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Template:Infobox musical artist 2 Tony Yayo (born Marvin Bernard on March 31, 1968 in Jamaica, Queens, New York) is an American hip-hop artist who is signed to the G-Unit Records label.

There's a video for his new single Stick Up featring Mazaradi Fox & Snoop from The Wire can be seen on his myspace page.

Biograpghy

First he met 50 Cent in 1998 and with the addition of Lloyd Banks they formed the group G-unit. With the success of the their mixtapes, Yayo quickly made a name for himself in the underground circuit.

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.

Recently Tony Yayo is working on his second and most anticipated album of 2007 called Godfather of the Ghetto.

Yayo has not received critical acclaim for his commercial releases, and his impressive mixtape appearances have not been successfully translated to mainstream success. Yayo himself is coming to terms with this: "This new album, I'm calling it 'I'm 50 Cent's Tax Write-Off.' I really don't care if it sells or generates any money towards Interscope, because Interscope only cares about three people: Eminem, Dr. Dre and 50 Cent. I'm not going to sit here and grow gray hairs over it."

Discography

Albums

Cover	Album information
File:Thoughts of A Predicate Felon.JPG	Thoughts of a Predicate Felon Released: August 30, 2005 Chart Positions: #2 U.S. RIAA Certifcation: Gold Singles: "So Seductive ", "Curious", "I Know You Don't Love Me"
	Godfather of the Ghetto Released: Late 2007 Chart Positions: TBA RIAA Certifcation: TBA Singles: TBA

Singles

References

1. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1739834/
2. http://www.tonyyayo.gunitworld.com.com/
3. http://www.hiphopdx.com/index/news/id.4930/title.tony-yayo-is-calling-out-names
4. http://billboard.com/bbcom/discography/index.jsp?aid=720809&cr=album&or=ASCENDING&sf=length&pid=511240&kw=Thoughts+of+a+Predicate+Felon

External links

• Tony Yayo at MySpace

• Living people
• People from Queens
• American rappers
• G-Unit
• 1978 births
• Haitian Americans
• 1968 births
• People from New York