It feels like just yesterday we were all listening to G-Unit. It feels like just last week we were able to pick up a rap zine with them plastered on the cover. And it feels like just a month has passed since they were making fun of your favourite rapper. That’s all probably because it actually did just happen – again. G-Unit are BACK – and I don’t mean like Ma$e back. After a six year hiatus, the unit has set aside their differences and reunited. As we prepare to hear them do justice to really good beats that were given to wack rappers, I only have one question – Will the glory and illustriousness of the iconic spinning G-Unit chain return?

In the early 2000’s rap music was in a slump. It had lost all of its street cred and to cut a long story short, half of the industry was rapping like pure shit. 50 Cent however was hanging on to the concept of real rap music like LeBron’s headband. He was still telling sidewalk tales that felt like you were in Jamaica, Queens – live on the scene. The classic ‘Get Rich or Die Trying’ sealed the game for Curtis and once he and his G-Unit soldiers were fully assembled, they would rule these industry streets. How Thor has his hammer and Zorro has his sword, G-Unit had their symbol of omnipotence hanging around their neck. A platinum and diamond chain with a pendant hanging from it that is not only the syllabus for Stunt:101 but an engineering breakthrough. Like their rims and their hair, the G-Unit chain was always spinnin’. You could recite a 16-bar verse while filming a video on the Audobon and stop to talk to a dime, all while your jewellery’s still moving. It’s like Jacob the Jeweler meets Nicola Tesla.

Read the rest of this article in the Autumn/Winter issue of Viper Magazine. Buy a copy here. Buy physical and digital copies here.

Words by Chris Mendez
Illustration by Oh Dear