‘Just reflecting back in the studio,’ he tells Mixtape Daily of the new tape. By Shaheem Reid Lloyd Banks Photo: G-Unit This Week’s Main Pick Street Kings : Lloyd Banks and DJ Whoo Kid Holding It Down For : The G-Unit Mixtape : V5 Real Spit : Two days before we were originally supposed to shoot the Lloyd Banks Mixtape Daily segment, the G-Unit rapper was arrested in Canada on assault charges. While waiting on his trial, Banks has bounced back with the hit single “Beamer, Benz or Bentley” with Juelz Santana. The entire G-Unit is currently on a two-month European tour, but their youngest member left a gift for the streets on the Net. Yes, we got Banks in front of the cameras to perform a record from the mixtape for the first time. Banks started his latest round of mixtape rampaging toward the end of 2008. The onetime Mixtape Artist of the Year at the Justo Awards said he had to get his spot back. “Just reflecting back in the studio,” Banks said of his underground assault. “Just going back. People always say, ‘Go back to your first album,’ I went back further than that. All the success came from [my early mixtapes] Money in the Bank, Money in the Bank Part 2 all the way to Part 4. I was like, ‘You know what? I did that in a matter of two years.’ I said, ‘I’mma do what I did in two years in one.’ I did Return of the P.L.K. ; that came out in September [2008]. I went from that to Halloween Havoc ; it came out in Halloween. Cold Corner came out in December [2008]. Then it was 4-30-82 [last spring]. Then V5 [in December]. “By the time I got to V5, it was a good five or six months between tapes,” he added. “I didn’t plan it like that. I just never stopped recording and touring. By the time V5 came, I felt a little pressure. I told them it was gonna get better every time. I think people embraced it.” Banks’ official album is due later this year. It will come out independently. “I’m aiming towards summer,” Lloyd said of the release. “Mid-summer, late summer. I won’t drop an album until I feel the buzz. You know, as an artist, when you feel it. I’m working independent. Everything they’ve heard the past year has come out my basement, including ‘Beamer, Benz or Bentley.’ When you first come on as a new artist and you hot and you got a buzz, you could sell doo-doo on a stick. The label makes you feel like they did it, when they just called their boy and dropped the record off. “Now it boost my confidence when I know I can make a record in my crib, send it out and receive finances from it,” he added. “Whenever it’s through iTunes or whatever other outlet you have, I’m happy with it. I’m not gonna rush it, though. If it came out after this year, it wouldn’t matter to me, as long as it’s the product people expect.” Joints to Check For
