50 Cent talks about Eminem and Tupac in a new interview.
50 Cent, who was honoured with his own day and key to the city of Houston, recently connected with Brian J. Roberts for a new interview. In the one and half hour conversation, the rapper talks about Green Light Gang World Tour, Chris Brown vs. everybody, Writing for other artists, Why rappers keep dying, cancel culture, Kanye West’s controversy and more.
At one point in the interview, the rapper talks about growing up with a father and then explains his situation with a comparison of Eminem and Tupac, and how they write about their mothers.
“I’ll put two hip hop artists right there, really profound and really prolific artists within our culture. They have very similar things happened with different responses,” he said at the 55:00 minute mark. “Eminem’s mom — the drug usage was part of it and he would do – ‘I’m Sorry, mama! I never meant to hurt you! I never meant to make you cry but tonight I’m cleaning out my closet.’ And then Tupac’s mom — also has some drug usage involved in her experience. And he said – “You was a crack fiend, mama, you always was a black queen, mama”. I think the tones of anger are different in the two of them as artists. Em’s anger is coming from ‘things were supposed to be right.’ And Tupac’s statement is almost like in terms of endearment in it. Because it’s like we always was still all ahead. The expectations of things going right from the white American perspective versus accepting the idea of things not going right for the African-American perspective are what makes difference in the tones in those records. It’s both the same scenario but different ways of expressing experience because of the difference between the two artists.”
He continued and shouted out Eminem’s legacy. “And I don’t think people credit him for everything. I think the growth of our culture should be also a trophy for Eminem. When people don’t see where they fit into it they don’t actually indulge in it, invest themselves, and damn sure don’t spend their money. He had those Vanilla Ice situations. Those guys were not respected and accepted, even though they were big f**king artists. Because the audience out there, they saw themselves in the artists. So when the guy comes along that you can see his experience is authentic — it gives everybody a way in.”
“And me personally, my career is a reflection of it, my association to Em. Prior to my record coming out, the most I’ve seen from a black male hip-hop artist was five million copies of Tupac’s “All Eyez on Me”. This double CD was the first time I’ve seen something go diamond. And to have my first album sell 12 million records… If you don’t credit or you dissociate it from the fact that I’m in the association to Em who’s selling 23 million records of ‘The Marshall Mathers LP’ then you’re just a f**king idiot. It is also that connection.”
Nobody has been better at moving audiences with lyrics than Tupac Shakur. Always eager to express his feelings, he exposes every facet of his life—both the highs and lows of the world. The song “Dear Mama,” which Tupac devoted to his mom Afeni Shakur, was released in 1995. “Me Against The World” made Tupac the best-selling artist even while he was imprisoned, demonstrating the popularity on his side.
Check out the full interview below.
