Front
Page
US
Music News
UK
Music News
UK
Interviews
Nightclubs
Events
+ Concerts
Album
Reviews
Games
Feature
Articles
Music
Videos
Chat
Room
Fresh out of jail from nearly two consecutive sentences, The Situation catches up with the original founder of G-Unit, the ‘Talk of New York' Tony Yayo, to find out his thoughts on his album release, 50 Cent and G-Unit, and of course the ongoing beef between G-Unit and The Game.
To
the millions of G-Unit and
50 Cent fans worldwide,
the name Tony Yayo fits
into the description of being the “abstract painting in the masterpiece
collection”. This may be true, as the only mainstream exposure the
New York emcee received was a spray painted wall with the bold letters
‘FREE YAYO’ to the ending of the video to the 2004 G-Unit
smash ‘Stunt 101’, as well as the thousands of T-shirts pressed
up encouraging his release, and the shout outs given to him by his G-Unit
homies on several occasions.
Now, fresh from his stint in jail and ready to put the ‘G in G-Unit’, the self proclaimed ‘Talk of New York’ breaks it down on everything from 50 Cent and G-Unit, to the recently ‘disbanded’ Compton rapper, The Game.
Tony Yayo, born in Southside Jamaica in Queens, New York, was raised two blocks away from the G-Unit General, 50 Cent. The now functional G-Unit clique was formed primarily between the two, as 50 had plans to push into a rapping career after a lucrative but dangerous period drug dealing. “50 was a legend in my hood; they would call him ‘boo boo’ - he was someone everyone looked up to,” Yayo explained. “He was 18 and had a Benz, at 17 had a Landcruiser. His mother was in the game, got killed at 12, and he never knew his father, so he had a rougher life than me.”
Rapping was actually a recreational hobby for the G-Unit rapper when 50 Cent was picked up by DJ Jam Master Jay. Whilst working under the legendary Run DMC DJ as his protégée, 50 was eventually signed to Columbia Records, although this was only to last for a short period of time. However, both Yayo and 50 where still on the streets. “50 got with Jam Master Jay and learnt how to do songs and different formats, and when that didn’t work out, he went to Columbia, shot a video and got dropped, so back then it was a hobby.” The big breakthrough they needed came soon after, as the G-Unit clique, now including Tony Yayo, 50 Cent and Lloyd Banks, started to create a buzz on the mixtape circuit, slowly but effectively saturating the mixtape industry in New York, building up substantial interest in the rest of the industry. Soon after, Young Buck jumped on board with G-Unit when 50 Cent was in the midst of acquiring the publicised $1 million recording deal with Shady/Aftermath Records. “Me and Banks lived on the same block,” told Yayo. “Me and Buck’s relationship started when 50 always wanted to sign him, and he never had no agreement with down south rapper Juvenile and UTP [Buck’s former crew], and Buck was on ‘Get Rich or Die Trying’.” He continued, “With me and Buck, we the same person; we click so well. He Tony Yayo in Cashville and I’m Young Buck in New York.”
With a squad of hot rappers around 50, all seemed likely
that the young breakthrough crew known as ‘G-Unit’ would conquer
the rap scene. However, in just a couple of weeks, things were about to
change. First came 50 Cent’s arrest for gun possession on December
31st 2002, and shortly after, Yayo was sentenced to jail for gun possession
due to an outstanding warrant. Whilst Yayo was locked up, his affiliate
from day one, 50 Cent, escaped jail and went on to sell an impressive
1.2 million copies in the first week of release of his debut album, ‘Get
Rich or Die Trying’. With 50 doing well to create a strong mixtape
buzz and release a semi-successful G-Unit album ‘Beg for Mercy’,
the rap world was beginning to bow down to G-Unit.
Yet, Yayo’s luck was to go from bad to worse, as he was caught out
by the law just days after his original release. On January 12th 2004,
Yayo was sentenced to a further jail sentence, for possession of a fake
passport. “When you get outta jail, they say don’t play catch
up, and I was playing catch up,” told Yayo. The original Guerilla
Unit member was flying to Barcelona and attending the VMA Awards, but,
whilst enjoying the thrills of being a millionaire in less than year,
the Queens bred rapper was caught with a fake passport as he reported
back to his parole officer. “I was playing catch up; I had two girls
that night, a Chinchilla on my back, a Jacob watch, a condominium, and
had my fake passport and paperwork, so I handed it to my parole officer
by mistake.” The confusion was simply down to the star possessing
his brother’s passport.
Upon his release (for the second time), other members of G-Unit were on track for solo albums, and it was Lloyd Banks who was set to release his now platinum album, ‘Hunger For More’. Banks held up the album release date so that Yayo could drop his fresh verse on the opening track of the album, ‘Aint No Click’, marking the welcome return of the G-Unit soldier. Yayo’s string of guest appearances continued, as he featured at the end of Bank’s ‘Karma’ video performing his verse on ‘Aint No Click’, and dropped verses on various DJ Whoo Kid mixtapes, as well as a 16-bar on Buck’s track ‘Bonafide Hustler’, taken from his summer debut ‘Straight Outta Cashville’.
With Yayo fresh out of jail and ready to prove himself lyrically in the G-Unit clique and to the rest of the rap world, it was internal friction within this same crew before the release of 50 Cent’s second album, ‘The Massacre’, which caused 50 to make history again. The famous publicised “beef” between 50 Cent and The Game led many to label the tension as a ‘publicity stunt’. Of course, the beef was inherited and the rest of G-Unit, including Yayo, had their own opinions on the tension with The Game, which many say catalysed 50 Cent’s sophomore release to hit sales of almost 1.1 million in its first week. “To me, he’s Mr Potato Head, he’s a fake gangster,” Yayo retorted.
Rumours were also circulating that it was 50 Cent who was responsible for most of the content on ‘The Documentary’, the debut album from the “disbanded” G-Unit soldier, The Game. During the tension, there were further claims that The Game was going to be shelved at Aftermath until 50 Cent executive produced the album. 50 claims to have “devised rhyming formats and styles” for various tracks such as ‘Church for Thugs’. Yayo told that there was truth to this, and that the G-Unit General pocketed more than Compton’s own, The Game. “All I can tell you is that 50 has more publishing rights of his [Game’s] album than he does, so he [Game] can do what he wants to do. He [50] helped Game more than he helped me.”
With the tension between two of America’s biggest rap stars still boiling due to disses at various gigs and shows, Yayo is not going to let this distract from his summer release, ‘Thoughts of a Predicate Felon’. “My concern is my album coming out. I got Eminem, 50 Cent, Olivia, Jagged Edge, Joe, Kokaine, new artist from the West Coast Spider Loc, and I got Havoc [from Mobb Deep] and I got all types of production.” A name which is likely to be in the list of producers is the name of the legend, Dr Dre, who produced ‘Live by the Gun’, the B-Side to his debut single ‘So Seductive’ featuring 50 Cent.
With the release of the new album, Yayo is fully aware of the promotion and marketing tools needed for Soundscan to certify his debut LP platinum in short succession. With success of other G-Unit stars and Interscope artists surrounding Yayo, the self-proclaimed ‘Talk of New York’, having adopted the abilities and knowledge to recognise how to promote a record, has his sights set on having his name reach out to a larger mainstream audience than before. He intends to do this through effective album promotion, the type of promotion labels spend millions on developing artists in order to bring huge sales for their debut album. “The listeners from the outside don’t see; artists need promotion such as radio, TV to go platinum and do the numbers like 50 Cent, Jay-Z, Eminem and other big artists like Nelly. If your song isn’t on the top 40, nine times out of ten, you won’t go platinum.” Of course, the gel needed between the rapper and other characters in the industry needs to be perfect according to Yayo, specifically figures which can aid the route to platinum sales. “I don’t like too many rappers, but when it comes to radio personality, marketing staff, I need them to be my best friends!”
With high focus on his album ‘Thoughts of a Predicate Felon’, and the heat created with his new single ‘So Seductive’, the Queens native is set to live up to his anticipated hype and the endless wait for his album, to deliver some buzz-worthy material.
‘Thoughts of Predicate Felon’ is out now. For more information,
please visit www.tony-yayo.net.
This interview was in collaboration with DJ Pup Dawg from Boston 94.5FM. For more information, check out www.djpupdawg.com.
