AllHipHop: Ya’ll
have a strong force around ya’ll, can ya’ll enjoy life in that state?
Lloyd Banks: It’s
crazy because my success came kind of faster than an average artist. I can’t
go no where in New York right now. Like when 50 walks through the mall they
won’t care if he’s with his baby mother, grandmother, whoever they are still
going to run up on him. They not thinking about if they’re disrespecting him
all they see is 50 Cent. I’m to the point where I can go certain places but
even now it kind of grew, like I don’t have a record out, I don’t have an album
out, so therefore what I was killing the streets with were the mixtapes and
I was still getting that type of popularity off the mixtapes. So I’m feeling
like, sometimes you over grow other peoples expectations before your own because
I’m feeling like I’m not a star until I sell records, they’re feeling like you’re
a star already so while you still feel like you can go to Jamaica Avenue or
you can go to the mall, you already grew out through the expectations. It’s
kind of like a hard new process, you have to know when to be certain places
and when not to be certain there.
AllHipHop: Were
you there when 50 was in Philly for this Iverson stuff?
Lloyd Banks: Yeah
it was hard, they had locked the whole street down. In Philly the Reebok store
wasn’t the biggest store. So it was crammed up there, 50 he jumped on cars and
everything.
AllHipHop: Is it
true you are originally from Baltimore?
Lloyd Banks: I
was born in Baltimore. I was born on the run, I grew up in Queens. The only
reason why I was born in Baltimore was because my pops was on the run at the
time. He took my moms with him to Baltimore, I stayed there for about a year
or two then came back to Queens.
AllHipHop: Ya’ll
shut down the mixtape game and the problem now is that everybody is trying to
do the same thing that ya’ll did and everyone can’t do that. I’m kind of tired
of seeing that every artist has to have a full fledged mixtape
Lloyd Banks: Especially
artists who already have an album out. I’m doing that now for a reference for
what is going to come on my album every now and then. I’ll give them a hook.
When my album comes out there will be no more Lloyd Banks: mixtapes, I’ll still
be hitting mixtapes, I’m not going to put out just me because if you are hustling
back, you can’t be a platinum artist and then go and put out a mixtape. You
have to hit individually, give a few freestyles to this DJ, give a few freestyles
to that DJ because they own the market. I better get that award this year too
or we fighting.
AllHipHop: What
award?
Lloyd Banks: Best
New Artist on a Mixtape.
AllHipHop: Oh for
the Mixtape Awards, are ya’ll going to be there?
Lloyd Banks: Oh
I’m going to be there if I win, I might be there if I lose too, but I’m not
feeling that one. I mean who else. I gotta get that. It’s funny because I stretch
that point because I take more pride in that s### right now than any other award
just because that’s what built me. There’s a lot of people who know me only
from mixtapes. That’s more important to me than any Grammy or anything at this
point. Until I start selling albums, then I’ll want a Grammy. For now I want
the Mixtape Award.
AllHipHop: Do you
get sick of artists sweating you?
Lloyd Banks: It’s
cool as long as you know what relationships are what, at the end of the day
it’s all good. I got two records with Joe, a record with Eve, a record with
Missy, Mya, with Alicia Keys, I got a record with the kid Novel, got the Rah
Digga record. It’s so many features that I have, I got two Brandy records one
that’s going to be on the Barbershop 2 Soundrack that’s with me, Fabolous, and
Brandy it got to be a freestyle that turned into a record, and I got another
record for her album that’s coming out. So my features go on and on.
AllHipHop: You
could eat off that alone really
Lloyd Banks: Yeah
that alone, not to mention I’m Ghost writing too. Oh for who, (catches his-self)
I guess you can’t
Lloyd Banks: Ah,
a good Ghost writer never tells. I’m just saying I’m a Hustler baby I’m not
going to tell you.
AllHipHop: What’s
it like working with Eminem?
Lloyd Banks: Yeah
he’s the man, we click tight because he’s a lyricist. We click real tight. I
respect his opinion to the up most, he really listens. That kind of shocked
me because he was doing my verses and I was like damn, this is Eminem this dude
done sold a lot of records. From the first mixtape he knows the verses from
them. He’s a work-a-holic. Like we be staying in the studio forever.
AllHipHop: What’s
the future for you, where are you trying to end up?
Lloyd Banks: With
me I’m real business minded man. I don’t want to rap forever. 50 sold more albums
than n##### do in their whole career. Like LL Cool J been in the game for what
ten years, but this is his tenth album. Either or, it just takes that many records
to sell that many records. If I can have the success that I think I’m going
to have, I don’t want to rap forever. I want to learn the boards, I want to
learn how to produce, I want to have my own artists, I don’t want to rap forever.
I’m not going to be 30 years rapping. That’s not going to happen because I got
into the game so early, 10 years from now there’s going to be another Lloyd
Banks.
AllHipHop: Who
is your dream collaboration with, artist wise?
Lloyd Banks: It
will probably be Snoop.
AllHipHop: But
you already collaborated with him though.
Lloyd Banks: Yeah
I did, but I’m going to get him on my album, you know just a record with me
and him. When Snoop first came out I was still in school. We have similar ways,
like he doesn’t have to be the loudest person to be the most effective person.
He’s calm, you know he has the smooth aura about him that just shows people
don’t have to be hyper jumping around all the time. My style is kind of similar
off the record, on the track I’m a beast. Stevie Wonder too man, I want to do
something with Stevie.
AllHipHop: You
aren’t that hungry
Lloyd Banks: Oh
I’m starving. What I’m saying is you can finish your food in 60 seconds or you
can eat slow because the girls are around and finish in a half hour. I’m hungry,
but I’m hungry for bigger things too, when I go, I don’t want to be the rapper,
I want to be the entrepreneur. He [50] is an entrepreneur, he got his sneaker
coming out September 11, a Saturday morning cartoon "Beaver Street Gang."
It’s basically about a bunch a kids on an orphanage hanging out outside. It’s
like the new age Cosby’s, we’ll be doing voices, we also have a video game coming
out that’ll be coming out around next Christmas.