Lloyd Banks has managed to ascend from the ashes of teary-voice mails, minister Farrakhan sit-downs, and the general collapse of G-Unit to make a respectable name for himself once again. A lot of fans counted Banks out after the appropriately titled Rotten Apple, an album chock-full of hot garbage. Back before 50 and his crew became irrelevant minstrel show characters, the group lit the streets on fire with an innovative mixtape-after-mixtape marketing strategy. In recent years Banks has revisited that same approach, releasing a plethora of critically acclaimed tapes like Cold Corner 2 and V6: The Gift. Now Banks is back with another banger, Failure’s No Option. Without the gorilla at his back, Banks has carved out his own creative lane…or corner. The same old “I’ll shoot at ya, call me Kobe” punchlines are diminishing as Banks’ flow is noticeably more versatile and his subject matter more introspective. Recently, Banks announced that Cold Corner 3 is already finished and could be released in a few weeks. Hopefully it’s on point.
