50 Cent Explains Origins Of ‘New Day’; Says Banks & Yayo Need To Promote Themselves Better

Did you get confused over the similarity of sound between 50 Cent’s ‘New Day‘ and Alicia Keys’ solo version of the same name? 50 has for the first time clarified the confusion and explained the origins of the song to XXL.

Switching gears again, this time to the music, how does it work out where you and Alicia Keys both have singles called “New Day” in such close proximity and your version has the same instrumental and her same hook as her earlier release?

The actual track was produced originally for [Dr. Dre’s album] The Detox. I was actually recording with Dre for his record and when he played it, it had a chorus that was a little darker. When he sent it to her, Alicia sent it back with “New Day” and it had additional strings on it. He wasn’t sure that he wanted to use it because of creatively where he was at on his project. I was like, ‘I can use that’ because it would be the bright side of what I’m offering in my body of work. He was like, ‘Okay, take it then.’ Obviously, it was a hit. They’re sitting on it and after a while, she recorded additional verses and leaked the record.

With your upcoming album, Street King Immortal, what are some collaborations that might throw people for a loop?

I can’t offer what collaborations I’ll be actually having, but I want to say is the actual project itself was the longest body of work I had an opportunity to work on beside Get Rich or Die Tryin’. It feels like the first step is working real well as far as “New Day” is concerned. As far as what’s next, they’re gonna see what I have next. I’m not gonna wait a long time. You’re gonna hear new stuff from me.

After the jump, he doesn’t shy away from expressing his concern over Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo’s lack of urgency to promote their individual projects, something we have been also saying for while.

Just last month you were very critical of Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo, saying they need to “Get themselves together.” Since that time they each dropped a mixtape, Banks with V6 and Yayo with Sex, Drugs & Hip-Hop. Have ya’ll talked?

I actually haven’t spoke to ‘em very much. I’m to fault for that, though. I think I disabled them.

What do you mean by that?

I did so much for them that they don’t have a continuous work ethic. They got both of those tapes out there, but did you see any visuals? Anything? There’s certain things that the new guy is doing to create momentum or energy. They just sit there and wait. When someone works for you, you have the habit of dealing with things by not dealing with them. You may get in the regimen of coming over and doing it for them.

By them not dropping videos to accompany their mixtape tracks, what does it tell you?

Dropping mixtapes…that was my ’02 strategy. That’s 2002 marketing. That’s old. You did nothing if you did that. Look what I’ve done with The Lost Tape or The Big 10. There’s videos for everything that was on the tapes. If you’re going to just wing it and drop a mixtape…pick the highlights that people like most and shoot ‘em. Go shoot the video.