Recently, G-Unit rapper Lloyd Banks [click to read] opened up to HipHopDX about several subjects, including why it has taken him three years to put out a new album.
“A lot of people don’t know…I went through a lot of stuff that year with my father passing, my mom had heart attacks back-to-back,” said Banks of his time spent since his last album, Rotten Apple [click to read]. “This is while I was actually home. I was supposed to be doing promos and things of that nature. Literally, I was out of the mix for about six months. Then around the time that [50 Cent’s] ‘I Get Money’ came out, I was back in the mix. And a lot of people don’t know, I haven’t been on Interscope since that last album, since about the beginning of 2008. I’ve really just been sitting and waiting. This is 50’s last album requirement, so I got a lot of things coming to the table, and I don’t want to miss the boat. There’s really nothing to rush about, especially when I felt bamboozled. I still felt like everyone was still hating. It’s too late to hate, it’s time to get over that. I just wanted to sit back and analyze for a minute and not rush things. Now, I’m coming back full circle, and I had to put together a game plan.“
Lloyd Banks also spoke on the topic of ousted G-Unit member Young Buck:
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“Buck handled it completely wrong. He went vocal with things in the public that wasn’t ironed out,” explained Banks about the falling out beteen Young Buck and 50 Cent.“It just showed signs of being ungrateful. That’s the way 50 took it. Somebody who’s extended their hand to you so much, and for you to show direct negligence out in the public, and you say, ‘Fuck G-Unit,’ what do you expect to come from that?“
“I never understood why that was so hard for him to understand,” continued Banks. “50’s stated that he’s paid this man’s taxes for the past two years! You owe a man a quarter-million dollars, and you say fuck him on stage, at that point what do you expect to happen? This is what I’m saying: everybody hears the shot, but nobody hears the smack! What happened to the smack in the face of G-Unit?“
The G-Unit lyricist, crowned Mixtape Artist of the Year in 2004, also said that he appreciated Lil Wayne‘s mixtape grind, and that it inspired him to get back into that mode. “I would lie to say it doesn’t. You need something – it’s right there plain in your face. I always felt like that was the formula, like that was the structure I needed to be successful. It’s just like the record label looks at it like you’re over-saturating. They don’t understand the freestyle. They don’t make any money off of the freestyle. Anything that they don’t make money off of, it doesn’t make sense. That’s why I had to get away from it. You can’t tell me this shit doesn’t make sense when this is what got me sittin’ in your office. We’ve done it! We’ve made it possible for Wayne to understand that formula, and he took it and ran with it! It’s time for me to take it and run with it also, and be fully dominant in that market.”
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As for future plans, Lloyd Banks indicated that he will eventually pursue acting, but is first interested in devoting his time to music.
