Young Buck No Longer In G-Unit

50 Cent announced Monday that estranged G-Unit member Young Buck is no longer a part of the four-man crew but would still be signed to the company as a solo artist.

"You can take this as official notice," Fif told New York radio station Hot 97's morning-show hosts, DJ Envy, Miss Jones and Michael Shawn. Then he broke the news.

"You can look at that and see that's Game all the way," he said, comparing Buck's actions in recent months — which included speaking out about friction within the ranks — to those of another former G-Unit member. "I was giving him the benefit of the doubt then." Game began freewheeling with his comments and relationships with other rappers much to the dismay of Fif, and the Compton rapper was famously booted from G-Unit in 2005.

Just last week, however, Fif told MTV News things were better between him and Buck.

He mentioned the Tennessee rapper's penchant for making off-the-cuff remarks publicly and then retracting them in private. Fif said the tension was being blown out of proportion, but he also made comparisons between Buck and Game during that interview. He said he thought the Southern lyricist spoke out in order to validate himself.

"I think you have to give them something to blow it out of proportion," 50 said. "Buck did that. I think that what he was saying, in order to validate himself as a man, he feels he has to go against what I'm doing, similar to some of the things we've seen from Game. ... [But then] he'll back off of it, when we're in direct conversation. When he's out in public, he'll say something. They're like my younger brothers, but they'll do sh-- for attention. They'll do things, then when I look like, 'What are you doing?' They'll be like, 'Oh, nah, because you was doing this. ... Because you didn't call me when you were on the international tour.' I'm like, 'Are you kidding me? You didn't call neither, so what does that mean?' "

Buck's role in the crew had notably diminished as of late. The rapper had appeared with less frequency on G-Unit mixtapes and wasn't even pictured on the cover of some projects. Two weeks ago, when 50 played new G-Unit tracks for MTV News at his Connecticut mansion, Buck was the only member of the crew missing.

In a recent interview for the May issue of XXL, Buck talked about his candor and presence in G-Unit. He said that at times he feels the need to get things off his chest, but that he's never disloyal to 50. Buck insisted that the crew has an understanding. He claimed he initially tried to address his concerns with 50 directly, but when he couldn't get a hold of the G-unit leader he began speaking out, knowing that Fif would eventually contact him.

"It's an understanding that we have as a crew," he told the magazine. "Not just with 50, but as a family. Everybody has had they situations, but everybody handles that sh-- a little different. 'Cause we all individual men. For me, it's just about gettin' sh-- off my chest and airing the sh-- out. But as far as being disloyal to my n---as, it's far from that.

"I pretty much knew that, after me being verbal with the press and lettin' them know I felt like communication is slackin' between me and my n---a, that somehow 50 was gonna reach out," Buck added. "And he reached out to my manger. [He] was like, 'Yo, I got 50 on the phone. Y'all need to talk.' "

Young Buck was unavailable at press time when MTV News contacted his camp for a comment.

50 added in the Hot 97 interview that G-Unit would be filming videos shortly for "I Like the Way She Do It" and "Rider Pt. 2." It remains unclear whether Buck will be included in the clips.

This report is from MTV News.