Newark88
Superstar
Since this is the 10 year anniversary of GRODT, I wanna look back on the events leading up to the album release. Through my eyes of course. After he got shot up and dropped from his label, I didn't hear anything from 50 music related until like late 2001. He had 2 tracks on this DJ Whoo Kid tape (Escape From NY) hosted by Nas. One was a freestyle were at the end Fif says, "Yeah its a freestyle, what the fukk you want for free? fukking A-rabs just flew the planes in the buildings, coke price up 10 grand this fukking week" lol And Bad News. I was like "Damn I havent heard this nikka in a minute. And who this dude he got with him talking about 'I ain't a wrestler but I'll put your bytch in a boston crab (Banks on Bad News). That nikka kind of tough". As far as radio goes, around this time, NO DJ on Hot 97 was playing Fif. The only DJ on Hot 97 that was playing 50 and the Unit in late 01 was Stretch Armstrong. On his Sunday night show, that use to come on after Future Flavas with Pete Rock and Marley Marl, Stretch was playing Bad News and another song that I forget the name of, for a few months. Fast forward to early summer 02, 50 Cent Is The Future hits the streets. My man puts me on to the tape first and I immediately fell in love with it. I didn't even know about the Guess Who's Back EP that dropped a month or 2 earlier. I know Clue started playing "You Not Like Me (NYPD/LAPD)" on his Hot 97 Monday Night Mixtape show heavy around this time. By the middle of that summer in 02, Guess Who's Back and 50 Is The Future was coming out of every car out here (With Styles P's Gangster and A Gentleman album and the Dipset tapes coming behind) . When I would drive back and forth from Newark to all the other neighboring cities in Northern Jersey (East Orange, Irvington, Plainfield, Jersey City, etc) or go across the bridge to Harlem, Queens, BK, the response was the same. Now before Wanksta came out, the song that was bubbling out here was 50 Shot Ya and it was originally off a Kay Slay tape. 50 Shot Ya was getting the mixtape and late night mixshow love first. Then Mobb Deep's Bump Dat remix with Fif starts ringing off. After that Wanksta drops and takes off. Once Wanksta takes off, then thats when all the DJ's and radio started playing 50 and G-Unit material during the primetime hours. Also around this time (Late Aug, going into Sept), No Mercy No Fear drops and shuts the streets down again. The standout freestyles from that tape were Soldier, After My Chedda, Fat bytch, and Victory (the freestyle that made Banks a hood favorite). The changing of the guards moment was that late September when 50, Yayo, and Banks went on Funk Flex show for their now classic freestyle session. That freestyle session was so hot out here. I remember driving and each car would pass playing a different part of that Flex session. And that session really solidified G-unit, not just 50, as a force to be reckon with. Fall of 02, Ja and Murder Inc are still popular on the mainstream/commercial side, but they're not getting any love on the streets at all at this point. Prior to this, Ja wasn't getting too much love on the streets out here, especially around late 01 with the J Lo collabos and singing the hooks on his own songs. But the music was tolerated, for a lack of a better term. When 50 came back blasting, the streets abandon Murder Inc completely. Especially when he dropped that Mesmerize video with Ashanti 
So 50's initial success gave EVERYBODY a reason to stop fukking with Ja. It was basically the nail in the coffin so to speak. Fast forward to that November when In The Club dropped. Flex premiered it and played it for about an hour straight (bombs and everything) To be honest, I wasn't really feeling it at first. But once I started seeing the reactions it got at various clubs, it grew on me fast. Fast forward to February 6, 2003. The anticipation for GRODT was something I haven't seen since Ready To Die or Doggystyle. It was on that level. I actually cop the album the weeked of from one of the mom and pop stores over in downtown Newark. For those who remember back in the day, the mom and pop spots use to have the real albums a day or two before its target release but you had to pay $5 more then the average retail price. Man I paid that extra $5 so I could go back to the hood and be the first one to bump it a few days earlier lol. I even remember the same day I cop, my man (who was locked down) called me from the pen and I was playing him snippets of each song, while driving, over the phone like I was Clue or somebody. By the end of that week. Scratch that, by the end of that Tuesday (Feb 6) everybody and I mean EVERYBODY was blasting a different song off the album in their whips. And as you know, the rest is history. Now mind you, this was before nikkas was downloading heavy off the net. This was still before itunes, youtube, blogs, or social networking sites. In order to hear new music, you still had to come outside and cop the album (whether it was the official or bootleg joint). And people were still taping off the radio during this time. 50's buildup towards GRODT was one of the last organic street runs we saw for an artist Pre-Internet dominating the music era (that we are currently in now)
So 50's initial success gave EVERYBODY a reason to stop fukking with Ja. It was basically the nail in the coffin so to speak. Fast forward to that November when In The Club dropped. Flex premiered it and played it for about an hour straight (bombs and everything) To be honest, I wasn't really feeling it at first. But once I started seeing the reactions it got at various clubs, it grew on me fast. Fast forward to February 6, 2003. The anticipation for GRODT was something I haven't seen since Ready To Die or Doggystyle. It was on that level. I actually cop the album the weeked of from one of the mom and pop stores over in downtown Newark. For those who remember back in the day, the mom and pop spots use to have the real albums a day or two before its target release but you had to pay $5 more then the average retail price. Man I paid that extra $5 so I could go back to the hood and be the first one to bump it a few days earlier lol. I even remember the same day I cop, my man (who was locked down) called me from the pen and I was playing him snippets of each song, while driving, over the phone like I was Clue or somebody. By the end of that week. Scratch that, by the end of that Tuesday (Feb 6) everybody and I mean EVERYBODY was blasting a different song off the album in their whips. And as you know, the rest is history. Now mind you, this was before nikkas was downloading heavy off the net. This was still before itunes, youtube, blogs, or social networking sites. In order to hear new music, you still had to come outside and cop the album (whether it was the official or bootleg joint). And people were still taping off the radio during this time. 50's buildup towards GRODT was one of the last organic street runs we saw for an artist Pre-Internet dominating the music era (that we are currently in now)
Absolutely not.
"Latin kings don't like me I don't care we don't play that Mira Mira bullshyt round here" like he had no fukks to give
