Photo: Anthony Geathers
There are levels to Lloyd Banks, and he wants to give fans an up close and personal account of each one.
After spending a decade out of the limelight, Banks has had a battery in his back since he formally returned to rap game in 2021 with The Course of the Inevitable. Now that he's spent the past two years feeding his followers new music, the G-Unit rapper is consistently working records again like its the 2000s again. That's when he had numerous top-charting hits like "On Fire" and "Beamer, Benz & Bentley."
"It's a blessing to be busy, especially 20-21 years, maybe even more into my actual career," Banks told iHeartRadio.
"There's different variations of Lloyd Banks," he continued. "You got the mainstream Lloyd Banks that people come up and be like, 'yo, when your record coming out?' I might have a whole project out, but they used to hearing me on the radio or having that type of record. To some fans, if it doesn't sound like 'On Fire' or 'Beamer, Benz or Bentley,' it don't resonate with them."
On Friday, April 21, the Queens, N.Y. native comes through with the third installment of The Course of the Inevitable 3: Pieces Of My Pain, which is already resonating with loyal fans. His sixth studio album comes with 16 new tracks including previously released singles like "Movie Scenes" and "101 Razors" featuring Method Man. Banks also has fresh collaborations with Tony Yayo, 38 Spesh, Cormega, Vado and Dave East. A few days before it hit streaming services, the 40-year-old artist reflected on what this project means to him during a Zoom call.
"Let's be real," Banks said. "This album was really about me showing and proving again and kicking ass... As crazy as it sounds, it's 20 years in, you gotta remind people sometimes. Now that I feel like I reached my goal, I could get back to all the different levels of Lloyd Banks."
During our discussion, Lloyd Banks speaks on the making of COTI 3, how he got guests like Method Man, 38 Spesh and Cormega on the LP, and what's next for him. Check out the entire conversation, and listen to The Course of the Inevitable 3: Pieces of My Pain on iHeartRadio now!
We're coming up on the third installment of The Course of the Inevitable trilogy. What inspired the title of this chapter Pieces Of My Pain?
LB: When I was going into the Course of the Inevitable, I knew in my mind that the title was so powerful. Like it felt like a book title. So I kind of knew that it was gonna have, you know, part one, part two, maybe even a part three. Pieces Of My Pain was a title that I was working on something completely different but once I noticed that I was kind of matching the content on this one. It was a few records that were a little more personal for me. Once I saw it going in that direction, I figured why not add that to this title and put a little extra, you know, into this since its the big bang, the cap of the trilogy. So I'm like, let me get a little more vulnerable, a little more personal with this joint. You got records like "Voices" and "Daddy's Little Girl," "Open Gates," "Deceitful Intentions." I think it rounded out good. Plus, I'm in a place in my life now with children, two kids and stuff. With my content, if I don't touch on these things, I feel like I'm going backwards. So Pieces Of My Pain is like a double entendre because on one angle of it it's like what you may hear are pieces of my pain, like the things you go through, but it's also the pieces of my pain, meaning like, what I'm putting in that pain. So, right from one to 16, these are the pieces of my pain.
Damn, that's deep, man. What would you say what was this process of making this album versus the other two?
Sometimes it's location that could play a big part. The first one was recorded in Queens, you know, as I was back and forth with Queens and Long Island. The second one was like Long Island and Manhattan, and then the third one was all in Manhattan, you know? Recording in the city, it does give you a different vibe which was just the cars going by, seeing the people and the constant movement. It made sense for me to do that because if you look at the Course of the Inevitable, everybody's course is different, but we all like aligned, like, you know what I mean? It's almost like the movie Crash. Remember that movie Crash?
Yeah, of course.
It was like you passed by this person, that person, that person. But y'all all share the same walks of life, you know what I'm saying? So to have that constant movement is like another analogy to where it's like, regardless of what you put forth and what you get out of this, life goes on. So you could sit still, you could take a break. Everybody else is still moving. It's a lot of different meanings and little nuances to the where I got the title from. But in a nutshell, just basically saying push through the tape and stay the course. The difference with this project was, even with the album art, like you see my son on this one, he significantly bigger than he was on the first cover. You just saw like a little bit of his face. He was two at the time. Now he's four. So that kind of shows where I was at from then to now. I got a couple little secrets up my sleeve as well that you'll see in future videos and things like that kind of explain why I touch on these topics.
Dope. That's great to hear, bro. You've previously said that this album series made you reflect on your work from the past in order to move forward with your career. How have you grown as an artist since you started your journey?
In so many different ways. First of all, I came in the game at 19 years old. I had some experience with like mixtapes and just being a part of G Unit I kind of learned song structure faster than the average artists coming up. So we 20 years in now with studio albums, mixtapes that were like albums. So everything was set up to be in song format, not everything, but I would say 90%. It's very rare that you hear me on a record where I'm just kind of going with no intro, outro, brakes, bridges, choruses. So I have all of that now.. Working with different suspects as far as production matters too. Because if I'm dealing with the same production, it kind of puts me in one vein. I get new production, they might be more more melodic. Another producer's sound might be more like dramatic or intense. So sometimes that determines of what my direction is going to be as well. That's why I'm always siphoning through beats to this day. Back then it was like going through like a hundred CDs at a time playing them beats. 18 beats on a CD. You might like none of them. You gotta go through 50 of them before you actually find one you like. Still do that now. It's just through email.
It's a lot easier, right?
They're a lot easier. But at the same time, it's a lot more production now. People wouldn't even believe, but a lot of the production I get comes from social media. I post my email on Twitter and by that night, I got like 1400 speech submissions and it's the same thing. They send in 18-20 beats at a time. I'm going through them and breaking them down. So I just think repetition and me constantly working, or even if I'm not releasing music, I'm still working. The more you put into your pen, the more it gives you back. At this point, I'm not like running outta ideas. I'm finding new and in intricate ways to explain. And at the end of the day, I'm a grown man now with children, my life changed, lost a lot of people, gang people so, I got different things to rap about, and I'm not in a place where I'm intimidated to do that. I look at my fans. They're coming to the concerts. They gotta go to work tomorrow. They got some of the same responsibilities I have as a person. So I'm constantly trying to find ways to be more relatable opposed to getting the ooh's and ah's from the punchline style that I used coming in 2001 and 2002.
True. I feel like you're taking the Nas route when it comes to the quality of your bars. Speaking of production, I noticed Cartune Beatz produced a majority of this album and your past two LP's as well. In a way, I feel like he's been your Hit-Boy lately. His sound brings something different out of you. What are your studio sessions like?
Yeah. You know, it's crazy. I never even been in the studio with him. It started off through email. Then sometimes it just be like, 'Yo, just send it to the phone.' But like I said, that just comes from constantly looking for new production. Looking for the new blood. But yeah, he's different. He's special man. He dedicated a lot of time into what we doing. He understands how powerful the music is and what we could actually do together. I think the first project he might have had a lot. I know one of them he had six joints and this is six or seven again. We have conversations often about got the direction of not only this project right here, but just a lot of different things in general. And you right. We get tapped in. That's like my Hit-Boy. All I gotta do is tell him what my direction is and he going to send me about 30, literally about 30 to 40 beats in a two week span. So that's why the projects are coming along so good because I would have to go through a thousand beats to find those six that he gave me. But it's always kind of been that way with Germ, Doe Pesci, Beat Butcher, V Don, a lot of these producers are on this project as well, but the second half of my career, like from 2008-2009 to like now, it's been like a new pack of in-house producers that provide what I need, that sound. I need 'em on a consistent basis. So shout out to all of them for playing the part through Halloween Havoc's and Cold Corner, Cold Corner 2, the AON Series with Drama. Right. There's so many producers out there. I know I'm forgetting somebody.
You listed a lot of 'em for sure. Majority of them appear on the track list you just dropped. The project is lead by your recent single with Method Man, "101 Razors." How did that record come together and how did you get Meth to jump on the track?
See, that's a ill story for like a few different reasons. I've been wanting to work with Meth. I put a little question on Twitter, you know, I basically asked who would they want to hear me with? I'm not even sure if I announced part three yet. I probably just made a general question, like, 'Who should work with? And no lie, I probably got about anywhere from 11 to 1200 responses and 80% of 'em said Method Man. So he was already on my radar anyway cuz he was killing s**t. Killing every time I heard him or saw him, you know, it was diverse, was like, you know, incredible. Especially to be at this stage of his career. So I reached out to him and I sent him a picture that I posted later on my Instagram. I was probably like somewhere 12 or 13 or something like that. I used to write in school. I'm supposed to be doing my schoolwork but I used to be writing my raps in composition books. It'd probably be like a quarter of the book would be dedicated to me drawing these artists. Like, the page behind (Method Man) was Redman. If you look through the picture, you could see it behind it.
That was everything for me at that time. XXL magazines, Source magazines, Vibe. I would just flip through those magazines and draw artists. I would draw sneakers. I would draw Allen Iverson and Shawn Kemp and Chris Webber. Like all of those things that just kind of played a part of the culture. So it was a no-brainer. It was like, yo, I remember opening up this album and what type of zone that brought me into. So I reached out and he knocked the record out. He came through, shot the video, and it was a dope experience for me. It was like surreal. To be 12, 13 and looking up to somebody like that and then being able to create a record, not just to do the record, but actually a dope record. On top of that, he's super cool. He's what you would expect or hoped to expect to experience when you meet somebody you actually grew up listening to. Doesn't always go that way. It
You're right, sometimes it doesn't but glad you had a dope experience with him. You also you al you've also got a collaboration with Tony and 38 Spesh on "Red Alert." What was the inspiration behind that record and how did you get put on to 38 Spesh?
I got put on to 38 Spesh probably through Twitter 'cause I ask questions often to my fans and stuff and kind of see what everybody's listening to. I was working with Roc Marci and he was working with Conway and Benny the Butcher. So once you do a record with somebody from upstate, the audience from up top, they going to start reaching out and saying, 'yo, he's dope. he's dope.' I wanna go over here or go to Rochester or go different places. So that's when more names started popping up. And I eventually got into [38's] catalog and I was like 'damn, he's dope.' It's vintage, but it's new. So working with him is dope. We got a few records together. Some that didn't come out yet. But [Tony] Yayo came to the studio and ["Red Alert"] was the joint that he liked the most. I was like, 'yo put your verse down.' He put his verse down. I sent it over to 38. He knocked it out. And it is what we have now.
I'm sure that's definitely gonna be a stand out collaboration between vets and the new generation.
Yeah, a lot of people was asking for that too. Like when I asked who should I collaborate with. A lot of people said 38 Spesh. You know what I'm saying?
He's got a bright future ahead for sure. You've also got a fresh joint with Cormega. How do you feel getting him on the record?
First of all, everything that came out of that timeframe from "Dead Man Walking" on, I was hooked. Like Queensbridge in general, there's so many different pieces that came out of there. So I was a fan for a long time, man. We actually worked before though years ago and then I did a record for him on The Realness 2, which was crazy. And ever since then, we just kind of been back in communication and just throwing records out. We got records done other than this record on my album too, so they can look forward to hearing, a couple more joints.
Can't wait to her them man. So going forward I know you're set on adding new chapters to your previous work. I'm just curious, what would Rotten Apple 2 sound like in this era?
That's a good question because people have asked that as well of me. I think with this industry and just life in general, its usually trial and error. Experience is the best teacher. So I went through a lot at that time of that release. With the record labels and the way things were working, a lot of things were changing. I think I got caught up in the number game from not having the numbers that you were expecting and didn't appreciate the album. Of course, I did while making it, but the perception wise, it was tough. Cause it's hard to live up to that first album. As time went on, I would put up like an anniversary of Hunger For More. This makes 19 year anniversary. And then once I started hitting like 10 year, 12 year, 15 year anniversary for Rotten Apple, I started seeing the comments were like equal to Hunger For More. It be 6,000 comments of people saying how much they like that album and records like "Survival" and "Get Clapped", Rest in peace Prodigy. There was a lot of jewels on there. The "Cake" record, the "Health" record. So when you look back at it, Rotten Apple might have not been received the way I expected it to at the time. But now, all these years later, everybody like, 'yo, I like this.' Some people even say they're like the second album more than the first one or something.
That's incredible! You've got so much in your discography and the fans love to see you continue to build on it. So if COTI 3 marks the end of this trilogy, what does the future look like for you after this project?
That's the thing, right? That's what makes this this title so special to me because the course never ends. So right now I'm capping off as part three, but the title is so... like Hunger For More. Hunger For More is a title that's so broad. It's like, as long as you living, you should want more. So I don't know if I could give a number and say this is the end of it. But who knows? I do know that I want to go off into the different chapters because like I said, I got so many different pieces in my discography and I kind of want to get back to having fun. It was fun putting these together, but it is also little draining. When these records are coming from real places, it brings you to that place. It's been records where I write a verse or half of verse and then I gotta take a break. Because it gets overwhelming at times and you gotta put it down and come back to it later. Writing records like "Daddy's Little Girl," it was easy, but it was hard at the same time. Records like "Voices" it, that was hard to tap into those pockets because, you know it brings me back into the mindset. I look forward to doing other things that I could have fun through the whole process.