XXL had the chance to catch up with G-Unit boss 50 Cent recently to chop it up about a variety of subjects. Topics included his new movie Freelancers, Young Buck, the song "New Day," TMT Promotions, Kanye West's "Perfect B*tch" and much more.
Check out an excerpt from the interview below.
In Freelancers, you play a cop. Ice-T talked about portraying a cop and coming from the background he did. How was it playing a police officer?
It was exciting. It’s a challenge, but you understand the spectrum, both sides of the coin. I went to the firing range with New York City police officers just to see what the exact procedure would be to fire the actual weapons and what their protocol is. I went with Robert DeNiro. We had worked together on the Righteous Kill project, so it had come full circle when we worked together on Freelancers.
What was it like working with DeNiro the second time around and do ya’ll hang out, chill now?
Yeah, yeah…if you remember, on that project [Righteous Kill], I got him to do the cover of Vibe. You don’t really see him doing press like that. We got a chance to talk about things away from the actual entertainment stuff. Now, I developed the kind of relationship with him, where I can call him and see if he’s interested in some of these projects.
What did you pick up from working with DeNiro this time around?
I had a lot more scenes in this project. I had a lot more scenes in this project than I did inRighteous Kill with him. What I picked up is how often he makes changes. Him and Forest [Whitaker] are the same. You get in there and you see so many different variations of the scene. Almost every take is different. It’s the same information, but [De Niro] starts from a different place and we got a lot of interesting moments like that. To work with two different Academy Award winners is an honor.
Switching gears a little bit, your man Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather is out of jail. We reported about you getting at Oscar De La Hoya on Twitter last week. Are the days of Golden Boy Promotions promoting Mayweather’s fights over now? Are you and the Money Team promoting Floyd here on out?
Well, TMT is a promotional company and it’s actually Floyd’s idea for me to be involved. He asked me to do those things, so it could be more comfortable, so I could do more things in-house. I had a chance to bring over some great talent. We got Andre Dirrell, [Yuriorkis] Gamboa, Celestino Caballero, Billy Dib. We’re working with Zab [Judah].
It feels like you’ve been a promoter within the rap game for years with your marketing and showmanship. What will you bring to boxing as a promoter?
What boxing needs is a younger demographic. Right now, Dana [White] and them, as far as the UFC is concerned, 56% of the audience is from 18-34 and boxing is 30 and up. To bring a more youthful draw to it and provide a showmanship to the actual bouts maybe allow some of the actual theatrics that you see alongside of the WWE. Merge music culture with boxing and pop culture, period. Moms been taking kids to karate class forever. When those disciplines, as far as boxing goes, starts getting implemented in earlier stages, you’ll find a more youthful interest. Cards that are strong with 36 minutes of entertainment have to be developed into 70 minutes. That’s it.
[Yesterday, August 7], Kanye took to his Twitter to announce that he wrote the song “Perfect Bitch” about Kim Kardashian. What do you think?
I mean…if that man feel like she perfect, then she’s perfect. He could mean it and you’ll end up singing the words to it because he’s Kanye. You know how it is? One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
Switching gears again, this time to the music, how does it work out where you and Alicia Keys both have singles called “New Day” in such close proximity and your version has the same instrumental and her same hook as her earlier release?
The actual track was produced originally for [Dr. Dre's album] The Detox. I was actually recording with Dre for his record and when he played it, it had a chorus that was a little darker. When he sent it to her, Alicia sent it back with “New Day” and it had additional strings on it. He wasn’t sure that he wanted to use it because of creatively where he was at on his project. I was like, “I can use that” because it would be the bright side of what I’m offering in my body of work. He was like, “Okay, take it then.” Obviously, it was a hit. They’re sitting on it and after a while, she recorded additional verses and leaked the record.
On Monday (August 6), Young Buck turned himself in to begin his 18-month prison sentence on weapon charges. In an interview with XXL, he said he’s still up for a conversation with you. What are your thoughts on his sentence and possible conversation?
I think it’s unfortunate. I don’t wish that on nobody, having to sit in the joint. But I don’t know how to respond in a nice way to blatant disrespect that was offered. I’m the kind of person that I don’t let go of things easy, I’ll be honest with you. If I’m the driving force behind why the situation is what it is, I’ll accept it. But when I can’t see what I’ve done to offer it, then I think that was just a plan that didn’t go right. If it went the way they wanted it to, there would still be no white flag. That goes across the board…even with my personal relationships with women. It’s always people looking for what they want out of it.
To check out the rest of this great interview head over to XXL.
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