50 Cent, G-Unit Show "Mercy"

Tweet

50 Cent's G-Unit crew will drop their debut, Beg For Mercy, on November 4th.

"It's like Get Rich or Die Tryin' times ten," says Young Buck, a member of the rap quartet that includes Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo and 50 himself.

"Banks, Buck, and Yayo each bring something significant to the table," 50 says. "That's why I signed them."

The sixteen-track album features production from the usual suspects, Dr. Dre and Eminem, but despite those big names, there aren't a lot of guest spots. "When there are four of us, it doesn't make sense to bring a lot of guests on," explains Banks.

Yayo's presence is limited thanks to his ongoing incarceration, but each member of the G-Unit crew gets a shot at solo cuts. Still, 50 takes over for most of the hooks -- as on Banks' "Smile" and Buck's "Footprints in the Sand."

"Footprints" is an autobiographical look at how Buck, a native Southerner, got to where he is today, built fittingly on a Dirty South-meets-East Coast vibe.

• 
  MUSIC 100 Greatest Debut Albums
• 
  MOVIES The 10 Best Zombie Movie Scenes
• 
  TV The Most WTF? Moments of 'Mad Men'
• 
  POLITICS No Price Big Banks Can't Fix

Song Stories

“He Will Break Your Heart”

Jerry Butler | 1960

A lightly swinging Latin-influenced, almost cha-cha groove and close harmonies decorated Jerry Butler's early soul hit "He Will Break Your Heart," delivering a stately warning that his rival would never love his girl like he did. The melody came to Butler as he was driving on the highway from Atlantic City, New Jersey, to Philadelphia with Curtis Mayfield, and as Butler told Rolling Stone, "I just sang the melody and Curtis put the chords to it." The song's premise, Butler added, "was something that I'd lived ...The lyric was an experience rather than a revelation. Whereas music is usually a revelation."

More Song Stories entries »

Twitter