Lloyd Banks & G-unit update

[Navigator]

While followers of mixtapes definitely know his voice, and his name has been forever immortalized via 50 Cent's prop-giving on the most ubiquitous song of the year, "In Da Club," the masses are just now beginning to know his face.

"I'mma tell you what Banks told me, 'cause go 'head switch the style up/ If n---as hate, then let 'em hate/ Watch the money pile up," 50 rhymes of his friend and G-Unit group member Lloyd Banks.

"We're real close," Banks said of the conversation he had with 50 that sparked the rhyme. "Before he signed to Shady/Aftermath it was to the point where I was like, 'Why is nobody saying nothing about the success of 50 and the G-Unit? Do they see what we're doing?' I was like, '50, never mind the haters, we just gonna do us. Switch the style up, do it your way. We ain't gotta cater to what everybody else is doing, that doesn't mean that what we're doing is not gonna sell records.' "

Obviously Banks' prophecy came true. 50's Get Rich or Die Tryin' is the biggest selling album of the year thus far, moving almost 4 million units, according to SoundScan. However, Banks said the G-Unit were shocked by how many records 50 sold in the first two weeks of release.

"My prediction — I'm not going to lie to you — it was 500,000," the baritone-voiced MC said of what he thought his partner would do his first week out. "Then when it came back 870,000 it was like a stamp, 'OK, they understand.' When it came back again the next week [with another 822,000], ah man, that's when it really set in. When you're working, you don't have time to think about the album sales. You're thinking about the next album. I don't think it set into 50 yet, what's really going on. You hear it, people tell you, but if you stop and enjoy your success before it's time, you're jinxing yourself."

The next album is one of the main focuses of the camp now that 50 officially has started up G-Unit Records through Interscope. There will be an album by the G-Unit group, which consists of 50, Banks and the imprisoned Tony Yayo. There are also plans for solo albums by Southern MC Young Buck, Banks and Yayo when he gets released.

Yayo has been in jail since New Year's Eve due to a weapons charge and prior warrants. He talks about being in prison on the upcoming 50 Cent DVD "The New Breed," which drops this Tuesday.

"I was on the run. BET, MTV, I was doing all that on the run," he said from Rikers Island on the DVD. "I was in the 'Wanksta' video, 'In Da Club' video, I was on the run. Nobody knew. I figured it was gonna catch up. I was gonna turn myself in after 50's album dropped. Basically my day-to-day life [now], I wake up, eat breakfast, eat lunch, just chillin', relaxing, minding my business. I done see kids get cut up and n---as get f---ed up for not minding their business. When I get home, that G-Unit album will be getting worked on immediately."

Yayo's incarceration has thrown a monkey wrench into the plans. Before he got locked up, the idea was to drop 50's record, then come with a G-Unit release. The trio even began recording a bunch of songs. However, since Tony is still a few months from being free, the squad is thinking about putting out Banks' solo LP as the next project.

"As far as my record, I don't have to rush," Banks insisted. "I'm 20 years old, I want to put out a classic my first time around. I don't want to put out 10 albums then get a classic.

"Productionwise it [varies]," Banks said. "I go through every beat CD. I don't knock anybody. I got three records with Eminem just sitting there. We ain't really been in the studio too much lately."

Before things started to pop off for the G-Unit, Banks would not let anything compromise his friendship with Yayo, who grew up across the street from Banks in Queens, and 50, who lived around the corner. When 50 got shot, the G-Unit were the only ones who stood by his side, and not too long after that incident, Banks found himself in need of some support. On September 10, 2001, he was caught in a crossfire of bullets.

"At that time I was doing little mixtapes and I was still running around the 'hood," he recalled. "I was in a club in Queens about five minutes from my house. It was a shootout. After the club, in my neighborhood you hear shots so much you grow a stubbornness. I'm like, 'Somebody is probably shooting in the air.' It might sound stupid, but I gotta feel something for me to turn into Jackie Joyner-Kersee. Just so happens those shots was hitting me. That's the way the ball bounces sometimes.

"I got shot and a bullet went through my liver," he continued. "I was leaking a lot of blood. I ran to the hospital myself, it was 10 blocks [away]. I got hit by a car on my way there. I woke up in the hospital and I'm seeing the Twin Towers fall. I'm thinking I'm watching 'Independence Day' or something. The nurses were running around acting crazy like, 'The buildings fell!' I'm like, 'Oh sh--, get me outta here then.' "

Now 100 percent healthy, the only place Banks is thinking about running to is the studio — that is, if he ever gets a break. He and Young Buck act as 50's hypemen during his current tour.

"I been on the road since October, I have so much material backed up in me," Banks said. "If I go to the studio, I'm gonna knock out five or six records at a time. I miss going to the studio every day, working 'til like three or four in the morning sometimes."

source::MTV::

I'm suprised at how young this guy is....he has a good future ahead of him with the lyrics he's been bustin out latley.

any thoughts from u guys?

[The Watcher]

"I woke up in the hospital and I'm seeing the Twin Towers fall. I'm thinking I'm watching 'Independence Day' or something. The nurses were running around acting crazy like, 'The buildings fell!' I'm like, 'Oh sh--, get me outta here then.' "

that bit had me laughin, can just imagine someone doin that

[Navigator]

yeah if that happend to me i dunno what i'd do

[Jome]

G-G-G-G-G G-Unit!!

I can see Lloyd Banks making a classic.. 50 almost did it, and I think Lloyd got a good chance too.
He's only 20, no need to rush it..

[OpTiCaL]

G-G-G-G-G G-Unit!!

I can see Lloyd Banks making a classic.. 50 almost did it, and I think Lloyd got a good chance too.
He's only 20, no need to rush it..

I agree...i liked most of lloyd Banks album (best of g-unit) he shows a lot of promise and a drive to be one of the best....good luck to him!

[akaDRooPY]

Banks rhymes are way doper than 50's. HANDS DOWN

[Dip Set Movementarian 4 Life]

Banks is only 20!!! OMG...he is going to tear up the game before his reign is over...Hope Yayo gets out soon would like to hear more from him...Can't wait for all the solo's and the group albums...

[KURUPTION-81]

lloyd is really tight i cant wait 4 his album 2 drop

[KURUPTION-81]

lloyd is really tight i cant wait 4 his album 2 drop

[chronic01]

ludacris ft lloyd banks - gangstas
such a dope song lloyd banks and luda both come tite on that track

[Navigator]

yeah the track with luda is nice, ("I rise to the occasion, my grace is amazing, I’ll fuck wit cho mind jus like an algebra equation")<---dope line from luda and his whole flow was coo but damn i tried to pick a line i liked from banks on that track but the whole flow was 'suited n booted'!!!!!!!