Names and Faces

This Aug. 20, 2014 photo shows American rapper, entrepreneur and actor 50 Cent, center, posing for a portrait with G-Unit members Young Buck, Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo and Kidd Kidd in New York. (Photo by Brian Ach/Invision/AP)
This Aug. 20, 2014 photo shows American rapper, entrepreneur and actor 50 Cent, center, posing for a portrait with G-Unit members Young Buck, Lloyd Banks, Tony Yayo and Kidd Kidd in New York. (Photo by Brian Ach/Invision/AP)

G Unit surprised fans when its members reunited earlier this summer at the year’s biggest hip-hop concert, and they surprised again with the digital release of six new songs Monday. The rap group dropped The Beauty of Independence just after midnight. The 50 Cent-led group disbanded over the years and last released T.O.S: Terminate on Sight, in 2008. 50 Cent said the group, which released its multiplatinum debut Beg for Mercy in 2003, is more mature today, which enhanced the creativity behind the new music. “The artists are more developed than they were in the very beginning,” he said, adding that member Tony Yayo wrote two hooks on the album, a job usually reserved for 50 Cent. G Unit surprised the audience at the Hot 97 Summer Jam concert in June by reuniting onstage. The group — which also includes Lloyd Banks, Young Buck and new member Kidd Kidd — released the album independently on the Caroline label, where 50 Cent released the album Animal Ambition in June. “It’s clear that the passion for what we do is there because you don’t see the same numbers anymore,” 50 Cent said of the record sales. “But it’s even more important that you mean something. For me, when I fell in love with [music], authenticity was everything.”

Beyonce was the reigning queen of Sunday’s MTV Video Music Awards, as the diva closed the awards show with a nearly 20-minute performance. Tears streamed down her face as she was joined onstage by her beaming husband and daughter, amid the rumors surrounding her marriage. Beyonce sang and danced in a metallic leotard while Blue Ivy and Jay Z watched from their seats as the diva declared: “MTV, welcome to my world.” As Beyonce accepted the Michael Jackson Video Vanguard award, the awards’ version of a lifetime achievement award, at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., she kissed her daughter and Jay Z, who called her the “greatest living entertainer.” The duo won best collaboration for the hit “Drunk In Love.” “I have nothing to say, but I am filled with so much gratitude,” she told the cheering crowd as they chanted her name. Her performance easily outdid her competition throughout the night, though Beyonce lost video of the year to Miley Cyrus, who let a homeless man accept her award as part of her charity efforts for a Hollywood homeless shelter. It was in sharp contrast to the 2013 awards, when Cyrus twerked and danced shockingly onstage.

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