50 Cent Speaks On Advice He Gave To Dr. Dre For "Detox"

by Steven J. Horowitz

Fif recalls flying out to Los Angeles, California to work with the veteran.

50 Cent has been working on his oft-delayed fifth album, tentatively set to release in 2012, but he also took some time to share some advice for Dr. Dre. During an interview with XXL magazine, Fif recalled speaking with Dre about how he should approach recording songs for his near mythical third LP Detox.
"Dre helped me a lot on this record. I went to Los Angeles, was working out there for a little bit. I was working on the Detox records, right. I keep saying to Dre, I’m like, 'Yo, you don’t have to invent nothing. All they want is a strong version of what you gave last time,'" he said. "They need a new version of that. It’s like Sade. She goes away for six years, and then she comes back with a new disc. You go, I love this shit! It reminds you of the fuckin’ shit that she gave you before she left. There’s certain artists that have that luxury. You could go away and still be interesting enough to come for people to want to hear that effort. Dre is like that. As I’m busy telling him that, I go, 'Wait, maybe I’m bugging for some of the shit that I’ve been doing.' You know what I mean?"
Looking at his own career, the G-Unit recognizes how to express himself creatively without turning his back on his fans. "For me, the music is an artistic choice," he continued. "I’ll say, from the very beginning, that I can care less about a critic or how someone judges me for the actual music. You see, people understand within hip-hop culture that I’m passionate about actually trying to do something different. I want to make a change in a different way. This is about me personally feeling like I wanna mean more after I’m dead, when I’m gone."