"They think I’m crazy," 50 told MTV about what Eminem and Shady Records think him about giving away so many mixtapes for free. "Sometimes [Em] misses why I put it out. He goes, ’Why did you put it out ?’ But I can’t be as hot as I’m gonna be if I don’t play around. I gotta spar before I go fight the champ. That’s my concept of it. If I don’t go out and make material and lock in, I’m not gonna make the best possible material for the next [official] project."

MTV also chatted with 50 about the presidential race — and long-in-the-works G-Unit group album, tentatively titled Lock and Load.

50 only reveals one song title, "The Party Ain’t Over," which features all four of the core Unit members, including Young Buck. Sonically, it appeals to your inner-hooligan, recalling the evaporating thump of "I Get Money," with Fif and company boasting and denouncing talk of the group’s demise. There’s another track on which 50 jokes that he doesn’t care if his enemies fall off a building. Later, he played a Swizz Beatz-produced track, obviously named "Down" (trust us, the chorus says it all), on which 50 gloats about getting busy on the mic. Yayo, of course, is the most energetic, frequently dancing with his arms extended horizontally like airplane wings. A record called "Liar, Liar" features 50 telling a girl everything she wants to hear, knowing full well he’s less than sincere.

"I created monsters," Fif would say during a quieter time upstairs in his office about his fellow G-Unit rappers. "Frankensteins. I got three of them. It’s like creatively they got strong opinions on things they like. ... They’ll be telling each other, like, ’Yo, I’m telling you.’ They got a different way of saying it to each other than saying it to me. They be like, ’Nah, he be saying we need to keep this record.’ ... I think their solo careers changed what our collaborations were in the beginning. If you look at the beginning of the mixtapes, I was creating the hooks."

50 is excited to get the G-Unit album out, but he’s not going to rush it. He’s back on the mixtape scene with three street CDs since last fall and another one, with DJ Drama, coming in the next few weeks. He says with so many wolves in the studio, creating material hasn’t been a problem.

"You should be amazing on the album," he declared about working with so many other individuals. "You don’t have to write three verses. All you have to do is one. You should write three and pick one. I’m like, ’You’re a solo artist right ?’ I’ll tell them to redo the verse [if it’s not up to snub]. ’Just do it again. Let’s see what the second one sounds like if we’re not sure.’ They don’t mind. The process is interesting because they’ve developed their own personal liking for things they want to do. But the response to the mixtape material — which has proven to them they should listen — is making them follow what I’m saying."