HHDX: A lot of people have beef with G-Unit, but many of them attempt to exclude you from the beefs, saying you're the realest one out of the group. Where does that respect come from?
Young Buck: [laughs] I hear that all the time. Honestly, I'm out of this one, I don't really know what to tell you. You can see me—I deal with more outside artists than the artists in my camp. You may catch me doing records with Three 6, Lil Scrappy, in a Monica video. I move around more outside of the Unit than the other artists, so other people get a chance to know me and a chance to see me, and they can make their judgment from what they see and know before (assumptions are made).

Bottom line, to get all the way to it, a lot of mothafuckas know the other side that comes along. I'll get left out of that shit, because it's like death. A lot of shit comes along with me outside; when a nigga do beef, my shit's more real life, it's bigger than just jumping on a record and saying, “Fuck Buck.” At the end of the day, I'm a hands-on person. Even with all this shit—this Game shit, this Dre shit, this Fat Joe shit, all that shit—I play a part in it and give my loyalty to my crew and can't let a nigga start my Unit. But even that's outside of my character, because I'm more of a mothafucka who don't even play the game; I'm a mothafucka who sees you on the streets if there's a problem, and we'll handle it from there.

That's why with this record, I didn't even fuck with that old beef shit. That old, “Fuck Game, fuck Jada, fuck Joe,” you aren't going to get none of that shit out of my album. You're just going to get good fuckin' music, some real life real shit. Whatever beef issues that's supposed to be with me or with the Unit, I feel like I might address them on some more up close and personal shit outside of music. ... All our beef shit was based on real situations, from when it popped off with Ja to when it ended when when we was fucking with The Game, to when it got to Fat Joe and all that extra shit. All that shit was real life, but then it gets to the point where everybody starts jumping on this shit, where it's like, “I don't even know this nigga, but fuck Buck, fuck Banks.” Niggas don't even know niggas, you see what I'm saying?

I choose to say fuck that shit, I ain't gonna do it. ... I'ma tell you something that you and I both know: If I'm going back and forth on these records, if you know I've got beef with another nigga, then the police know. I've got to focus on staying away from that gang, because when shit happens as far as people getting taken out of here for good, my name is on the fuckin' list, they come see Buck. I try to stay away from that shit, cuz. Just trying to do it the gangsta way, because hip-hop don't need that shit no more. I keep telling them at the end of the day, they'll see how it's going to be. I'ma pull niggas cards and see if a nigga's real or not, because if I chose to say, “OK, I'm not dissing this nigga and saying nothing to these niggas,” and you're still getting that same different energy from a so-called nigga that's got beef with the unit, I'm sure there would be ways of handling that shit. It just won't be no fuckin' rap shit for me no more. If shit gets out of hand, it's like OK, let's get to this shit for real. If it ain't no beef, let's get to the money. If it is, let's handle this shit outside of this and still get to the money, and play the game the way real street niggas do and keep it in the streets. That's the way it should have been but it got off...I wasn't the controller of it then. But now, it's like, I'ma step my foot in the shit, let you know my point of view the way I feel about it, and it is what it is. Continued on page 2 »