You, 50 and Banks have all said that miscommunication caused the break up. Did you, three have these sorts of issues growing up?

Tony Yayo: I look at it like, Banks is fairly younger than me and Fif, so he’s like the younger generation. When me and Fif was running around, Banks was still in high school acting a fool, so we never really had any like miscommunication or never had disagreements because our eras were different. I’ma keep it real, the way 50 is now is how he’s always been. Whenever he would come to the block, it would be like, “aw here comes Boo Boo” [laughs]. He didn’t really get along with too many people and he was always causing trouble — that kind of excited him. He was the bad guy, but he was always the good guy to me, so it was cool. I remember one time 50 was wheely-ing his bike down the boulevard, we was like 10 [years old], and he crashed. You know, when someone crashes the bike on the boulevard you laugh because the shit’s funny. Well 50 walked back over and was like, “don’t nobody laugh at me for I punch all of you in the face.” [laughs]. That’s just how he is man, 50’s a little crazy sometimes, you just gotta deal with it. Brothers are gonna fight, you feel me?

Where were you when 50 gave you the call that the reunion was gonna happen?

Tony Yayo: When I found out that [the Summer Jam reunion] was gonna happen, they asked me if I wanted in, and when I found out 50 had talked to Banks already, I was like “cool, I’m in.” Banks is my brother, you gotta understand. As long as him and Banks were talking, I’m good. That hurt me too, man. Just cause Fif stops talking to Banks, doesn’t mean I’m going to.

What about Buck? Did you guys stay in touch with him when he first got kicked out of the group?

Tony Yayo: Um, not really because it all ended off kinda sour. Everyone was all in their emotions. You know, Buck was going through what he was going through, 50 was going through what he was going through. I contacted Buck later on and he did a record with me [“Devil’s Advocate”] and we just got back to connection. We’re older now, sometimes you say things you don’t really mean out of anger. So I wasn’t really in contact with Buck, but I stayed in touch with Banks mainly the whole time.

Tony Yayo: You know, we all got our own responsibilities. Like Banks, he takes care of his whole family. That’s one thing I respect about him. From being a young emcee, our perspectives were to get our families out the hood. He got his grandmother, his moms, his stepdad and both of his little brothers out the hood. A lot of people don’t understand that, so you know I got a different kind of respect for him. As for me too, I got three kids: my oldest is 16, my daughter’s 11 and my youngest is 6, he’s about to be 7 this month. But you know, it started off with hip-hop — it started off with music — but I always got that respect for Banks. He got his family out the hood, man.