Follow the Money, Not the Macho: Part 2
Shaheem Reid, with support from Sway Calloway, digs into the background of the relationship of 50 Cent and The Game revealing a history of trouble beneath the surface. In particular, it sounds like 50 Cent felt not only disrespected by The Game for not allying himself with 50 on certain beefs, but also felt that Interscope and Dr. Dre were going nuts over The Documentary while shortchanging The Massacre.
Obviously some hurt feelings are mixed up in this, but getting only two tracks from Dre after waiting your turn would be pretty upsetting. More importantly, it's a potential hit on one's bottom line. In my earlier post on this topic, I mentioned an interviewer who asked 50 Cent about how to keep one's crew together. Since then I've been able to get the quote from Rodrigo Bascuñán, editor of Pound magazine out of Toronto, who recently asked 50 Cent the following question:
"There have been so many crews in hip-hop that have come up strong but fallen apart. How do you plan to keep G-Unit together?"
50 Cent replied:
"Well, by making sure everybody finances is straight. ’Cause that usually stems to the actual disagreements, the break-ups. So I’d make sure everybody gets the money that they supposed to get. And I’d just offer them good advice. Outside the actual music, there’s a whole world out there you could do business in."
Though having one's record undermined, or feeling that way, isn't about bad finances, it's clearly about getting what one needs to put out an album that's a financial success. Note that in the MTV article mentioned above, 50's quoted as saying during the Hot 97 interview Monday night, not that he's going to blast anyone, but that:
"I love Dre, but if he's confused with what direction he wants to go in after this, my next album will have the same 20 cuts this album has on it, but it will be sold as a double CD. It will fulfill my requirements with Interscope Records. It will be the end of my Shady/Aftermath [deal] and I will move forward in my career as a Shady/G-Unit artist."
Again, it comes down to the bottom line and control of one's career for 50, who hasn't been threatening anyone physically. For example, 50 recently stated in an interview for AllHipHop.com:
"I think Jay-Z is a hustler, and I’m a hustler. I think the difference is, Jay-Z is okay with hustling around other people while they getting money, as long as he is getting the most money. The difference is the way I came up, is that we hustle until we get enough finances and man power and start moving n***as off the strip. I replace them with new talent, [like] Game."
Basically 50 Cent's talking about taking business practices from the drug trade which involves eliminating the competition. When viewed from the perspective of my earlier post or such comments from 50 about his competitors as, "I think they've mistaken me . . . I got the time and energy to ruin what's left of their careers," it sounds like he's made a transition from street violence to the kind of perspective taken by tech CEOs such as Bill Gates who regularly speak with their associates of killing or destroying the competition.
But there's at least one big problem with thinking that 50 Cent will be satisfied with financial revenge in addition to the recent shooting or comments from his opponents that imply physical retaliation. In the February issue of XXL that features 50 with a crossbow on the cover, he made a statement which I have to recall from memory. The basic idea was that, because of the police surveillance of rappers, 50 would not be handling certain violent tasks in-house but would have people disconnected from himself to take care of such business if needed.
I wish I had the article to quote directly, but I found it disturbing for obvious reasons and also surprising that he would make such public statements. It means that random hits against his enemies will now be assumed to be based on his orders and investigators will be looking to make those connections, even if he isn't actually outsourcing attacks. But it also means that he can take a certain approach in public while knowing that he has other means with which to handle a situation.
Unfortunately, none of this sounds like it's heading anywhere positive. As XXL editor-in-chief Elliott Wilson stated:
"It helps him obviously in terms of exposure. You can't ask for better promotion . . . [but] I think he's making more and more enemies. You definitely feel like is he doing too much of a Tupac spiral, like me against the world. You bring more people wanting to see you fail."
And who can intervene in this situation? The last attempt was Minister Farrakhan's public meeting with Ja Rule that Ja admitted in the November '04 issue of The Source was for "publicity" for his then upcoming album, just as 50 Cent had stated at the time. Given such earlier fraudulent attempts at ending beefs, why should 50 seek peace at this time with so much macho circulating and so much money at stake? And, since 50 Cent kicked The Game out of G-Unit without advance notice and has made it clear that he intends to take people's money, how could he expect anything other than retaliation?
See also: Part 1
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