Lloyd Banks

Lore & Background

Lloyd Banks was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and raised in the South Jamaica section of the Queens borough in New York City. He is of mixed Puerto Rican and African-American descent. His father spent most of Lloyd's childhood in prison, leaving his mother to raise him and his two siblings. Banks attended August Martin High School but dropped out at 16.

For his stage name, he took his great, great-grandfather's name Banks, which was passed on by his uncles who also shared it. On September 10, 2001, Banks was shot twice while leaving a nightclub in Southside Jamaica, Queens. He was hit in the back and stomach, and ran to the nearest hospital after suffering the injuries. He woke up the next morning to news of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and watched from his hospital bed as the Twin Towers fell to the ground.

In August 2005, Lloyd Banks, Young Buck, and their entourage were traveling in a van, when the vehicle was pulled over after passing through a red light in midtown Manhattan. Officers said they discovered a loaded handgun and another weapon in the van. Prosecutors asked a judge to dismiss the charges after an investigation determined that neither Lloyd Banks nor Young Buck were in possession of the weapons. Felony gun charges against Lloyd Banks and Young Buck were dropped on November 8, 2006.

In the early morning hours of January 9, 2010, in a Kitchener, Ontario hotel, an alleged altercation took place between Banks and a concert promoter over performance fees. Banks, and three of his associates, were later charged with forcible confinement, aggravated assault and robbery, and released on $50,000 bail.

Reader's Guide

Lloyd Banks released his solo debut album The Hunger for More in June 2004. The first single was 'On Fire' which featured 50 Cent, however he was uncredited. The album debuted at number 1 on the Billboard charts with over 433,000 copies sold in the first week. It has since sold over 1.5 million copies and has been certified platinum by the RIAA.

Other singles from the album include 'I'm So Fly' and 'Karma', the latter reaching number 17 on the Billboard Hot 100. His second album, Rotten Apple (2006), debuted at number 3, selling 143,000 copies in its first week. Singles from Rotten Apple include 'Hands Up', 'The Cake', and 'Help'. In 2010, Banks left Interscope Records and signed with EMI — along with his G-Unit cohorts — to release his third album, H.F.M. 2 (The Hunger for More 2) in November that year, which peaked at number 26 on the chart.

Over a decade later, he independently released his fourth album, The Course of the Inevitable (2021) to critical acclaim.