50 Cent Talks Being Authentic In Hip Hop

“When I offer aggression, I offer it from an author, a real place,” Fif explained to XXL co-deputy editor Rondell Conway. “It’s who I am; it’s who I had to be. Not even by choice, but to survive where I came from. So a lot of actual artists don’t have it. They don’t have that thing. Waka Flocka, ‘Hard in the Paint,’ Gucci [Mane], those guys have that.”

“It’s just a lot of the other artists, I don’t believe them,” he continued. “I believe hip-hop is in a struggle of being artistic or [having] authenticity—which one matters? Because a lot of them that write music that has a street-life theme to it haven’t actually been exposed to very much of that. It’s starting to feel like it doesn’t matter. I’m watching it, and I’m like, Okay, it sounded great, but ya lyin’.” (XXL)