"Tony Yayo, born Marvin Bernard, gained famed before his first album came out. Much like his counterparts of the G-unit crew, after the Def Jam commercial fame of its most popular member 50 Cent, did Yayo contract to work as a solo artist. Growing up on the streets of Queens influenced the boys of G-Unit, which also included Lloyd Banks and their hardcore rap and subsequent EPs (Automatic Gunfire, Gold's Plan, No Mercy, No Fear, Yayo's sound epitomized that era.Even before G-Unit's debut album for Interscope could appear, riding off the success of 50, both Yoyo and 50 were arrested for weapon possession. That year, late 2002, authorities discovered that Yayo already had an outstanding warrant out for a previous weapons possession charge and was sentenced for bail jumping until 2004. Thus Beg for Mercy, G-Unit's debut had to replace Yayo at its most criminal moment, with Young Buck who stepped in to record the rest of the tracks for the album. And while Yayo was behind bars, 50's successful Get Rich or Die Tryin' and G-Unit were sporting ""Free Yayo"" shirts unknown to the man himself. It wasn't until 50 and Eminem sported the tees during the Grammy Awards that year and Yayo's television in prison was turned to the show that he saw the support he was getting from the rap community. While keeping in contact with G-Unit members, Yayo began working on some rhymes and when he was released in January '04 he set out to record his debut. With G-Unit Records and a few performances on the G-Unit Radio series Yayo was seeing underground success with his ""So Seductive"" single. Summer '05 Yayo appeared with Thoughts of a Predicate Felon. "
