Lloyd Banks Keeping A Low Profile?
By: Yves Erwin Salomon
The G-Unit's Lloyd Banks has kept a low profile since his 2006 sophomore album, Rotten Apple, tanked, selling a mere 300,000 copies. That represented a substantial decline since his 2004 debut album, The Hunger For More, which moved over 1.5 million copies in the United States. Recently there've been some cracks in the G-Unit armor and 50 Cent allegedly blamed Banks slow sales on the rapper's laziness in a Vibe magazine interview
Former G-Unit Records president Sha Money XL, who manages Banks and Young Buck, was surprised when he heard what 50 Cent allegedly said. He told MTV.com, "He said that? I didn't read the article yet."
Money added, "His original rap name was Lazy Lloyd, so his demeanor is laid back. He's the most humble one out of all them. He does have to get with the 'time to do press'(artists'business responsibilities) and all that. You have to put your heart into it. His original (stance) was to just rap. It's more than that."
Money XL also pointed to some outside factors that may have had an impact on Banks'sales. He said, "It went from G-Unit being the hottest s**t to now n***as is nitpicking because of all the outside s**t going on. The violence, the arguing, the hate, the divide-and-conquer. All that takes away from what we need to focus on: the music."
The manager added, "The industry scorned him because he's a rapper's rapper. He doesn't sit through marketing meetings and know the politics of radio -- or even the little backlash coming. When Banks came out, he had to fight a lot of hate. It wasn't based on music no more; it was the politics."
Banks is currently working on a new album and, according to Money XL, fans should expect a return to form. He said, "The album he's working on is amazing and he's coming back like Jay-Z after 'Sunshine.'(Sometimes) you get that one album that don't connect, but Banks'fans is still with him. He's still touring and doing shows like s**t is all the way right. He's coming to beat their heads in -- he on some lyrical exercise."
Banks also had to endure the murder of his father while he was promoting the Rotten Apple.
posted by HipHopHavoc at 6/12/2007
6 Comments:
I dont know how they consider 300,000 flopping for rotten apple? By then the dynamics of the music industry changed and we were already losing significant market share. Also, downloading among the major demographics for hiphop skyrocketed. Yeah game came out soon after and almost went plat in the US but, he was the last non50cent gunit member to drop, he sold 5 mill, had a super smart campaign at that point, and (most importantly) he had an entire coast that was super hungry for some spotlight with him. Nowadays if it isnt 50, Jay, or Kanye, I dont see a hiphop album going gold.
4:39 PM
That's true 300K isn't all that bad but compared to his previous album, that was a huge drop.
Also, his marketing game wasn't up...Just kicking back on a youtube clip and saying your album is coming out isn't enough now-a-days.
7:42 AM
Umm my response to jersey spic:
Game did qo platnium in the U.S.A.
and sellin 300,000 is very bad compared to the last Banks album which sold approx. 4mill
matter a fact every gunit member album sells is declinin
Young buck album Buck the world is somewhat barely just hittin Gold his last album sold a mere 2mill
I did the burning of cd's and leaking of cd's has something to do with Rap albums low sales
10:05 AM
FUCK RAP I AM TRYING TO MAKE CREAM AND DATS DAT!
5:19 AM
It wasnt a "g unit thing". All Hip Hop sales plummeted. Ti was the only artist to go plat until luda and jay last year. And it took Jay a 38 million dollar marketing campaign when the highest g unit advertising campaign was only 5 mill. Yet Jay sold the most and barely went double plat for months. And no game didnt go plat in the us. He did 904,000 which really was pathetic considering he had just recently sold over 5 mill when 50 was writing for him and showing his face in his music (banks had come out quite a while before and the whole g unit campaign at that point was centered on promoting game). Plus Game's career is basically done, no matter how many cats in the west be bumping him. He is nice though. Hes just too much of a dickrider. Plus his whole gangsta is fabricated.
6:29 PM
I dont think banks is lazy at all. I just thought he matured as an artist. a lot of people want to hear trash (Shooting , smoking, and getting "crunk" Banks just had to say a little more than that. And once people heard it wasnt that on the Rotten Apple The y didnt want to hear the truth. Gunit BITcH
4:27 PM
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