G-Unit rapper chews up Big Apple in new CD

By Joe Haubrich

Lloyd Banks is back with a sophomore album that should certainly make more listeners throw their “hands up” than sour up over “rotten” music.

The self-proclaimed “Lyrical King of New York” delivers a solid record, but it doesn’t even come close to matching the genius we heard from Banks’ lips on his debut album The Hunger for More.

When 50 Cent gave his G-Unit clique national attention on the album Beg for Mercy, it was Banks who shined brightest. Many rap fans were thirsty to hear more from the deep-voiced “boy wonder.”

Once Hunger dropped, many discussion boards started polls questioning whether the young emcee was even better than 50 Cent, the rapper who went from zero to hero almost overnight and chewed up a lot of well-established veterans along the way.
After much anticipation, Banks’ new album Rotten Apple came out on Oct. 10. Though he has been busy in the studio, Banks waited in the background while label-mates 50 Cent and Tony Yayo released albums. He even waited for two releases from Young Buck who, though big in the South, has not created the same excitement in the New York market as the other members of G-Unit.

It’s a little puzzling why Banks chose to name his album Rotten Apple in reference to how he sees his home city, New York. Two tracks on the album, the title track, “Rotten Apple” and “NY NY” discuss the violence and grittiness of the streets. New York-born rappers, especially the G-Unit stable, took great offense to comments made by Field Mob, a southern group, about the state of New York rap. Since then, other New Yorkers have been trying to represent the city in a positive way.

One thing Banks understands more than how to celebrate his home city is how to market a new album and how important a second album is to an artist. A lot of artists strike it big on their debut, but lose a lot of that magic, and that was one thing Banks tried his best to avoid.

As if putting that G-Unit logo on the back of an album cover isn’t enough to sell a million copies, Banks stretched himself to promote Rotten Apple. He created a MySpace account to sample some of his new music. Banks also made appearances on late night shows, including Jimmy Kimmel Live. Thinking outside the box, Banks also appeared on Miami Ink and Unique Whips during the week his album was released. He got an enormous back tattoo of the city skyline on Ink and had a Chevy Tahoe customized on Unique Whips.

As far as the tracks on the record go, lyrics are once again Banks’ strongpoint, especially over beats. “Hands Up” was the best pick for his first single. This song is reminiscent of Banks’ first Hunger single “On Fire.”

Other great tracks include “The Cake,” “You Know the Deal,” which features legend Rakim, “Addicted,” “Rotten Apple,” featuring 50 Cent and Prodigy of Mobb Deep, and “Help” featuring Keri Hilson. “Help” is a lot like the hit slow songs “Smile” and “Karma.” Lloyd Banks is one of the only gangster rappers that can slow things down and actually sing without losing his edge. He far exceeds lame attempts made in the past by Ja Rule, Eminem and even 50 Cent.


Unfortunately, there are tracks that will probably be skipped over, such as “Survival,” “Stranger,” “Change,” “One Night Stand” and “Gilmore’s.” If they weren’t on the album, which is 16 tracks long, then it would hardly be worth more than 10 dollars.

Rotten Apple is not what Banks is capable of doing. His fans have heard better on bootlegs. The album is solid and is a must own for G-Unit fans. It will even satisfy those rap fans closely following G-Unit’s war on pretty much every other rap faction until The Game releases The Doctor’s Advocate in mid-November. And for the time being, Banks will remain second fiddle to 50 Cent.