S. Samuel
G-Unit producer Sha Money XL recently talked about coming up with 50 Cent during their early 2000's grind and revealed how protégé Lloyd Banks' composed records back in the days.
According to Sha Money, the “Punch Line King” molded himself after late rap mogul Tupac Shakur.
“[Lloyd Banks] was always writing. He’s always been ahead of his songs. It used to be exciting ’cause every bar was intense. And then he had his Tupac method where he’d like to stack his vocals like four times. So he used to do like two doubles, three doubles, and four doubles. He used to like to play with his vocals, so that’s what made it feel that flange feel that it was feeling. If you hear him now you’ll hear different ’cause it’s like one lead [vocal] and it’s not a whole bunch of doubles.” (XXL Mag)
The G-Unit affiliate also said he knew early on Banks had a bright future ahead of him.
“And he used to do exactly what Tupac did with his vocals and just seeing that for the first time, recording that for the first time–like I said, I ain’t never engineered a session in my life. My first engineering session was 50 Cent. So just hearing him and Banks and knowing that this is something that’s going to change the future and hearing it first like every time–it’s big. You know, Banks really been about his pen game and every lyric was prolific with him.” (XXL Mag)
Back in 2010, Banks hinted at wanting to get more experimental with his music.
“The music overseas, the party atmospheres — it’s incredible,” Banks explained in an interview. “Don’t get me wrong, I love the club scenes in New York City and the States, [but] when you go overseas, you might hear [the Black Eyed Peas singing] ‘Toniiight’s gonna be a good night.’ You’re hearing that in the club 10 times. So if you didn’t know that joint, I come back over here like, ‘You don’t know that record? You’re buggin’ — that’s poppin!’ That record, Justin Timberlake, Timbaland, Lady Gaga — you’re hearing so many different records, it makes you want to expand as an artist and get records that’s enjoyed by all people. They’re definitely gonna hear those kind of records from me too…A lot of people don’t know I write more than rap music. I can write R&B records. I can write hit records — just put it like that. Hopefully I’ll be writing for a few more people in the future.” (MTV)
Last year, hitmaker Bangladesh crowned the New York rapper SOHH Underrated.
“Lloyd’s got a talent that he can go far with and he’s really a dope rapper. I love all of his music, but I just want to hear him on some other beats sometimes. I want to hear him go outside the box. Lloyd Banks has always been good. I always felt Lloyd Banks was great. Hopefully if he reads this we can get it in and sh*t. I want to get with Banks so we can make some smash hits. I f*ck with Lloyd.” (SOHH Underrated)
Check out a past Lloyd Banks interview below:
