Tony Yayo

Tony Yayo原本是和50 Cent出生入死的好兄弟，最早，當(dāng)這群街頭黑人青年準(zhǔn)備成立說(shuō)唱樂(lè)團(tuán)G-Unit的時(shí)候，沒(méi)有人能想到他們可以成為世界上最著名的說(shuō)唱團(tuán)體之一。早年，Tony Yayo和50 Cent等其它G-Unit樂(lè)團(tuán)成員一起共同創(chuàng)業(yè)，一起錄制一些說(shuō)唱磁帶。當(dāng)50 Cent遭遇了一個(gè)個(gè)磨難之后，并且最終步入成名正軌之時(shí)，Tony Yayo卻不能和50 Cent以及Loyd Banks等G-Unit樂(lè)團(tuán)人馬一起飛黃騰達(dá)。
2002年新年前夜，Tony Yayo被警察突然搜查，經(jīng)過(guò)盤查之后，Tony Yayo因?yàn)榉欠〝y帶武器而被逮捕，在2003年年初，Tony Yayo取得保釋的努力宣告失敗，他在監(jiān)獄必須呆到2004年初才能獲得自由。在此期間，正是50 Cent和G-Unit樂(lè)團(tuán)取得爆破性巨大成功的時(shí)期，而Tony Yayo在監(jiān)獄中孤獨(dú)的度過(guò)，Young Buck替代了Tony Yayo在樂(lè)團(tuán)中的位置。在G-Unit樂(lè)團(tuán)中，Tony Yayo并沒(méi)有被遺忘，他們?cè)谧约旱囊魳?lè)錄影帶中，身穿釋放Tony Yayo標(biāo)語(yǔ)的體恤衫，但是在監(jiān)獄中經(jīng)受磨難的Tony Yayo已經(jīng)喪失了對(duì)音樂(lè)的興趣，他每天只看體育節(jié)目而不是音樂(lè)節(jié)目，也不知道50 Cent和G-Unit樂(lè)團(tuán)已經(jīng)取得的成就，和那些體恤衫。直到后來(lái)，Tony Yayo才知道原來(lái)50 Cent和G-Unit樂(lè)團(tuán)已經(jīng)成為了說(shuō)唱音樂(lè)的超級(jí)明星，而且由于Eminem在頒獎(jiǎng)典禮中也身穿釋放Tony Yayo標(biāo)語(yǔ)的體恤衫，這讓Tony Yayo重新燃起了音樂(lè)的靈感，2004年1月8日，Tony Yayo重獲自由，但馬上又受到了檢察官的“偽造護(hù)照”指控而又蹲了回去。又過(guò)了幾個(gè)星期，Tony Yayo才終于重見(jiàn)天日。
Tony Yayo獲得自由之后，G-Unit樂(lè)團(tuán)的其它成員，Lloyd Banks以及取代他的Young Buck全都開始了個(gè)人專輯制作計(jì)劃，Tony Yayo也馬不停蹄的開始了自己作品的錄制，并且馬上放出了兩支單曲《So Seductive》和《Drama Setter》，并且在2005年夏天成為頗受歡迎的說(shuō)唱單曲之一。2005年8月30日，在其它的G-Unit樂(lè)團(tuán)同僚，50 Cent，Lloyd Banks，Young Buck，The Game等人都已發(fā)片之后，Tony Yayo的首張個(gè)人專輯《Thoughts of a Predicate Felon》正式發(fā)行。（CatCobain）
監(jiān)獄里總會(huì)有很多的黑人青年，他們被捕的罪名各式各樣，販毒，殺人，搶劫，強(qiáng)奸，盜竊等等，Tony Yayo的罪名僅僅是非法攜帶武器，這在槍支泛濫的美國(guó)，幾乎是一個(gè)等同于我國(guó)沒(méi)帶身份證一樣的小事件。如果Tony Yayo不是G-Unit樂(lè)團(tuán)的成員，如果不是Eminem和50 Cent等人輪番的身穿“FREE YAYO”體恤衫亮相各種頒獎(jiǎng)禮演出的話，恐怕沒(méi)有人會(huì)關(guān)注Tony Yayo這個(gè)平凡的黑人青年。但是他G-Unit樂(lè)團(tuán)前成員的身份被拿來(lái)大肆渲染之后，Tony Yayo成了明星，這張他的首張專輯也成為了唱片市場(chǎng)的搶手貨，發(fā)行首周就達(dá)到了21萬(wàn)4千張，僅次于風(fēng)光無(wú)限的Kanye West位居排行榜亞軍。
Tony Yayo的這張專輯作為G-Unit成員的最新一張專輯，其商業(yè)上能夠取得成功是理所當(dāng)然的，在專輯中的音樂(lè)也保持了G-Unit樂(lè)團(tuán)其他成員類似的特點(diǎn)。帶有自傳傾向的歌詞，街頭特色的內(nèi)容必不可缺，《Live By The Gun》可以理解為那段監(jiān)獄生涯的注釋。色情，毒品，槍支，暴力，這些老套的內(nèi)容構(gòu)成了Tony Yayo的首張專輯，《Homicide》一首歌名就叫做殺手的歌曲，盡管內(nèi)容上有所延伸，那也早已經(jīng)不算什么了。稍微有點(diǎn)驚喜的是Tony Yayo表現(xiàn)了一下自己的愛(ài)情觀，盡管這些粗野的內(nèi)容仍然俗套，但也算有點(diǎn)自己個(gè)性吧。當(dāng)然有了Eminem，50 Cent以及其他G-Unit成員的大力協(xié)助，專輯的錄制自然不會(huì)差，但是這種音樂(lè)我們已經(jīng)至少?gòu)腉-Unit這里領(lǐng)教了太多，特別是在今年早已經(jīng)受夠了The Game，50 Cent等人的飽和攻擊之后，這張專輯自然也就顯得可有可無(wú)，更何況他的說(shuō)唱，節(jié)奏和內(nèi)容都沒(méi)有什么出彩之處，甚至略顯平庸。
by David Jeffries
A street legend before the recording of his debut even started, rapper Tony Yayo is a lifelong friend of 50 Cent and a member of his G-Unit crew. Yayo had been with 50 during his career-building years in the world of mixtapes. Along with 50 Cent, Yayo was arrested on New Year's Eve 2002 on weapons-possession charges. During a background check, police discovered Yayo had an outstanding warrant for a previous weapons-possession charge. Early 2003, he was sentenced for bail-jumping and would remain in jail until the beginning of 2004. During this time, 50 Cent and his G-Unit crew were blowing up. Videos featured the group wearing "Free Yayo" shirts, but Yayo himself was unaware of all the attention he was getting. The prison inmates Yayo shared a television with preferred watching sports to music videos, but when Eminem and 50 where scheduled to make an appearance during the Grammy Awards, he convinced everyone to change the channel. It was the first time he saw a "Free Yayo" shirt -- this time worn by Eminem. Inspired by the shirt, he started working extra hard on his rhymes while keeping in touch with the G-Unit crew let him know he was going to get his chance once he was a free man. Come January 8, 2004, Yayo was back on the streets, but presenting a forged passport to his parole officer a day later put him back in prison for a few weeks. Out again, Yayo was finally able to start work on his debut. Some mixtape appearances on the G-Unit Radio series announced his comeback at the street level while the "So Seductive" single let the rest of the world know in the summer of 2005. In August and while the single was dominating urban radio, MTV, and BET, Yayo dropped his debut, Thoughts of a Predicate Felon.