Here's a subject I didn't consider putting up for a blog post, but decided to do it anyway since I feel if anyone is a fan of hip-hop these days, especially in New York. This should be said.
LLOYD BANKS IS THE MOST BORING-EST RAPPER ALIVE ... in terms of voice...
I mean that with no disrespect even if it sounds like it is. But truth be told, Banks is just that. I will acknowledge he has to be one of the most lyrical rappers around and clearly one of the most underrated rappers in the scene today, most especially for a mainstream rapper who's attached to 50 Cent's G-Unit.
I should elaborate by what I mean by "boring" before someone thinks I'm a hater. Banks has a voice and flow that works good for spitting lyrics, but the pacing and actual emotion behind it was awful. It basically looks like he's just reading lyrics he wrote on his book and reciting it out loud while recording a track. Where's the effort in that? That's not to say Banks is doing that exact process. Yet each and every time I listen to his latest mixtape or joint, it's the same thing - he lacks any energy, any charisma, any emotion! That has to be my biggest flaw to him. I can literally download his latest mixtape and listen to it for an hour and probably fall asleep since he just carries himself over like it was another day at the office.
Wanna know why 50 isn't promoting your ass Lloyd? It's because you got no energy, no heat. Even though you got DJ Drama on your latest mixtape, and somewhat rather mediocre beats (didn't help matters much), you put in another atypical Lloyd Banks performance if nothing but your bars carrying the entire damn mixtape. Where's the fun in that? There's hardly any variation, no other substance than good lyrics with a very dull monotonous voice lacking any passion as if Lloyd himself was ready to just give up rapping altogether, he shows very little to no personality outside your regular east coast lyrical MC.
I'm not asking Lloyd Banks to suddenly turn into Lil Wayne (god help us if he did). But it would be probably a step up in the vocals and energy/flow department. Wayne can spit some good metaphors and one-liners, his lyrical skill not quite on Banks level, but can hold his own. I guess what you could consider the polar opposite or antithesis of Banks may be Kanye West or even Drake. They put quite a lot of emotion into their songs and while Drake can easily be seen as an emotional wreck of a wannabe R&B singer who has issues trying to figure out whether he goes emo on a track, or wants to rap. He's still carrying a certain level of depth into him. Kanye the unstable artist who thinks he's a god of some sort who loves to get people talking carries his niche well, and at times Kanye can show decent lyrical skills but sadly in my opinion can fall to Lloyd.
You'd probably ask what was the last Banks track that he actually brought some energy to make me not fall asleep? Officer Down. That Rick Ross diss track was amazing, probably the best diss track I've heard that year when it came out in 2009. Even if the barbs of that tracks were somewhat generic and not exactly focused on Ross, a fair share of it was and it was enough to put Ross away. Banks came at that track with a vengeance and a level of fire I don't think I've really seen of him in possibly.. EVER.
That being said, while his latest mixtape of FNO (Failure's No Option) is pretty good and it feels like a few tracks like The Plague, Lead The Blind, and House Pride do feel like he is putting some emotion into his music. While an improvement from his last mixtape in that field, it still is rather lacking. It does feel like some of the beats on some tracks carry Banks flow and energy (ie: Failures No Option). This blog post isn't so much to talking about his latest mixtape, but at least citing some examples of what he could improve upon, though it's not like he would read this insignificant blog post either.
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