cast as rap’s next big star?
Thanks. I appreciate you saying that. But, I mean, I’m excited about my whole scenario right now. And I also think it’s sustained off the consistency I’ve been putting music out. That would make sense, you know? Because first it’s like they ain’t lookin’ at pluggin’ you. It’s just like, ‘Get that record away.’ But I make music for the mixtapes because it’s important. I feel like that’s the largest form of promotion.
Your brand new album, “Get Rich or Die Trying,” is your first official release since signing with
Shady/Aftermath.
How have you liked working with Eminem and Dr. Dre so far?It’s dope. It’s the best experience I’ve had making music, period. The process is different with the two of them. With Dre, he’ll play the music and I’ll pick whatever I want. And he’s got a whole heap of music — a bunch of shit. You pick what you want to work with and then he’ll leave you, let you write it and then come back and listen to what you do. And he’ll say, ‘Yo, you know what? I think it would be iller if you said this one part like this or made this like this.’ He’ll take your words and come up with a way to record it. And it sounds different. After you record it, it’ll be the same words that you wrote. But it’ll feel different. Dre, he’s one of the illest producers I’ve ever worked with.
How have you liked working with Eminem?
Em is cool. He usually likes to watch me do what I’m doing. He lets me just do what I want. You know what he’ll do? He’ll send a skeleton — like the track won’t be finished when I get it. I’ll rap to a beat that’s not even 50 percent done and I’ll put the concept down. And then he’ll build the record around what I did.
Do you like the way the tracks come out through that process?
At the end of the day, it’s not until he actually mixes the record that you’ll hear what it is for real. And I’ve been happy with everything that we’ve done so far. He mixed a lot of records on this album. He produced and mixed his two records and then he mixed, I think, about five or six other records on the album. He can expand the record. He can make it something that, if someone else has already produced the base of it, he can put what it takes to make it go over the top.
You’ve been shot nine times, including a .9mm bullet to the face. Now, after years of hustling and trying to get the right record deal, it seems that you’ve succeeded. Would you say that your new album’s title, “Get Rich or Die Trying,” is autobiographical?
It’s universal. It’s the hustle. When you say it with the aura that’s around me, it feels negative—get rich or die trying. But if a working class person tells you they’re gonna get rich or they’re gonna die trying, it just means they’re determined.
What has kept you so determined to succeed as a rapper despite the obstacles you’ve faced, which have included growing up in a rough neighborhood and being dropped by Columbia while you were recovering from gunshot wounds?
I ain’t got no Plan B. I ain’t never had no job before. My plan wasn’t working. I’ve never even had working papers before. So it was either this or hustling. So I had to do my thing.
While your hit single “Wanksta” will be on your album as a bonus track, your lead single and current radio hit is called “In Da Club.” Could you tell me about that song?
‘In Da Club?’ You know what’s weird? Eminem’s very first record that he recorded with Dr. Dre ended up being his first single—‘Hi, My Name Is.’ What’s weird is that my first record that I recorded with Dre was ‘In Da Club’ and it ended up being my first single off this album. It was really weird. We sat for the cover of a magazine and they spoke to us. And while we were speaking, it just came up. I was like, ‘Yo, that’s weird.’ Both of them were the very first records we had recorded.
What’s “In Da Club” all about?
I wanted to have fun on that record. A lot of my records, I have street records and I write about my lifestyle. I’ve been in plenty of situations, so I put it down in my music. But ‘In Da Club’ is more like I’m just trying generally to be having some fun with it. It wasn’t like a process where I sat there and said, ‘Yo, I’ve gotta write these punch lines for this.’ I just said what I wanted to say. It was fun making the record.
What are some of your other favorite songs from the “Get Rich or Die Trying” album?
‘Patiently Waiting’ with me and Em. It’s crazy. The record is about how I’ve been patiently waiting for a track that’s going on. The energy is like, it feels like it’s been a long time that I’ve been working on getting to where I’m at now. So it’s saying that I’ve been patiently waiting. Now, it’s my turn.
Eminem raps on two songs on your new album. Dr. Dre, meanwhile, produced four tracks but didn’t rap on the album. Is there any particular reason why Dre didn’t do a verse?
You know, me, I’m trying to say something. Dre didn’t rap on this one. My next record, he’s gonna be. This record was pretty much done and he felt like he didn’t want to overkill. So Dre’s like, ‘This record is complete right now.’ I’ll make records and then I’ll send it to them. And then Em and Dre’s ears will determine what happens with that record. They don’t stand over me while I’m making records. I just go do what I’ve been doing. I make records and then I send them to them. And they’ll go, ‘Yo, this record is crazy. We’re keeping this.’ So at the end of the day, they really pick the record. But they pick it out of the things that I sent that I would be OK with.
One of the tracks that Eminem produced for “Get Rich or Die Trying” is called “Don’t Push Me.” What’s that song all about?
It’s featuring me, Em and Lloyd Banks from G-Unit. I think people let their imaginations tell them, ‘Oh, this is just rap and certain things won’t happen. They can’t really go through with it.’ I’m saying that if you put me in a position where I feel like I have no options, I’m gonna do what I’ve gotta do. That record is almost like a warning.
You’ve got a history of getting in trouble with the law. Would you say that you’re a violent person?
I wouldn’t consider myself violent.
Do you feel like a lot of people think you’re violent based on what they hear or what they read about you?
They think that because of my situations. I’ve seen violent situations in my life already a few times. I mean, I’ve experienced violence. It’s been a part of my life.
When you’re a successful rapper, do you have to constantly watch your back?
Absolutely. But I had to do that long before this. So there’s nothing to adjust to in that area. You’ve gotta watch anybody. Your friends will do it to you where I’m from.
From what I’ve read, you’re originally from Jamaica, Queens, and you were born into what’s been termed a notorious drug dynasty. What does that mean exactly?
My mom sold drugs. She got killed when I was 8 years old. I never knew my father.
Do you ever wonder about your father and what he’s like?
No. Hell, no. You know how you see kids on TV and they’ll be like, ‘I just want to meet my dad?’ Shit, I’m not interested in meeting him. Where I’m from, you’re spoiled if you have both your parents. I know probably one or two people, period, that have both parents.
You lived with your grandparents after your mother died. Were they positive influences on your life?
My grandparents are positive, real positive. My grandmother tried to do as much as she could for me because my mother used to substitute money for time. When you’re hustling, a lot of times you’ll be out in the street. So she would just buy me nice things and stuff like that. And my grandmother tried to do that when she wasn’t around no more. But it was kind of hard because my grandmother had like nine kids. When she bought her kids sneakers, they cost $10. Now, Air Jordans were a buck-twenty. So to ask for certain things, you were asking for a lot but it was really the norm right now. So I wouldn’t even bother to ask. I would go hustle and get it.
Could you tell me about the area where you grew up?
It was 134th and Guy Brewer. It was New York. I mean, I hustled out there. They thought I was crazy because when I decided to rap I had the whole strip at one point. In the area, you had a few people that had their own work on the strip. So I had to change faces. If you try to rob somebody and you know them, they might want to ask you why—why you’re trying to take whatever you’re trying to take from them. They’re not showing respect to the pistol and it might cause you to pop ’em. And if you really didn’t come to shoot them and you just came to take what you came to take, that’s not a good idea. You should change faces. I changed faces and I had a crew from Brooklyn come do it. And it forced them to carry guns while they were out hustling. You know why they had to carry guns while I was hustling? It was high school. They couldn’t stand outside consistently. They had to go walk through instead of staying and pulling stuff on the strip. Because they couldn’t stay consistently, I put the biggest pieces I could put out there on the block. That’s where I get the concept that consistency is the key to all success. I had the biggest pieces that you could buy out there at the time, while they couldn’t stay consistently. And then anything they took from their pieces, I would give their pieces away free with mine. When they’d catch a sale in the building or something, people would go, ‘No. I don’t want that. You’re trying to beat me. You’re trying to sell me something that’s free. You’re trying to sell me some pieces that come free with purple top.’ Purple top, those were the colored capsules we had. It’s crack.
You were 20 years old when your son was born. Six years later, how do you feel that becoming a father has changed you?
I couldn’t go back and forth to jail and shit like that—not while I’m trying to provide for him. So I tried the music thing. That’s when I hooked up with (Jam Master) Jay.
Had you recorded any songs before you got together with Jam Master Jay?
No. You know what? He gave me a beat to rap to and I went home and I didn’t even understand the song format really. I knew how to rap because I played around with turntables and instrumentals. But the first time I ever was in a studio trying to record a record was with Jam Master Jay.
How did you start working with Jam Master Jay and what was he like?
They’re from Queens. A friend of mine introduced me to him. Jay, man, he was real cool. We spent a lot of time (together), just in the studio though. We didn’t ever really go out and hang out. I don’t really party much. Hell, if I’m at a party I’m probably being paid to be there. Because of my lifestyle ahead of that, I wouldn’t do it.
What did you learn from Jam Master Jay?
I learned everything in the beginning stages. I learned how to count bars, I learned my song format, how to write choruses and stuff like that. He would let me write a rhyme and break it up until the 16th bar. Then he’d say, ‘You’ve gotta rap four more bars’ and he’d show me how to count it. I was really rough when I got to Jay. And I had no concept of songwriting.
You started working with the production team Trackmasters in 1999 and signed a deal with Columbia Records. How did that come about?
Well, Trackmasters, I met Corey Rooney. His father had lived down the block from me, but I met him through a guy I knew in the barbershop. He introduced us. It’s crazy how all my situations in the music business have been through relationships—just networking. You make someone believe and they put you on, and then what you know will determine how long you stay when you get there. Corey, I met through a friend at a barbershop. I played a song for him and he was like, ‘Yo, what do you think?’ It was crazy because when I had met him, Markie Dee was with him—from the Fat Boys. He was on the phone and he wasn’t paying much attention to the music. So I was like, ‘Man, come on.’
When you went to the Trackmasters’ studio in upstate New York, you recorded 36 songs in 2 weeks. Have you always recorded that quickly?
Yeah. At that time, I was looking at it like if I come back down with 36 Trackmaster records, even if Trackmasters don’t do the deal I’m signing a record deal somewhere. I was just hustling. But at the same time, I spent time thinking of concepts for records. I’ll write a chorus or think of a concept for a record and then to actually write the song takes 15 or 20 minutes. But I spend more time figuring out what to rap about. I’ll think about the concept and how the chorus should go or how I want the song to feel, and I’ll spend more time thinking about that ahead of the studio. And then when I get there I’ll figure it out and write the rhyme.
One of your best known tracks from before you signed with Eminem and Dr. Dre was “How to Rob,” which was to be included on your Columbia album, “Power of the Dollar.” What are your thoughts on that time period, just a few years ago?
‘How to Rob’ was good. But when I did a deal with Columbia, it wasn’t a great deal. First of all, with Jay there were no finances involved. I ended up losing the stuff that I had from hustling when I got into the business, into music. My car and shit like that, I lost that shit over time. I just had to liquidate because I had no income. And when I signed the deal with Trackmasters, it wasn’t a great deal. I got like $65,000 in advance—$50,000 went to Jam Master Jay and $10,000 went to the attorney that negotiated the contract and I was stuck with $5,000. I was back selling crack. That was during my Columbia album. It had got to the point where Columbia, I started seeing that the company was terrible with rap music. They’ll blow up an R&B group or a pop group in a minute. But a rap group, it’s hard. They don’t got nobody but Nas. Everything else was on (labels) outside of Columbia. It was on subsidiaries or a venture. It’s not on actual Columbia. Like Bow Wow, he was on So So Def. Nowadays, on Columbia, he has a shot at doing good just because of the fact of his previous (success). Once you get him established, it’s OK for him to work. But they don’t break new rappers a lot.
The song “How to Rob” was controversial because you named a bunch of successful rappers and talked about how you’d go about robbing each one of them. From what I’ve read, Jay-Z, Big Pun, Sticky Fingaz and Ghostface Killah were among the rappers who were less than happy with the song. How did you decide who to name in the song?
You know what? When it broke, a robbery didn’t seem far off from out of the question. When you look at TV, the more popular celebrities and bigger rappers have bigger diamonds. It’s almost a part of when you start making money excessively. They spend it. They splurge. So you see them with those things. I think the thought process of these kids that are in the hood that are still out there doing what goes on in the hood is thinking, ‘Damn. If you can’t do it with that, you have to come up off that.’ That’s just a regular thought process. The creative part is the way I worded it. I think on Columbia, when you’re on a major label, you have to make a record that makes people say ‘Who is that person?’ right now. You can’t wait. I mean, I’m on here, ain’t no Plan B. I blew the paper that I had already making the move of deciding to do the rap thing. And it’s not looking good. So I’m thinking in my own head to make myself make my first impression strong enough to never be forgotten.
You’ve got other songs where you call out names. You joke around about Lil’ Kim, Lauryn Hill, D’Angelo and others on the song “Love Me” from the “8 Mile” soundtrack. Do you ever worry that if you upset some of these people they’ll never want to work with you?
I don’t care. Ain’t no one ever work with me before. I ain’t losing nothing.
Is there anyone who is off limits or is everyone fair game?
There ain’t nobody off limits. You know what I think? I told Lil’ Kim. I had performed that record for the first time in Barcelona, Spain. After the MTV Awards, they had the ‘8 Mile’ screening and showcase and we performed it live for the first time. And Kim was there, so she was supportive of me until I said that. And then she was like, ‘Oh, man.’ I hurt her feelings. I had to call her. A lot of times, like that joint, I don’t have no specific beef with her. I called her to tell her that. But sometimes I say things and I don’t consider how the person is gonna feel when they hear it. I’m just saying what I’m thinking. I told you I was a Lauryn Hill fan until she made a CD that didn’t have no beats.
Do you think people often take what you say the wrong way?
Absolutely. They think that I’m just crazy or something, for the most part, I think.
