“When you have a team like this it’s hard to lose, I’m so blessed to have worked with the best ever,” he wrote on Instagram. “You can re-write a book, you can re-write a song but you can’t re-write history. The 3 headed monster EM, DRE and 50cent. Boom.”
Contrary to common belief, Jim Jones and his Dipset compatriots initiated the rap group mixtape movement, not G-Unit.
Capo clarified the issue of who started the surge of mixtapes from rap collectives that ruled the streets in the early 2000s in a lengthy discussion with the Flip Da Script show.
“Let’s get this right and I’m going to keep it all the way a buck,” Jones said. “We started the mixtape movement, right? And it wasn’t a crew mixtape. We were making real albums and putting them out as mixtapes. G-Unit was doing replays of other people’s beats and making mixtapes.”
He continued: “It was a big difference. We was using our mixtapes as albums to promote our real albums, and off those mixtapes, we were taking singles that the people started loving and started putting them on our real albums.
“But even in that, we put the Dipset mixtape out first before G-Unit put their mixtape out. Now go Google it.”
The Diplomats Volume 1 came issued before G-50 Unit’s Cent is the Future that summer, yet both groups released their debut mixtapes in 2002. Both records would pave the way for the bands to become household names and elevate the bands’ respective leaders, Cam’ron and 50 Cent.
Although Dipset might claim to have dropped first, they cannot claim to have produced more mixtapes than 50 and his crew. The Diplomats released a total of eight mixtapes; their final one, American Dream, was released in 2015.
While this was going on, G-Unit put out an absurd 33 mixtapes, the most recent of which, DJ Whoo Kid’s The Lost Flash Drive, was released in 2016. The group from Queens, New York, produced a run of mixtapes that are notable for their popular G-Unit Radio series, which has 25 episodes.
The first four G-Unit Radio mixtapes contributed to the excitement surrounding 50 Cent’s historic debut, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, which came out in February 2003. The album was reissued on vinyl on Monday, February 6, in honor of Fif’s 20th anniversary.
“20 years ago today, I dropped the largest debuting hip hop album of all time,” 50 wrote on Instagram. “Here’s Your chance to Own a piece of History! Get your Autographed ‘Get Rich or Die Tryin’ Albums Today. Available for the next 7 Days.”
In addition, 50 Cent thought back on his 20-year collaboration with Dr. Dre and Eminem, both of whom were essential to the success of his smash debut.
