LostAngel

Curtis vs. 50 Cent



If you listen to 50 Cent's music, you know him as a gangsta who likes to boogie from time to time. But in this interview, Sister 2 Sister Publisher Jamie Foster Brown sat down with Curtis Jackson, the product-pushing businessman behind the music. Curtis talked about how he raises his son, how he's different from his rapping alter ego and, well, whatever Jamie asked him to talk about.

The 32-year-old Queens rapper does have another side that leads him to do nice things like donate hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of G-Unit clothing to the Book Bank Foundation, which provides books and clothing to kids from low-income households. He shared how losing his mother at age 8 changed his perspective on life and influenced the way he raises his 11-year-old son Marquis. And of course we got the current status of his beefs-people he's dissed and why.

Before his new album Curtis hits stores, take a minute to learn about Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson.

Jamie: How is Curtis Jackson? First of all, he's been trying to get with me for a long time. I can't be too easy because you got to let men hunt. Men are hunters. Girls, you don't chase the man; let the man chase you.

Fifty: That's right.

Jamie: What is wrong with these girls out here? You need to teach them something. But you like older women, don't you?

Fifty: Yes, I do. They know what they want.


Jamie: How is Curtis Jackson different from 50 Cent?

Fifty: Well, the difference between Curtis and 50 Cent is I'm human. Curtis has all emotions. 50 Cent, because hip-hop is so competitive, you only put out comfortable material; you don't get into the space where you're vulnerable or you put yourself in a position where you've given the other artist something they can use [against you].

Jamie: When you first came out, you were all hard. You were talking about other artists. Is that a show?

Fifty: Nah, it's just, when I first came out, the music itself-the art form is a mirror, and what I did was a reflection of the environment I come from and what's necessary for you to actually get by-the mentality you have to have to exist within what goes on.

Jamie: You don't have to have that mentality now though, do you? You're rich now!

Fifty: It's different, but the things you go through make you who you are. And my experience, of course, altered me as a person.

Jamie: I'm so scared for you all. We fight one another and it just kills me.

Fifty: Just from my perspective, the hip-hop artists condition themselves like fighters mentally. So whoever becomes the champion, based on the success at the moment, they use as their target, or they use them for energy.

Jamie: Do you have a lot of security around you? You don't have a lot of security today.

Fifty: It's not necessary for me today. I don't feel like I have a threat level where it's necessary for me to walk around like that. In the neighborhood I grew up in, they'll go to the nightclub, but if they don't actually carry it, they'll have somebody have a gun in the car, or something there. And they might not have intentions of doing anything with it, but they take it just in case. I can't do things [like that] and actually expect to have fun. I don't go places where I think it might be necessary for me to have it.


Jamie: So where do you see yourself in 10 years? You gonna be married?

Fifty: Probably.


Jamie: How come you're not married?

Fifty: There's a lot of reasons.


Jamie: There's a lot of [women] around you, right?

Fifty: There's a lot of confusion. Just at the pace that I'm living right now and the things I have to do, it's difficult for me to maintain a relationship to that extent.


Jamie: Why you all have the booty-clapping women and stuff in the video?

Fifty: I think women are more beautiful than men. If you think about when you're trying to sell a magazine to a woman on a newsstand, you have a woman on the cover. When you're trying to sell a magazine to a man on a newsstand, you have a woman on the cover; she might just have less clothing.

Jamie: Some of the guys are telling me now that they don't want to be with Black women because they say they dress too vulgar, they're hoochies, they're hos.


Fifty: I don't feel that way. I think it's sexy, particularly in music videos. That's why they're necessary. There's a lot of male rap artists that I have no interest in looking at.


Jamie: You have no interest.


Fifty: Right! So I'll watch the music video for other things that go on in the video that are exciting.


Jamie: What are you doing in your upcoming videos? Is there anything different?

Fifty: Yeah, it's always different. It's a task for me to create material that has sexual content from a male perspective without being vulgar or obscene. I created "Candy Shop." It was a big hit. This album I came up with "Amusement Park."

Jamie: What's going to be happening at the amusement park?

Fifty: The bedroom is the amusement park. I use that as a metaphor.

Jamie: Do you believe in forgiveness, and under what circumstances?

Fifty: I believe in forgiving a person. I've had people that I actually love do things to me, then I continue to have a relationship with them.

Jamie: Like what?

Fifty: Like my grandparents; they do things I don't like. She's still my grandmother and I love her to death. She can't actually do no wrong in my eyes 'cause she took care of me when I couldn't take care of myself.


Jamie: Wasn't Queen Pen in the hospital with you when you were shot up-that came to see you a lot?

Fifty: And Foxy [Brown]. Foxy was actually in the hospital when I was being brought into the hospital.

Jamie: Where are those shots?

Fifty: Just my hands, my face.

Jamie: And where did that bullet go?

Fifty: Into my tongue.

Jamie: Is it still there?

Fifty: Mm-hmm.

Jamie: I didn't know it was still there! [He shows Jamie the bullets] My son still has a bullet in him too. He was shot four times.

Fifty: Yeah?

Jamie: Over some BS. This is over a girl. You've got to know how to pick your woman. How're you going to pick your mate?

Fifty: I'm actually not in a hurry. I think it's something that will happen organically and over time, that somebody will become important enough for me to prioritize 'em.

Jamie: When you meet her, how are you going to say this is the woman that you think is really the one.

Fifty: I don't think you can set that in your head ahead of you meeting a person. I think when you meet people initially you meet a representation of them.


Jamie: That's true! But you know what Young Buck told me? He said he's going to take her to the library.


Fifty: And do what?

Jamie: [laughs] He said, "I'm going to take her to the library. I'm going to blow her mind."

Fifty: He probably was high when he said that. [laughs]


Jamie: [laughs] You don't believe that?

Fifty: He wouldn't do that.


Jamie: Okay. What are you teaching your son now?

Fifty: There's so many different things for me with him [that] for me to pick, it's difficult. I want him to try and be conscious of being a good judge of character. In that space, when you deal with people, expect them to change. Expect people to change 'cause tomorrow is a different day and you can kind of be dealing with a different person-regardless of how close you are or how well you know a person. His mom would be the best example of that.

Jamie: What attracted you to her?

Fifty: She was the opposite of me when I met her. She was in college. She had her own place. I was in the street and doing everything I wasn't supposed to be doing. It was a little more sane-her lifestyle-than mine. She didn't even know what my life was like...I would give her zero information about what I was doing. Because when you're doing the wrong thing, you give them information, you put them in danger.

Jamie: So what would you talk about then?

Fifty: Everything else, like what she was doing in school. My son's mom-I didn't really know her before we got into a deep relationship. My son is getting ready to be 11, October 13. But I [have known] his mom for about 12 years, so it was like three months before she was pregnant.

Jamie: How are you involved with his life?

Fifty: Me and my son are real close. He'll call me to watch the basketball game and go, "Daddy, you saw that?" Every two seconds he'll call, back and forth. It's a little different now because we went through the process of his mom having higher expectations [of] what I deliver to her on a financial level, based on people telling her, "If I was you, I would be doing this, girl. You 50 Cent's baby's mother." So she starts having expectations that are outrageous. So I took me to child support.


Jamie: What does that mean?

Fifty: I make the judge say specifically what they feel like I'm supposed to do, and I do it, and there's nothing else for me to question. My son's character is similar to mine. He has a lot of mannerisms and traits that I look at him and say I would've did the same thing at that age. My mom was really important to me, so I wouldn't fight [my son's mother] for him. I'd just fall back from it a little bit. I don't say anything really negative about her after that situation, and it's only because he's like me and I won't accept that. I don't care if my mom was getting high; I probably would have less respect for her at that point, but I wouldn't allow anybody else to disrespect her.


Jamie: I remember when he was little, you had him onstage with-


Fifty: -a vest.


Jamie: Right. Was that just a show
or ...?


Fifty: Absolutely. If I said I wouldn't take myself somewhere where I felt like I needed to have a gun, then why would I take him somewhere where his life is in danger? There was a writer in the hotel room when they brought the prop vest in. Like, that was a part of the show; he wanted to come out on the show, and because of that he had to wear the uniform everybody else was wearing that night. It was like 40 people that wore a bulletproof vest-type thing. They just zoomed right in on the kid.


Jamie: Yeah, they did!

Fifty: Like, "This is crazy!" And just wrote about it.

Jamie: So what are you going to teach him about women?

Fifty: His mother will consistently tell him to stay away from White women. She'll say that openly. And I'll say you be with whoever you fall in love with. I tell him! And it may not necessarily be a woman like your mother. So we got different views on things.


Jamie: What about the beefs and stuff in hip-hop? Are you moving away from that?

Fifty: That doesn't sell anything.

Jamie: What doesn't?

Fifty: The competition in hip-hop. All it does is create a soap opera. It gives people things to talk about in the barbershop and the beauty salon, and just in passing. People love trouble. Away from hip-hop, they love trouble. It's the reason why you pick up the newspaper and you turn on the news. You're conditioned to enjoy someone else's tragedy.

Jamie: Young Buck told me that whenever there's a beef, he will go and try to speak to that person to squash it. Will you do that?

Fifty: That's not my character. I don't initiate the altercation. Somebody has to bring it to me, and then when they do that I leave them in that space. My way of resolving the situation is no longer fueling it by continuing to go on and on and on about it.

Jamie: The moving away from it is really important because you've got to live. I just feel that with Black men, it's this whole dissin' thing: "Well, Jamie, he dissed me."

Fifty: That existed prior to music.

Jamie: I know, but it's still stupid!

Fifty: That existed in the neighborhood. Before you get to any success, they have a discomfort with seeing you have a nicer car than them. The males have a more competitive edge to them. I don't think women are as bad. They get a little catty too but it's just not as bad as males are. With financial positioning-they're totally conscious of that.
I realize I'm public property and everybody has a right to their opinion on me. My skin is thicker than usual, based on me accepting that. Like, me saying that to myself constantly-and embracing it because it is the reality of the situation I'm in-it allows me to deal with whatever they're saying and just kind of think a little more strategic on how to respond.

Jamie: Give me a strategic response.

Fifty: A strategic response would be like, if I'm on the radio and an artist calls in and just decides to be disrespectful while everyone's listening. For one, I allowed them to be on the radio with me, so they're in a more vulnerable space because I can hang the phone up and continue to talk and leave the last impression, whatever I want that impression to be. What I can do afterward-before they can realize what the actual situation is: "Is it just that phone call and that's the end of it?"-I can go create music videos, freestyle songs, all kinds of stuff, and release them in a fashion where it actually is productive for something that I'm doing in the business.

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Ms. Coffey123

Props, I bought my copy on Sunday.

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" Yall are life sized pawns, this is chess not checkers". - 50 Cent

ToRcH

propz. good read

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"Still standin' for somethin' while y'all fallin' for nothin'." -Khujo Goodie

PapizXXXrated

Good interview.. but old already.. this been out like a month already! lol

ladybug68

Good reading.....well, there defiantly is a difference....

Speak

Propz On The INfo......

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I'll Smack Who You Act Like/Put Fear In The Heart OF The Nigga That Won Your Last Fight-Head Ice

LostAngel

The issue came out July 17th, its a week and not a month.

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itsdaunit08

its 50!!!

Think Muzik

props....good interview

MS DIOR

brought this saturday.it's alot more too it though.

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CHR!SSY:TH3 OR!G!N@L..HATING IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY....FUCK YOU! ;)

LostAngel

What else is he talking about?

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King VENOM

lmao....CUUUURRTISSSS


I guess Cam really got 2 dat nigga

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http://www.zshare.net/audio/626813960f5ff04d/

g-unitrider99

50 cent is the best rapper alive he makes betta choices than any rapper out

AR0E1

good shit tha buck thing was kinda funny a library lol wtf?

MS DIOR

he talked a lil bit more about shaniqua. he said that he wished that he would have had the same child by another women.she asked him if he wanted more children and he said in the future and he would want a little girl.but he would want to date women with kids so he wouldn't have to pay(child support) for them,(he was joking though).he talked about the house in connecticut,victoria rowell,grandmother,why he doesn't go to nightclubs that much,his mother and father,steriods,when he was in the hospital,trina,about yayo's mother house being shot up,what makes him happy and sad.who he always call when he's having a hard day,but there's more though.i just have to look back in my book.

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CHR!SSY:TH3 OR!G!N@L..HATING IS THE SINCEREST FORM OF FLATTERY....FUCK YOU! ;)

Otis Beats

propzzzzzzzzzz
Good reading

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Otis Beats

50 is the most articulate rapper

dis nigga is so smart

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Hakaroodi

aight propz man...

ECBANGIN

50 cent is doin it real b.i.g

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You might learn a lil' summin' if you learn to stop frontin

LloydBank$Prodigy

this niggas ganna sell crazy....propz

YoungMoneyEnt

Good reading. propzzzz

_RottenApple_

Props Saw Him On The Cover.

Naturalbornalkaholik

good read
50 is so fuckin smart
respect

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Antonio Montana

i aint readin all that shit,did he say somethin new ?

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snitch or die

TII tactics IIT

right i know 50's involved in hip hop, so thereofre its hip hop news, but really keep it to the units newspage cos evrytime ppl come on here alteast evry day theres bout 10 new stories all bout fif' and im tired of seen this faggot oss unit dickryders suckin on fif's cock
n thats real talk i like the guy but evry fifty fan seems to just hate on niggaz just cos they eint fifty shits fucked up