Benz and a Backpack

Harder than ever, the Boy Wonder is coming.

I remember back in the DAY, them blunt rides in Johnny Audi days, toast til we die, rollin up the weed and blowin smoke in the sky days.

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Til the End was that essential track for me when it came to Lloyd Banks. It exemplified his craft as lyricist, writer and street king. Off his debut album “The Hunger for More,” it seemed Banks had big things set up for him in the future.

It was argued, thereafter, that Interscope Records (to which he was signed) and the Unit, particularly 50, pushed Banks towards an agenda that didn’t really give him full freedom as a rapper. Then again it was 2006, and when Rotten Apple came out popcorn hooks and beats were all the rage, especially within the G-unit crew. 50 was trying to sell albums, using beefs with Rick Ross and The Game as publicity. Rotten Apple opened to poor reviews and less-than-expected sales, but there were some tracks that let us know that Banks still has somethin tight.

“different day same shit/ the media and paparazzi love/ envy and betrayal my heart’s cold as hockey gloves… niggas feel different/cause everything is good/ they actin like i changed/ like i went hollywood/ like i dont keep it street/ like i aint got the heat/ like i aint homicide all over the beat/ like i aint for the beef/ like i dont really care/ niggas think i’m changed/ we can do it anywhere.”

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Banks then had a series of mixtapes, but all of his best tracks were buried underneath older tracks, G-unit yells, DJ Whoo Kid screams and hundreds of other mixtapes. The real fans knew he was still fire, but the average hip-hop head wasn’t going to pick up on Banks with what he was putting out.

4.30.09 – Happy Birthday marked Banks reemergence onto the scene. It was a 2 part tape and had the production quality of an album, finally he was getting with the program, using mixtapes to build his fanbase. He still had the rugged quality and raspy voice as we see in the Rick Ross diss track “Officer Down,” but, additionally, the theme of rebirth was all over the tape set in tracks like “Flight School,” “I’ll Be Back,” “Reborn,” and “Life Goes On.” To top it off, he was sounding tighter than ever.

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A series of newer tracks were released with his Nipsey/Jay Rock collabo mixtape, along with some older classics, and on these he was lyrically superior to anything I had heard him do. Perhaps his career will now flourish after leaving Interscope records earlier this year.“I’m a brand-new engine. If anything, it’s their loss. It’s been a dark shadow cast upon that. That’s why you hear [Funk Master] Flex on the radio [boycotting Interscope], because it’s an aura created around that machine, and the artists automatically get smacked in the head.”

It seems now he has the freedom to let it all out on his tracks or just has been perfecting his craft in little studios for the past few months. Either way, these few tracks in particular have me waiting to see what Banks is going to do next.

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His official website hasn’t been updated since 2008, and any news on what he will be doing soon is speculative (unlike 50 where you know every move he makes) but people stay following him, real mother fuckers know real talent, methinks.

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