
Dre's Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records. In 2002, 50 Cent was discovered by Eminem and signed a $1 million contract with Shady Records, under the aegis of Dr. After 50 Cent was blackballed from the music industry in 2000 and lost his record deal, the group began recording music independently, and released several mixtapes between 20, the most prominent of these being 50 Cent Is the Future, God's Plan, No Mercy, No Fear and Automatic Gunfire.ĭebut album and success (2002–03) The group's founding members, 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo were all born and raised in South Jamaica, a section of the Queens borough of New York City, and began rapping together as teenagers.

History Formation and early years (1999–02)


The album, which followed the critical and commercial success of 50 Cent's major-label debut Get Rich or Die Tryin', served as a platform for Lloyd Banks, Young Buck and Tony Yayo to release their respective solo debut albums The Hunger for More (2004), Straight Outta Cashville (2004) and Thoughts of a Predicate Felon (2005). After releasing a string of mixtapes in the early 2000s, including 50 Cent is the Future, God's Plan and No Mercy, No Fear, the group released their debut album Beg for Mercy in 2003, which went on to ship over 4,000,000 copies in the US and was certified Quadruple Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). G-Unit (short for Guerilla Unit) was an American hip hop group formed by longtime friends and East Coast rappers 50 Cent, Tony Yayo, Lloyd Banks, and later adding "The First Lady of G-Unit" Olivia Longott.
