The two rappers 50 Cent described as expired milk
Hip-hop is the genre that is no strange land to beef. If anything, it’s somewhat the genre of beef, from individuals sparring through chart topping hits or coastal feuds that have led to the deaths of the greats. And one particularly funny moment within the noble history of rappers beefing is when 50 Cent compared Tony Yayo and Lloyd Banks to spoilt milk.
No slurs, no death threats, not even a curse word. And yet it’s a particularly cutting line. Speaking about his former G-Unit collaborators in 2022, the Grammy Award winning rapper said “some people, they’re like milk. They have an expiration date and no matter what you do, they’ll spoil after a while.”
Yayo got heat in particular from Cent. He continued on, saying: “I’ve done a lot for him to the point that being personable with people they’ll feel like that homeboy code, guy code type of energy.”
“They’ll be like, ‘You know what? You got it so you should give it to me,’ versus what makes sense. If you don’t sustain your value in the marketplace, I got to pay you the market rate.”
Cent and Yayo have a relationship that long predates their G-Unit days: as fans may know, they grew up together in South Jamaica, Queens. This friendship and their shared lived experiences became the foundation for their musical collaboration when Cent founded the G-Unit in the late 1990s. Tony Yayo was a key member of the group, contributing to its raw, street facing sound and loyal image.
Lloyd Banks joined the group as a core member, which gained prominence after 50 Cent’s own breakthrough album. The group’s debut album, 2003’s Beg For Mercy, was released after a string of mixtapes. It was released prematurely, but to considerable commercial success, debuting at number three on the Billboard 200 chart.
G-Unit became known for their gritty lyrics, aggressive style, and loyalty to one another, which continues today, years after the group’s disbandment. When not comparing each other to expired dairy products, naturally.
Naturally, Cent’s comments struck a chord with his friends and former collaborators at the time. Yayo decided to break his silence on the matter through Twitter, writing “as much bullets I took for G-Unit. My mom’s crib shot up almost killed my sis and my niece. Now I’m compared to milk. I make that brand.”
Their friendship has remained tight and supportive since the 2022 comments. Yayo toured with Cent on the latter’s Final Lap Tour in 2023, and shared that he made six figures performing alongside 50 Cent and appreciated the exposure and opportunity the tour gave him.
In a tone not dissimilar to spoilt milk gate, Cent has continued to tease his lifelong friend on social media, whether joking about Yayo’s music tastes and mocking him for listening to Drake instead of Kendrick Lamar during a private jet ride, or even suggesting he considered leaving G‑Unit because Yayo was slow to respond to a diss from Jim Jones, to which Yayo fired back with a witty retort.
And recently, Yayo publically reaffirmed both his gratitude and loyalty to Cent in a 2025 interview, emphasising that he’d never “turn on the person that turned the lights on” for him. A very sweet sentiment from soured dairy.