Lloyd Banks chats to I Like Music

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ILM: You were raised in Jamaica, Queens. I was speaking to Yummy Bingham [Chaka Khan's god-daughter, who also grew up in Queens. Like her, you sought to escape the poverty and stuff. You did escape through music. What advice would you give to others caught up in stuff they want out of, and to young musicians who are just starting out?

BANKS: To market yourself, you've really got to acknowledge your flaws and your pluses. You're going to notice them before anyone else does, so you want to acknowledge them and you want to fix them. Whatever needs to be fixed, you do it before you put yourself out there prematurely. You only have one chance to leave a first impression. You can't rush music. Half of the records you hear now are records from 15 or 20 years ago. Everybody has a time for their sound. You see people who stick around in the game for ten years and in the tenth year they have their blow out year. You definitely want to market yourself. My mother told me a long time ago, "Nobody can sell you better than you can sell yourself." Network, shake hands, even if you don't know who's hand you're shaking, or you'll walk right by a programme director or something.

ILM: Your parents must be proud. What do they think of your success?

BANKS: Definitely, my mother of course… There was a time not so long ago when she would not even believe or couldn't even understand how her son could be attractive to so many people and have an influence in hip hop the way I did. It definitely feels good and it feels good for her also. Just knowing that, coming up the way we came up, something actually came good from it.

ILM: What's your favourite Lloyd Banks track to play live?

BANKS: It's a record called Playboy, it's track two on the Hunger for More album. I made the record with crowd participation already in it, so I'm telling you to put your hands up, and you know what to do at the end of it. And it outperforms all my records in concerts, even On Fire. I've performed that record all around the world and everywhere I go there's an immediate response to that record. It has like a rock and roll/hip hop feel to it. They go crazy when it comes on, and so do we.

g.g.g.g…g.g.g.g….G-Unit!

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