G-Unit Beg For Mercy Turns 20 Years Old

G-Unit originally consisted of 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, and Tony Yayo. They released a few mixtapes before Eminem signed 50 Cent to a contract. In February of 2003, 50 Cent dropped his debut studio album Get Rich or Die Tryin. Get Rich or Die Tryin changed the landscape on hip hop, and it went on to sell over 10 million records. With the success of the album, they were still releasing mixtapes. Later in the year, 50 released their debut studio album for G-Unit called Beg for Mercy. The album sold over 377,000 copies in its first week and it debuted at No. 3. The Tupac Resurrection soundtrack and Jay-Z’s The Black Album outsold Beg for Mercy. The G-Unit brand was moving strong as the project sold over 2 million records in the United States. The worldwide sales are a little below 10 million copies sold.

Stunt 101 was the first single released off the Beg for Mercy album. The song sums up everything about the song and that’s stunting. The track reached the top 5 on Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs. Poppin Them Thangs was the next single and this is another good track from the album. Like their first single, Tony Yayo couldn’t appear on it due to being incarcerated. Wanna Get to Know You was the third single from the Beg for Mercy album. The single featured Joe and it was released in January of 2004. Wanna Get to Know You reached number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100. The fourth and final single was Smile and it was released in the spring of 2004. Smile was like a Lloyd Banks single with 50 Cent singing the hook. This was preparation for the upcoming debut album Hunger for More by Lloyd Banks.

The Beg for Mercy album was highly anticipated and one that gets overlooked over the years. Would have loved to know the direction of the album if the Game didn’t get kicked out of the group. Either way, being a huge fan of G-Unit, this was a good album to me and one that was purchased a couple times. Below are my top 5 tracks from the album along with the track listing and stream link.

Top 5 Tracks: Eye for Eye, Beg for Mercy, G’d Up, Gangsta Shit, and Smile

Beg for Mercy Track Listing

1. G-Unit
2. Poppin Them Thangs
3. My Buddy
4. I’m So Hood
5. Stunt 101
6. Wanna Get to Know You ft. Joe
7. Groupie Love ft. Butch Cassidy
8. Betta Ask Somebody
9. Footprints
10. Eye for Eye
11. Smile
12. Baby U Got
13. Salute U
14. Beg for Mercy
15. G’d Up
16. Lay You Down
17. Gangsta Shit
18. I Smell Pussy
19. Collapse (G-Unit Freestyle)