50 Cent has had beef with a number of his former friends and artists. In a recent interview with Houston’s 97.9 The Box, the New York rapper was asked whether anyone who had done him wrong has now apologized.
“Yeah, I get that all the time,” 50 shared nearly 20 minutes into the conversation. “What’s ill is, when you’re in the seat, the driver’s seat, a lot of times…no, every time something goes wrong it’s your fault. If you ask artists why their career didn’t go the way they want, it’s the [fault of the] record label. See what I’m saying?”
As CEO of G-Unit Records, he said, “I happened to become the record label; so all of those artists that were around and didn’t do exactly what they thought they were supposed to do, it’s my fault that it didn’t. They give it to me individually now, like it’s not the company, it’s him.”
Fifty launched G-Unit in 2003, the same year as his number-one debut album, “Get Rich or Die Tryin,” which topped the Billboard 200 Albums charts. The label steered the careers of fellow New York natives Lloyd Banks, Young Buck and Tony Yayo. That same year, the quartet released their debut album, “Beg For Mercy,” which peaked at number two. Other artists on the label roster include rapper The Game and the first lady of G-Unit, R&B singer Olivia.
Fifty then brought up one of his former artists, West coast rapper Spider Loc, who signed to the label at the peak of his career in 2004. “He was angry with me; I don’t know. If he had a hit, it would have worked,” the “Like My Style” artist explained. “That just didn’t work.”
He also mentioned he had a record with rapper O. T. Genasis, who signed with G-Unit and later left for Atlantic Records.
“After that record didn’t work, he went and made a hit record,” said 50 before singing Genasis’ 2004 hit, “CoCo.” He continued, “That’s why me and him have the best relationship ever because he was let go to go and do that. He went and made that hit and went and made his money.”
He suggested that some of his former artists may be “upset” with him because they didn’t reach the level of success they might have wanted for their careers.
“The other people are upset because they felt like they coulda did it, ‘if you had did it for me. So ‘it’s your fault you didn’t do it for me.’ ” He concluded, “I can’t make people buy records.”
