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50 Cent Breaks Down G-Unit’s T.O.S.

When we spoke with 50 Cent a few months ago, Young Buck hadn’t yet said “Fuck G-Unit” and that infamous tear-filled phone conversation was just another recording in 50’s Nixon-esque library of potential blackmail material. But even then, 50 was open about why he was becoming increasingly frustrated with the Unit’s Cashville representative:

“There was a day when we were supposed to shoot photographs for the video game. [Buck] decided he wanted to go to a music video that was being shot for an artist down South, for an artist that doesn’t have an album out right now. In the middle of that we were recording material for the G-Unit album, so his interest is all over the place.”

But even with Buck gone, the three man crew (50, Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo) did a commendable job putting together T.O.S. (Terminate On Sight), a solid album that’s sure to satisfy fans of their hardcore mixtape material. The album came out today, so read our full interview with 50 below to get some insight into how it all came together.

Interview: Paul Cantor

Complex: Earlier this year, “Rider Pt. 2″ started getting a lot of play, yet you still decided to go with “I Like The Way She Do It” as the single anyway. Why?

50: It’s easy, because “Rider Part 2” has the aggression that limits the format. It will be a big record at Hot97s across the country, your Power105.1, Power106 in Los Angeles. But it won’t get to Top 40 or crossover radio when the content in “I Like The Way She Do it,” when it gets to the club, it’ll be something that can go all across the board. Kanye West can make a record like “Stronger” that goes all across the board and not have an audience that demands aggressive content from him because they can’t get it from anywhere else. Right now, the climate in hip-hop, every artist is launching one song at a time, and because it’s taking twice the time it took to position records, they’re not sure that even the hit record’s a hit. Because our audience has a lower attention span and the majority of hip-hop consumers are youth driven. They are more excited about the thing that comes and hits immediately.

Complex: Do you ever feel like you’re creatively stuck in a box, like Yayo’s gotta do some gangsta stuff, Banks has gotta do the lyrical stuff, and 50 has to make the club records all the time?

50 Cent: What you just said, that’s amazing to me. Yayo gotta do some gangsta shit, Banks gotta be lyrical, and I gotta do something that works in the club. That is probably one of the bigger and broadest descriptions of this actual group. We’ve been typecast in that way. Of course it’s necessary. But Mobb Deep, when I delivered those records that would be a smash for me, their audience gave them resistance… I experience that, being typecast. It’s more than just delivering a song that’s exciting in a nightclub. They also want the aggressive content from me. My aura is aggressive. People know me more for competing. They don’t receive it as me being competitive, they receive it as me beefing.

Complex: But outside of the entertainment business, show business, does that accurately describe you now on a personal level?

50 Cent: No, that absolutely doesn’t. My music comes based on moods, and where the production is going. If you the happiest person in the world and your production sounds dark, it sounds like an evil record.

Complex: If someone gave you lighter beats, would it change?

50 Cent: That’s just my personal preference. The content does change based on production.

Complex: How does Terminate On Sight compare to Beg For Mercy creatively? Where are things going musically?

50 Cent: It’s a major difference. Compared to Beg For Mercy, it’s like two times better. Because they’ve grown. Beg For Mercy was pretty much dictated by me, because while we were doing it, [Banks] was doing Hunger For More, Buck was doing Straight Outta Cashville. They were multitasking. They was doing their verse for what I came with for Beg For Mercy, and then going back to writing the hit records for their solo album.

Complex: On this album and on Curtis, you started working more with big name producers. How does getting production from guys who are known for making hits, like Swizz and Polow Da Don, change the way you approach making a record?

50 Cent: The circumstances of how you get the music. Because I don’t care who produced the record, if you get it or listen to it through an iPod or stereo in a car, you can tell whether you actually want to use it. You get music in the studio, which is the best place for you to actually listen to music because the room’s are designed to play music, you’re gonna hear shit that you’re not going to hear in those other places. And they got a presentation. You come in there, the producer has two or three of his mans there, and they nodding like this is the hardest shit in the world. And that shifts your energy to feeling like you already paid for the session, you spent $150 an hour, and now you like, “Let me get a pad.” You end up writing that record just because of your circumstances of you being there and them playing the record. So I don’t like to be in the studio, I like to get the music and just listen to it and vibe.

Complex: Because they’re making the sale?

50 Cent: Yeah, they might even give you the hook. That’s for an artist that needs creative guidance.

Complex: Aren’t artists getting the whole record at this point?

50 Cent: For a new artist that doesn’t quite know where to start on a record, that’s a big help. They might need production like that.

Complex: On “Rider Part 2” and the remake of Dream’s “I Luv Your Girl,” you guys are messing with the Auto Tune effect. How did that happen?

50 Cent: I just bought Auto Tune. I downloaded it off the internet; I paid 600 dollars for it. I go in the booth, I do “Rider Part 2” and then I said, “Yo, give me the Dream CD.” I said, “Let’s take the end, sample it, and I’ma do this one.” I recorded my voice, then I was like, “Yeah, that shit sound good. Let’s do it again.”

Complex: Do you think the fact that Wayne and so many other artists have been doing it means its starting to get overdone?

50 Cent: I don’t think so. Wayne’s record [“Lollipop”] is a hit. For him, for right now. I don’t think the single is EQ’d properly. When I listened to it the first few times, I couldn’t understand what he was saying. That’s the only thing I think was wrong with that. People say T-Pain; it’s a Roger Troutman thing.

Complex: How has Thisis50.com changed things for you? Does it get to the point where you say, “Fuck the radio, I’m going to make records for my hardcore fans?”

50 Cent: Creatively, it provides an opportunity for you to do what you want. You can shoot a music video that matches the music you created beautifully, but then BET will tear it apart bringing it to their standards, and then MTV. What you have now is the web to present it exactly as you want to present it. So you make changes for that network, this change for this network, and put it out exactly the way you want it to on the web. So as long as you have something on those formats, cool. Ice Cube created “Gangsta Rap Made Me Do It,” he didn’t even bother to make a commercial single. He just went back to what the fuck he been doing.

Complex: What’s the long-term goal for Thisis50.com?

50 Cent: It’s growing at a fast pace. Now I see it being a lot bigger than what my initial concept of it being an outlet for me to have a voice with the other existing formats. Now I see it coming to the point where I surpass those formats, if not equal up to that. And to have people express interest in it, that changes my perception of it because of how many people are coming to be a part of it. Not just other artists. I’m talking Jimmy Iovine, Doug Morris.

Click Here To Buy Tracks From G-Unit’s Terminate On Sight