50 Cent Inspired By Will Smith's 'I Am Legend'

[bigted]

Oct 30 2008 8:58 PM EDT

50 Cent Inspired By Will Smith's 'I Am Legend' For 'Get Up' Video

But Fif says on the clip's L.A. set that he's 'not actually fighting zombies.'

By Shaheem Reid, with additional reporting by Yasmine Richard

50 Cent always told us he would rise above his peers in rap. In his new video, not only is he the last MC left standing, he's the last man on earth.

"I wanted to do something more exciting and interesting than the traditional club video," he said a few days ago on the video set of "Get Up," the lead single from his December 9 LP, Before I Self Destruct. "The directors come in, and guys present treatments to me, and they aren't my usual video directors, and we came up with a concept for it, just a little more futuristic. I took a scene that I seen in a Will Smith film, 'I Am Legend.' ... It's a collage that I thought was interesting."

Fif trekked a few thousand miles to L.A., where he'll play a Dr. Neville-type character. No fighting the undead, though.

"Not actually fighting zombies, but you'll see scenes like in the beginning of 'I Am Legend,' " 50 said. "New York City was desolate, like everything was just gone. Instead, that'll be Los Angeles. ... There was a scene, one of the creatures was running into the glass, and I kinda re-created that in my own way."

In "Get Up," as you've heard if you've been listening to the radio the past few weeks, 50 encourages folks to move on the dance floor and warns them he's come to spread some "California Love" as well as some NYC hate.

"Well, you know, 'California Love' is a great song," he explained. "And this joint is more like it. It's the same key and being played in the same key. ... It's the first thing that came to my head when I heard the beat. That's what I feel like great music does. It inspires you to actually say something that you wouldn't say. Although with different production, I wouldn't have wrote the verses different and the intro different, but because I felt that way I started off, 'I came to bring you that California love and New York hate, all of the above.' "

"Get Up" is produced by Dr. Dre's former right-hand beat man, Scott Storch.

The G-Unit General gets even more cinematic when his LP drops. He's including his film, "Before I Self Destruct," as a bonus.

" 'Before I Self Destruct,' it's interesting," he said of the movie, which he directed and starred in. "I played Clarence in the film. For me, I wanted to show what a lot of urban folks don't show: cause and effect. I wanted to explain the actual behaviors by showing you the trials and tribulations the character went through prior to him being a part of harsh activity, in the wrong direction. So I have references. Movies like 'Menace II Society,' that had great characters, didn't really show cause and effect. Voice-overs explained it. It explained to me that O-Dog was 'America's Nightmare: young, black and just didn't give a f---.' But it did show us what happened to him or what happened around him that influenced him in that way. The Caine character, it did show us how he was influenced. So, you know, there were portions of the film that did have cause and effect in it, but the main characters, this is why people have more compassion for the Caine character than they did for O-Dog."

[Romano338]

I am curious to see that !

[Mike]

http://hiphopupdate.blogspot.com/2008/11/5...ed-by-i-am.html

[E - Style-Greesy - E]

I am curious to see that !

Yeah, me, too!

Sounds cool even tho' I don't like 50!

[mfuqua23]

I saw the video the other day, and again not to long ago on youtube. I know people hate on 50, but the song and video is dope. Yes I said it, "Dope". I really like it. Perhaps 50 should take more notes on great things and people the world has scene.