I loved this interview….but I disagreed with what him and Yayo say about Ghostface (admittedly I’m a huge Ghost fan). But 50’s comments make his business acumen and f-yo-feelings attitude crystal clear. Which I can definitely appreciate.

Click here to read the unabridged article….

And big up to Nahright and Eskay for putting me on to the story. Spin isnt only my regular reading list…it was hot in the early 90’s when Spike Lee guest-edited though…

Interesting quotes from the article:

“I’ve heard it countless amounts of times from artists in different periods. They’re like, “I don’t really care about the sales, this is about the art form.”
That’s an artist who’s so artistic he should just have a smock and be painting pictures for himself instead of trying to sell people music. We’re in the music business. When they forget that last half, that’s where it gets messed up. In the music business, you do what makes sense for music and business. So if the artist makes a record they know ain’t gonna sell, then why do they allow the company to spend money marketing it? They’re just making the wrong music at that point — creatively. Sometimes, they just get out into a different space where they don’t know what to write. I’ve been around rappers, what was the freestyle guy, Supernatural? He was incredible, he could rap about anything, about Mars and cars, whatever, and Craig G was like that. But they didn’t have a specific thing that they were basing their music on that people could embrace. My music is based on my actual life. You might be a rapper that could beat me at something, but you can’t beat me at being me, and this is what the world’s embraced at this point.

You got people who are inspired by the music. They see it and they see where it comes from. You see this [holds up a platinum, bling-encrusted cross]? I don’t wear this all the time. But when I go out in the street, I put it on. You know why? Because these kids, I’ll blow their high if they see me without it. And they sure don’t wanna fuckin’ be you if you don’t have the stuff that excited them about you in the first place.” 

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“(What about the MCs — Chamillionaire, Ghostface Killah, Master P — who have said that they’re not going to curse in their music anymore, in response to the post-Imus outcry?)
None of those people sell records.
(Chamillionaire sold more than a million records.)
Let him go sell gospel records, if he’s so fuckin’ righteous. I can write around the curses if I want to, but you can’t tell me to write around the curses. First of all, there’s a clean version of the record available, anyway, if people don’t want to hear that content. This is adult entertainment. Why is pornography legal? Wouldn’t you say that the women who do pornography are hos? They get paid $1,000 to fuck on tape. You understand? And we can’t say ‘ho’? And who’s the leading consumer for pussy on a tape? Middle-aged white men.

These white men are buying the pussy from the hos because they aren’t being sexually fulfilled by the women they have in their traditional lifestyle at home. And they go outside for the thrills without any attachment, so when they go home, there’s no phone number or nobody calling who can ruin their fuckin’ lives. So it’s understandable why pornography is the way it is. But after all that, why is somebody worried about me saying ‘ho’? I make up different terminology all the time. I made an effort to make a reference to a male organ without being disrespectful in a woman’s presence on “Candy Shop.” If you say “penis, cock, dick,” whatever way you want to say it, that’s going to be disrespectful in the presence of some women, so I said, “the magic stick” and “the candy shop” is the bedroom and the “amusement park” is the bedroom, trying to come up with a way to do it where you’re not being disrespectful. But those efforts apparently don’t mean very much.” 

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“(You haven’t ever really written about your own family — your son, Marquise, or his mother.)
You know why I wouldn’t do it? Because it would be hard for me to make reference to her without being disrespectful. [50 has been feuding in court over child support with Marquise's mom, Shaniqua Tompkins.] Say, if my mom was using drugs, I would probably lose respect for her. But if someone else was disrespectful to her, I would respond immediately. And my son has so many of my qualities that I feel like he would feel the same way, even if it was his father saying it. He would find some resentment toward me for saying something bad about his mother, so I don’t talk about it.

(That’s much different than how Eminem has handled it.)
I got no comment on that. But also, my son’s mom had a daughter before me, and I’ve never really talked about her because I wanted to allow her to have a relationship with her dad. She’s gone down South to see her father on vacation in the summer, and I’ll call and ask her if she’s having fun, and she’ll say, “No, not really.” And I’ll say, “Why?” and she’ll say, “Because he’s cheap.” And that really bothered me because he’s not cheap; he’s not cheap at all. He just doesn’t have what I have. And that’s, like, damn, I can remember being where he is.”