Source: Let's talk about 'The Lost Tape' that has dropped recently
50 Cent: For me [The Lost Tape], It was a cool thing. It was fun to actually make this tape. I used Drama's instinct. He sent over the 2 Chainz joint, I said I'll touch it and didn't take him off because traditionally I'd redo the entire record. I had a chance to talk to him, I feel he's in a position to have success and I didn't want to hurt that. The record was going backwards but went plus 70 spins after. So it went up because the record company had gotten off that song and went on with the single with drake ["No Lie" Ft. Drake] but that record is not over yet by any means....
Source: Are we going to see a possible series?
50: If not a series, a new beginning of the new brand which becomes a series
Source: Drama would be involved in that?
50: We'll do things together, different things. I really want to put my album out so I'm probably just going to put my album out.
Source: Why the wait, The Lost Tapes have been in the works since... '07?
Drama: I mean around the time when we were going to do the album is when the blogs became the new platform standard. Basically how music was received and handled instead of people waiting on the mixtape. You look at a couple of tapes after that, majority of them were without a DJ and had a lot of old school beats on it. I think through those years mixtapes started to become NO DJ tapes. You know Gangsta Grillz were one of the few, but the others were for promoting and still recognizing the power and importance of a DJ. 5 years later now being dominant, there was no better time than the present.
Source: The whole tape, from the track list I saw, looks good. What was the thinking behind it?
50: Everybody evolves or does things differently because of the music business, they'll obviously gain success on the actual numbers and pieces you've sold. So they look at theses mixtapes to see if you have the ability to create music up to standards and to have that something happen. People like to have something off it so they can work with that something. For me, I did it in the very beginning building consistency allowing consumers to be comfortable buying something with my name on it, because they heard me, repeatedly, on the tapes and liked the whole tape. So they're like "I'm buying his album when it comes out because I know its going to be good."
Source: I got to give you a lot of credit for that though. Everyone uses that format now mixtape before the album.
50: But that's my whole...it's really from not wanting to be placed in a batch of artists in rap that just can't song write. There are some really talented rappers out there that can't figure out the right song to write. You got people out there that creatively don't actually know who they are. They can say in riddles, when it's scattered, the illest shit but not develop who they actually are. My music worked because it's me. I always said there are artists that are better than me at certain things, but ain't none of them are going to be better at me being me.
Source: Waka Flocka stated during an interview with us [The Source Magazine] "I'm an entertainer, I'm not a rapper. And 95% of the rappers can't even make a single." So do you feel like that's true?
50: He's [Waka] talking about that bunch of guys that really rap, out there writing punch-lines and holding themselves at a different point. My song structure is more on point to me because how I was growing [up]. You're a product of your experience. The things you go through make who you are.
For instance my experience with Jam Master Jay, Jay told me he was working on his record company and I was hustling so he seen me. I had all the things an established artist would have, all the jewelry, all the shit. I told him I write, I'm hustling again just trying to work my way to an opportunity and he [Jam Master Jay] gave me a track to write so I wrote it. I put like a repetitive area where something was actually repeating but it wasn't a four-bar chorus repeated, it was an eight-bar chorus going once. Jay was like "nah, that's not how you do it. It has to have the thh-thh-thh-thh [Drum Hat Noise] for the four bars so I know how far to go and that same thing you said has to repeat again." I went through that process, they would make me write the chorus to the song three or four times before I could actually move forward. He'd [Jay] pick out of those four which one he likes the best and then I'd write the rest of the song. Because he'd be like that part is easy for you. If I dont have the chorus, I dont know what the song is. I dont know what im writing about or what my subject has to be before it closes out before the hook.
Thats why ive had the success Ive had, without a little melody, its difficult to make material that can break language barriers. You go international in certain joints 'Ima P.I.M.P....' and you see the whole crowd. For instance Gamboa (Yuriorkis Gamboa Toledano) one of the best boxers I've seen in my whole life, he could sing the whole thing to you but probably cannot have a full conversation with you in English. But he can tell you the entire record. You see what im saying cause he knows it from listening to it and its interesting.
Source: Your structure has worked and people have adopted it and probably called it their own.
50: Yeah, but I mean like the guy actually handing you the mixtape he doesn't know he's doing that.
Source: Yeah I had at least 4 mixtapes handed to me today before walking up in here.
50: They don't know they're doing it because 50 cent decided he didn't want to be put in a group of artists that couldnt actually write a song. I lost the ability to be marketed as an actual artist. You got people that think they made it when they actually did a record deal. A record deal isn't making it because they want what comes with being successful and an artist but the deal is giving you enough money sufficient, enough for you to create a fisade. You can buy a nice watch, a decent chain, but if you lease the car you aint got no more money. According to how much they give you is how big of a lease that was. You be thinking bigger things because you think you made it and then over time, youll see it, that in order to actually achieve what they want they'll have to build consistency. Consistency is the key to all success.
In your opinion, where do The Lost Tapes fall in comparison to the rest of your projects?
50: I never wouldve released a record if I didn't think it was good. I've met the cycle of success. I havent had writers block to the point where I couldnt make something work.
Where do we stand with Interscope and the album now?
50: About done with it, I think im going to release it to myself as a birthday present. The politics and cycle of how things work when you're at the tail end, theres a lot of confusion, you go through your whole career, trying to figure out where you have to go. I've been sitting on this, I'll prob put it out July 3rd.
What's your take on the blogs and the perception they give?
50: It's interesting because you represent The Source, there was a point as an artist that all you would want is to see five mics on your body of work. That standard has shifted because now the bloggers represent themselves as experts. So they're pointing out saying this isn't going to work. That shithead doesnt know what works or doesnt work. The DJ would have an ear for music, the perfect A&R person, hes the guy who plays and knows the response and what you'll play it after. Like how is this going to come on in the club, tempo-wise. This is cool but we need a joint to get the spot rocking.
As a writer I've went through a period that they missed it because I didnt give them the records, but everything was slow. I wrote like 14-15 records and I go back to my computer, I got a whole lot of shit. Sometimes I be doing like 30 or 40 songs in preparation and only put out like 13. When i go through it, I'll be like damn this shit is slow, when I did 'It Rains It Pours" that was one of the slowest records I actually touched. I almost didn't put "Many Men" on Get Rich Or Die Trying.
Word?
50: Yeah, you lookin at me like you're fucking crazy. Banks [Lloyd Banks] was like 'you buggin' you got to put that on because the tempo. I wanted the record to keep you up.
When was the last time you remember having writers block?
50: I remember not having production, which was inspiring. There's nothing infront of me that's making me feel like "yo I got to get it done."
Which project?
50: Curtis.... the Curtis album, I had issues during that time period. Get Rich Or Die Trying is everything in a nut-shell, all dysfunctional behaviors from the environment. The Massacre after the success of that project, if you asked me to make a wish in 2003, I wish my music to be a success thats it. 2005 the first song written for The Massacre was "God Give Me Style God Give Me Grace" thats how I felt following the success of that project.
The best possible advice I could find from my grandmother because when I told her I wanted to do something different I wrote a song like this and she was like "ok, just dont forget why they like you." Then I started writing things like 187 and other pieces on that album. The Curtis album, was an artist album, it was me finally opening up, creatively, to work with other artists. Me and Justin [Justin Timberlake] number 1 record, "Ayo Technology", and "I Get Money." That project I felt like I had hit records, it was mishandled. The Robin Thicke record/video leaked, it didnt feel like they treated that record accordingly.
You seem to be standing on your own two legs from a business perspective. As well as a music aspect, not that you ever weren't, but you kind of seemed to drift away from Em [Eminem] and Dre [Dr. Dre]. What's the relationship like?
50: I never really got any help. I got the love Em gave. Em is the guy that does no wrong, hes like right next to my grandmother. Like if he did something to me to make me uncomfortable and felt it was wrong in my head I would be like he didnt mean to do that, thats just not him. Before, instinctively, I go into attack mode if someone does something that makes me uncomfortable, but him, I go ' he aint mean that' cause I just know a lot of times hes not actually paying attention to this other shit. I bring him up to speed on the shit of whats going on. As far as Dre is concerned, I worked with Em for two days on GRODT, recorded 4 songs, kept 2 ("Don't Push Me" and "Patiently Waiting") I worked with Dre, we recorded 8, I kept 5 ("In Da Club" "P.I.M.P." "If I cant" "Back Down" and one other) and was like we done. I did enough work, I was already conditioned, there was no point where I was like can you help me write this or could I get you to do this.
But the relationship is still solid between the 3 of you guys?
50: Yeah, they have huge personalities/differences, we both have a passion for music, me and Em have more similarities than me and Dre. It's crazy, Hailey is Marquise, Kim is Shaniqua, there are a lot of comparisons.
50: What you think about Hip-Hop culture now is the biggest thing that changed? I think now you got more blind leading blind because of the ability to make the public statements through social networking
Sean of The Source: Biggest thing to change for me, I honestly believe that they need to go back to listening to the streets and what the streets want, like you said people listen to the blogs too much.
50: Anybody who's experienced and been around can tell you that any song off a mixtape at maximun must spin 500 times no matter how big the artist is. Once you get past that point, theres a marketing budget behind the record.
True
50: When an artist is like they have the greatest mixtape ever, it was really an album and the record company chose to spend the marketing dollars to position you as this really good artist off that mixtape. But even when you did that, you was making your album.
Source
Part 2
