50 Cent recently sat down for a new interview with Rolling Stone, in which he discussed business in hip-hop, comparisons to other moguls like Jay-Z, and much more. However, one of the most important through-lines throughout this conversation was his multi-faceted explanation of why he doesn't drop new hip-hop music anymore, which shows up across a couple of questions.
First, 50 Cent revealed he almost dropped a mixtape to respond to the likes of Jim Jones, Fabolous, Maino, and Dave East. They recently criticized him on the Let's Rap About It podcast for his Diddy documentary, and that spiraled into a lot of back-and-forth. But never in the booth. 50 chose against it because it would be giving them more attention, like in other feuds. But he also answered a question about what it would take for him to drop again.
"Look, I’m going to make music," 50 Cent said. "I’m excited that this is the feeling. The general consensus is they want to hear something new from me, right? You can have the best verse, but I don’t think you should have the best verse at 50 years old. I think hip-hop is connected to youth culture and I think simplicity is the part of why it’s the best music."
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50 Cent's New Music
Fif also brought up how hip-hop audiences obsess over a breakout and always miss that first thing an artist did (countering the interviewer's Nas example of longevity), going on to dominate other fields like television, not wanting to compete with smaller artists whom he's surpassed financially and culturally, and being in a new content era that might not mesh with the music folks love from him.
"What I watch them get excited about is the mentality from ’03, ’02, the mixtape Fif. And I’m in a different place," he shared. "I couldn’t have had all the success that you’ve seen if I was still thinking the same way. Yeah. And you’ve gotta to kind of [be], I wouldn’t say immature, with these things, because it’s too easy to describe it that way, but you’ve got to grow with the your material at the same time. To grow into a different space and kind of offer something different."
Of course, it's not like the G-Unit mogul has been completely radio silent since his last studio album when it comes to new music. For example, last November, he dropped the "Fightland" track with Sheff G, Sleepy Hallow, and Jeremih.
