Tony Yayo doesn’t believe 50 Cent will ever do a Verzuz battle with anyone, not even New York Hip Hop legend Busta Rhymes.
Speaking to VladTV, the G-Unit rapper recalled an interaction between himself, 50 and Busta at a club, during which the “Touch It,” MC seemingly challenged 50 Cent and Tony Yayo to a Verzuz battle.
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While Yayo appeared to brush off the moment as friendly banter between artists, he did go on to say that he doesn’t think 50 Cent is interested in doing a Verzuz battle at all.
“I wasn’t — I don’t feel like it was a challenge,” Tony Yayo said in part. “You know Fif told him: ‘I could do this shit better than,'[inaudible mumbling lyrics], you know, I’m spitting Busta shit. N-ggas just fucking around. But I mean, I think 50’s on the level where he’ll never do a Vezuz bro.”
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Yayo continued, remarking on how the type of cash flow and success 50 Cent has created as an artist makes it harder for him to be interested in an event like Verzuz. “He’s not interested in certain things like that,” he said. “I just think, you know, that guy sold a lot of records, he gets a lot, a lot of money — and not saying that anything is wrong with Verzuz I just think he’s not interested in doing it you know.”
Tony Yayo also explained how he views Verzuz as somewhat of a window into life during the COVID-19 pandemic. He elaborated on his thoughts, revealing that he feels like highlight moments, such as the Bone Thugs-n-Harmony and Three 6 Mafia Verzuz, were amplified because fans were stuck in the house.
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“I think for a lot of artists, yeah it’s a dope thing. But what was the last dope Verzuz?” Yayo asked rhetorically. “That was Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, who’s the last one?”
After DJ Vlad suggests the Dipset and The LOX Verzuz, Yayo continued: “Yeah, I think Verzuz is more of a thing like when we was in the house for COVID. Like, because we couldn’t go outside we was quarantined. It’s still dope you know, shout out to Swizz [Beatz] and Timbaland. What they did, and they make money and, you know, created a big company so salute to them, like they get money so I can’t knock them.”
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He took his explanation a step further and detailed his thoughts on how social media-based content, such as OnlyFans and Verzuz, was more interesting at the time because everyone was isolated.
“But what I’m saying is when we was inside the house with COVID, a lot of things like OnlyFans and Verzuz, I think it was more like a little more interesting — because you were stuck in the house,” Yayo said. “It still is interesting, like, I would check out the dope Verzuz, I just don’t think 50 would ever be interested in it.”
While discussing possible outcomes of a Verzuz battle between 50 Cent and Busta Rhymes, Tony Yayo made the argument that 50 would automatically have the edge over any artist he went up against because of the sheer volume of album sales and popularity his discography embodies.
In the process, he and DJ Vlad fact-checked the largest first-week sales in history for rappers and uncovered that 50 Cent had the third highest-selling debut for a rap album of all time after his 2005 LP The Massacre sold over one million units in its opening week.
It appears 50 Cent has the same sort of unwavering faith in Tony Yayo’s abilities as an artist as he recently told radio host Big Boy that he wishes Yayo would have blown up as an artist instead of him so that he could’ve steered the G-Unit enterprise from behind the scenes.
“My solo album [Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ 2003] took off so big that I just brought them with me,” 50 said during his interview on Big Boy’s Neighborhood. “So it was clear that it was me creating opportunity for everybody else in the crew, but we was all together. I wish it would have been Yayo, because then I coulda did all of the business. If he woulda did what 50 Cent did, then I would have been running the whole thing.”
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He continued: “It would still be two of us. He’d still be 50 Cent as the artist and I’d be the largest asset to us.”
