50 Cent Moves the Unit
50 Cent will team with Interscope to run G-Unit Records. The
multi-platinum rapper — himself a signee of Eminem’s Shady Records
— released a ream of street-level mixtapes before his 2003 album
Get Rich or Die Tryin’ made him wealthy many times over,
and he plans to use the new label to bring his legendary tapes to a
larger audience.
“I put out two mixtapes since [Get Rich] came out, and
I’m not going to stop,” 50 says. “That’s the largest form of
promotion. I can put out some of the new artists that are signed to
my label.”
Among the first releases from G-Unit the label will be an album
by G-Unit the group, which comprises 50, Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo.
The trio’s first official record is due in September, after Yayo is
released from Riker’s Island Penitentiary, where he’s serving a
six-month sentence on gun charges. Letters from Eminem and Dr. Dre
convinced prison officials to shorten Yayo’s stay. “They said I’m a
nice person, and they gave me an association with them,” Yayo says
from the jail. “They’re also taking care of the legal bills —
everything.”
“He has the opportunity to do something with his life,” 50 says
of Yayo, who recorded his contribution to the G-Unit album before
he went to jail in January. “He should be home shortly, and we can
drop the record.”
For his part, 50 isn’t worried about the extra work running a
label takes. “I’ve never had a job before in my life, but I’m a lab
rat,” he says. “I stay in the studio.”
Footage of the rapper at work is included on The New
Breed a DVD due on April 15th. “We filmed the whole process of
making the record,” 50 says. “And live performances in Barcelona
and Puerto Rico — all over the place. You get to know who I am on
this DVD. I had nothing to hide. I’ve had some experiences, y’know?
We showed what we could before it turned into triple X.”