What REALLY Happened to G-unit?

[SpacelySprockets]

that was never going to happen. g-unit had a corny appeal. I mean even the spinning pendant is so 2000's. Roc chain is timeless. Roc music is timeless. G-unit music is stuck somewhere with pinwheel hats and throwbacks.

all that cartoon super thug shyt appealed to cacs and especially foreign cacs the most.

you could have saved the generic g unit hater coli rhetoric for another post because that has nothing to do with my point, my point is that the roc pendant is still relevant all these years later because jay z as a label exec stood the test of time and was able to build roc nation into a powerhouse even after rocafella ended due to the fact that they signed/managed several rappers and artists period who became stars and would gift them the chain as a right of passage

g unit in the late 2000s and early 2010s still had an opportunity to rebuild itself by signing the right artists and like the person I quoted said, those could have been people to carry the label into the next decade breathing a new life into them, they had the opportunity to sign j cole, nicki, meek, danny brown, and a few others long before they became established but 50 opted not to

 

[malbaker86]

Everything that had to be said has already been said and plus the music and style that made them famous wasn't substainable as their fanbase got older and outgrew that talk.

As Nas And Jay-Z got older, their styles "changed" a bit to fit their core audience which allowed them to keep having success as they got older.

 

[3rd Ward Swangin]

1) Game and 50 falling out. Before this, G-Unit seemed unstoppable. They had a successful group album. Banks and Buck had successful solos.

2) Tony Tayo's debut. Highly anticipated, but met with lukewarm reception in comparison to the other G-Unit releases.

3) 50 signing Mase, M.O.P. and Spider Loc and never releasing the albums.

4) 2006 was a disaster. Mobb Deep dropped and it ends up being their worst (it had some heat though). Banks' Big Withdrawal leaked and had major buzz, but he scrapped it and dropped Rotten Apple, which did poorly.

5) 50 lost the sales battle with Kanye and delivered his weakest effort at that point

6) Buck's second solo wasn't as good as the first

7) Terminate On Sight. The last straw. Internal conflict was made public specifically Buck.

G- Unit clothing became corny too.

 

[re'up]

1) Game and 50 falling out. Before this, G-Unit seemed unstoppable. They had a successful group album. Banks and Buck had successful solos.

2) Tony Tayo's debut. Highly anticipated, but met with lukewarm reception in comparison to the other G-Unit releases.

3) 50 signing Mase, M.O.P. and Spider Loc and never releasing the albums.

4) 2006 was a disaster. Mobb Deep dropped and it ends up being their worst (it had some heat though). Banks' Big Withdrawal leaked and had major buzz, but he scrapped it and dropped Rotten Apple, which did poorly.

5) 50 lost the sales battle with Kanye and delivered his weakest effort at that point

6) Buck's second solo wasn't as good as the first

7) Terminate On Sight. The last straw. Internal conflict was made public specifically Buck.

This was the best accounting, and also, have to mention the whole game changed beneath their feet, from 2005/2008, it was an entirely different landscape, and they doubled down again and again on the pretty boy thug singles, and the game had moved on. The rise of Drake, Kanye, Wayne (as he moved past a dope boy rapper) shifted the entire culture, and G-Unit just looked ridiculous in comparison, like caricatures.

 

[TAYLONDO SAMSWORTHY]

1) Game and 50 falling out. Before this, G-Unit seemed unstoppable. They had a successful group album. Banks and Buck had successful solos.

2) Tony Tayo's debut. Highly anticipated, but met with lukewarm reception in comparison to the other G-Unit releases.

3) 50 signing Mase, M.O.P. and Spider Loc and never releasing the albums.

4) 2006 was a disaster. Mobb Deep dropped and it ends up being their worst (it had some heat though). Banks' Big Withdrawal leaked and had major buzz, but he scrapped it and dropped Rotten Apple, which did poorly.

5) 50 lost the sales battle with Kanye and delivered his weakest effort at that point

6) Buck's second solo wasn't as good as the first

7) Terminate On Sight. The last straw. Internal conflict was made public specifically Buck.

#4 was the actual reason. Prior to this, G-Unit was dominating the radio waves with every release. With 50, Buck, Banks, Yayo being on each others records kept them in our faces seamlessly. When the Banks leak happened, the radio-play completely stopped for HELLA long. The perception was that G-Unit fell off since they weren't on the radio and Game was aggressively fukkin the brand up with his tirade.

If the Banks leak didn't happen, the run would've extended longer. That really fukked up the momentum

 

[dubsmith_nz]

Maybe, but their untouchable run was over at that time. This was at the time the new generation was coming up. People were more interested watching Drake & J. Cole becoming superstars.

This is completely understated. G Units run being over coincided with the South taking over, and hip hop changing. Cole, Drake, Cudi, Sean, Kendrick etc all came through at this time.

What other gangster rappers, let alone gangster rappers from New York retained relevance? The whole Shady/Aftermath run ended at the same time. Hip hop moved on.

G Unit outperformed everyone else around them from their time period. Dipset, Ruff Ryders, D Block, State Prop all made music in a similar vane, and all fell off commercially at the same time.

 

[Krazy]

50 might be the only crew leader to make his entire camp look like hoes

threw nikkas in the bushes....figuratively and literally

it was like....he wanted nikkas to be submissive...then was mad when they couldnt stand on their own two...and if they did (ie Game)...he aint want them around

Pretty much.

He talks like he wanted them to become huge stars, but clearly he would never let that happen lmao.
Constatly shytting and sonning them in interviews.

50 couldn't control Game like he could the others., that was never going to last.
And in the long run Game getting kicked out when he did was the right thing for him plus the fact he wasn't willing to let 50 just roll over him.

 

[Alvin]

So 50 stole Ja Rules shine, clowned on him for making pop music....but stole his whole style....and then all of sudden G-unit wasnt "cool" anymore

WTF happened?

50's defense is that "every artist has their life cycle" and their time was up

But when you go back and look at the stuff put out after "Get Rich or Die Tryin"....not so much 50's albums, but the other stuff they put out was dope



Where did they f*** everything up at that if they could go back and re-do, they would?

everybody has a run, but biggest thing is they got lazy.
Banks and Buck could've been stars in their own right, but after 50 let them do them on their second album they got lazy, they were already super successful.

With that being said 50 cast a big shadow with his debut, so even if they were working it wouldn't match what he did when he kicked the door down.

 

[Alvin]

They couldn’t work with the artists they liked because of 50. There should of been a bunch of Banks & Juelz, G- Unit & LOX, 50 & Jimmy songs, but 50 wanted to beef with everyone.

He alienated his team from growing.

jim jones and juelz were fukking with 50 when he pulled them on stage, why banks did capitalize that situation idk, only thing I agree with is the Nas and LOX.

 

[Alvin]

1) Game and 50 falling out. Before this, G-Unit seemed unstoppable. They had a successful group album. Banks and Buck had successful solos.

2) Tony Tayo's debut. Highly anticipated, but met with lukewarm reception in comparison to the other G-Unit releases.

3) 50 signing Mase, M.O.P. and Spider Loc and never releasing the albums.

4) 2006 was a disaster. Mobb Deep dropped and it ends up being their worst (it had some heat though). Banks' Big Withdrawal leaked and had major buzz, but he scrapped it and dropped Rotten Apple, which did poorly.

5) 50 lost the sales battle with Kanye and delivered his weakest effort at that point

6) Buck's second solo wasn't as good as the first

7) Terminate On Sight. The last straw. Internal conflict was made public specifically Buck.

I disagree, that was a great, timeless album, buck came into his own when that happened. His first sounds like a down south 50 cent album featuring buck.

 

[Alvin]

Also he revealed too much intelligence. When the ladies love you and you got money AND clout AND power AND respect, you gotta have some kinda flaw to make nikkas feel better about themselves. You can't have all that shyt AND be intelligent too. When he started ODin on interviews and cats saw he wasn't some dumb nikka that lucked out, the hate intensified...

Godfather was too powerful for his own good.

 

[Alvin]

Ross clearly is in a better position than the other 2 currently.

He can still make music worth listening to and get talked about currently.

I disagree, Ro$$ is currently forgotten, his buzz is no where, where it was back in 09-11

 

[Alvin]

They became caricatures of themselves..
50 brought a lot of toxicity to NY rap, and destroyed the unity and camaraderie that had existed and NYC never recovered. G Unit killed NYC rap
For all their trying to hog the limelight, they were very average musically and thus not sustainable over time.

what years were that bruh?
Was it when Ghost and Rae wanted to snuff BIG?
When Pun and Roca Fella was beefing?
Or when Cam and Jay was going at it

This is all before fif

 

[Alvin]

This is completely understated. G Units run being over coincided with the South taking over, and hip hop changing. Cole, Drake, Cudi, Sean, Kendrick etc all came through at this time.

What other gangster rappers, let alone gangster rappers from New York retained relevance? The whole Shady/Aftermath run ended at the same time. Hip hop moved on.

G Unit outperformed everyone else around them from their time period. Dipset, Ruff Ryders, D Block, State Prop all made music in a similar vane, and all fell off commercially at the same time.

50 was setting up Buck to be one of the figures of the south (T.I. and Jeezy who were the hottest down south fukked with buck and vice versa) Buck also knew Wayne and could've mended that relationship faster. If Game stayed he could've brought Kendrick over.

 

[Ziggiy]

They couldn’t work with the artists they liked because of 50. There should of been a bunch of Banks & Juelz, G- Unit & LOX, 50 & Jimmy songs, but 50 wanted to beef with everyone.

He alienated his team from growing.

Pretty much.

Which is part of the reason why Game rebelled and bounced. He couldn’t IMAGINE having to diss legends like Nas just because 50 had his panties in a bunch. Dude alienated half the industry and i’m sure saying “fukk Jimmy Iovine” didn’t help matters either