The rapper Lloyd Banks almost signed to after 50 Cent: “Business didn’t get done”
Lloyd Banks signed to G-Unit Records in 2003, founded by his childhood friend 50 Cent. The Queens rapper released three albums on the label: 2004’s The Hunger for More, 2006’s Rotten Apple and 2010’s H.F.M. 2 (The Hunger for More 2), but things almost worked out a lot differently on the business side of things.
During an interview, Banks once revealed that he almost signed to Kanye West’s G.O.O.D. Music in the early 2010s when they were collaborating on multiple songs.
“It was a time after ‘Beamer, Benz [or Bentley],’ going into whatever would have happened after that,” he said on the Rap Radar Podcast. “Rest in peace to Chris Lighty, he was kinda like the person that was linking that together. So at one point, it was supposed to be a G-Unit/G.O.O.D. Music type of situation.”
He added, “‘Christian Dior Denim Flow,’ I was on other records too, they never came out or whatever, the business didn’t get done. But yeah, that was probably like 2010/11.”
‘Beamer, Benz or Bentley’ was featured on H.F.M. 2, with Kanye appearing on the song ‘Start It Up’ with Swizz Beatz, Ryan Leslie and Fabolous. They also teamed up on ‘Christian Dior Denim Flow’, which included features from Pusha T, Kid Cudi, John Legend and Ryan Leslie.
Banks crossed paths with Kanye around that time following a post on Twitter (now known as X) about him being underrated as a rapper. “The whole Kanye thing happened, it was shortly after the tweet that he wrote, the comment he made about me being underrated and should be in everybody’s top five,” he said. “We read that statement, and it kind of took off on its own. I definitely appreciated that. Just for him to say that opens up the eyes that have been watching him [to me].”
He continued, “And from there, it made sense to go into the studio with him. Shortly after that, we went into the studio… That was one of the last joints I recorded for my album. Originally it was me and [Fabolous], then I got Kanye, then Swizz [Beatz] was in the city and so was [Ryan Leslie].”
50 joked about Banks signing to G.O.O.D. Music after Kanye praised him. “Damn man Kanye do have power,” he said, referencing Ye’s hit single ‘Power’ from the My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy album. “Bank$ head $o big after la$t night he gone fuck around and $ign to good music.”
In addition to his solo situation with G-Unit Records, Banks was also famously a member of the group G-Unit alongside 50, Tony Yayo, Young Buck, The Game and later Kidd Kidd. He left both the label and group in 2018 following issues with 50.
Although a G.O.O.D. Music deal never worked out, Banks has been thriving in recent years with a number of self-released albums. Through his own label, Money by Any Means, combined with distribution service EMPIRE, he’s dropped albums such as The Course of the Inevitable, The Course of the Inevitable 2 and The Course of the Inevitable III: Pieces of My Pain.