New York emcee Tony Yayo was 50 Cent’s right-hand man for over a decade. As part of G-Unit, the artist (real name Marvin Bernard) rose to fame in the shadow of Fifty and never reached the heights his friend did.
Formed in the late 1990s, G-Unit included names such as Lloyd Banks, Young Buck and even Compton rapper The Game, but since the 2000s, 50 Cent’s relationship with its members has been tenuous. However, the Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ rhymer (real name Curtis Jackson) still has a tremendous friendship with Yayo.
Jackson grew up with Tony Yayo in South Jamaica, Queens and, as teenagers, they began rapping together, eventually forming a beautiful friendship. Following the release of Jackson’s debut project in 2003, the collective put out their collective body of work, Beg For Mercy.
50 Cent used his success and popularity at that moment to draw attention to his peers. However, Yayo never got the traction. In a recent interview, the ‘Bullets Whistle’ emcee stated that many in the culture considered rejected G-Unit and even labelled them as “house n*ggas” for signing with Shady Records.
As part of the Shady Records family, it was natural for G-Unit to work with Eminem, and they had no issues collaborating with the 8 Mile legend. Unfortunately for Yayo, this didn’t come without backlash from hip-hop purists.
Sitting down with DJ Vlad for Vlad TV, the Gunpowder Guru emcee explained, “We even got called house n*ggas for fucking with Eminem! The Source, they would take it to a whole ‘nother level. That’s when the disrespect for me was like, well damn, what does colour have to do with anything with music?”
Yayo insisted that regardless if it’s race or religion, nothing should get in between two musicians trying to create magic, questioning, “What does colour have to do with anything with people? I don’t care what colour or religion you are! That’s just me. We from New York. It’s a melting pot of people.”
As a native New Yorker who grew up around Latin Americans, Caribbeans, and Africans in a melting pot of people and cultures, Yayo never even considered that working with Eminem would offend listeners. Clarifying his views, Yayo continued, “I don’t look at you as a culture vulture ’cause you white! That could be somebody else opinion. You know what I mean? It’s not mine. … Melle Mel said something about Eminem. My whole thing, [Em] did more for me, him and 50, than anybody has ever did in my career.”
Although members of G-Unit had a lot of criticism levelled against them for their association with Eminem, 50 Cent strangely never got the same amount or severity of backlash.
You can watch Yayo’s interview about his friendship with Eminem in the video below.
