There is a timeline where 50 Cent didn't become the rapper that we know today. Days before the release of Power of the Dollar, 50 Cent was shot multiple times. The culprit was never named but was described as a "low-level drug dealer". However, 50 Cent pulled through and would go on to release Get Rich Or Die Trying in 2003.
One of 50's closest friends is rapper and fellow G-Unit member, Tony Yayo. Furthermore, given the severity of 50's injuries, you would expect Tony Yayo to visit him in the hospital. However, in a recent interview, Yayo explained why he didn't visit his close friend in the hospital.
50 Wanted to Protect Tony Yayo
Speaking on Hotboxin' with Mike Tyson, the podcast hosted by the former champion boxer, Yayo went into detail about the shooting and the aftermath. “They was like, ‘You next, Yayo, they gon’ kill you!'” he recalled after 50 got shot. “And 50’s still shot up. I’m like, ‘Damn, I’mma die? N-ggas gonna kill me out here!’ I gotta move safe, right?”Yayo continued. “But 50 was always a thinker, right? Because when he was in the hospital, he didn’t want me to see him shot the fuck up, all banged up, you know? But I’m like, ‘Yo, why you didn’t want me to see you?’ And the n-gga was like, ‘Because it will fuck with your mental. It would have made you scared seein’ me fucked up like that.'”
Other people have spoken about 50's mentality, which explains his approach to Yayo. “When it comes to 50, there is something about him that’s different,” author Robert Greene said. “There is an energy and I think the energy is his realistic outlook. He’s not someone who wants to get high all the time and just live in this fantasy world and imagine having money. He’s extremely realistic when he looks at the world, and I think actually he got that from his mother, to be honest with you. His father was a drug dealer, a hustler, who was killed when he was I believe nine years old. She had that kind of hardcore mentality.”
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