Lloyd Banks

Havoc of Mobb Deep: "Donald Trump is Like a Biggie to Me!"

Editor's note: In "Tweets Is Watching," Phillip Mlynar asks local artists questions based solely on the contents of their Twitter timeline. Havoc dropped his new 13 album earlier this week, a project he calls "an ode to hip-hop." He'll soon be hitting the tour circuit in the name of promotional dut ... More >>

Live: Jeremih Headlines Ladies Night At Webster Hall

Jeremih Webster Hall Thursday, September 6 Better than: Going to sleep and hoping that someone else got this story right. Generally speaking, I have no problem with a narrative. Artists influence artists, and sounds influence sounds. Sometimes an artist or a sound is so compelling or so right for ... More >>

The Top 3.75 Hip-Hop Songs Of The Week

Welcome to Sound of the City's scouring of the many hip-hop songs that drop every week in hopes of finding a couple of songs that stand out. This week we managed to get our hands on three and three-quarters of them—not bad at all.

Radio Hits One: Dan Wilson, Linda Perry, And Other Pop Footnotes Turned Hitmakers

It's a familiar scene to anyone who's seen VH1 programs like Behind The Music or Where Are They Now?, or the channel's endless lists of 'one-hit wonders' of the '80s and '90s: a musician whose brief fling with stardom is well behind them sits at the mixing desk of a studio, while the voiceover detai ... More >>

TOO BIG TO FAIL

Lloyd Banks invites you for Thanksgiving

FOREVER AND ALWAYS

Taylor Swift wraps the ‘Speak Now’ tour

A Dissenting Opinion: Let's Quit It With The Live Performances Of "Classic" Hip-Hop Albums

Back in 2007, All Tomorrow's Parties and the Pitchfork Music Festival decided that getting GZA, the Wu-Tang Clan's resident rhyme scholar, to reenact his crime rhyme masterpiece Liquid Swords in full was a good idea. And it probably was—once, maybe twice. But the third time removed the charm. ... More >>

Live: Kendrick Lamar Arrives In New York, Takes Over S.O.B.'s

Kendrick Lamar S.O.B.'s Wednesday, August 31 Better than: bringing back that old New York rap. "There are two rules for a Kendrick Lamar show. First rule: everybody put one hand up. Now everybody put two hands up." Those were Kendrick Lamar's instructions as he led us into his third song of the ... More >>

Live: Pusha T And Ryan Leslie Win Some And Lose Some

FlashFWD Awards featuring Pusha T and Ryan Leslie Gramercy Theater June 8, 2011 Better than: Watching two sets by Ryan Leslie. An award show wouldn't be an award show without winners and losers, speeches that run for too long, fashion mistakes and surprises. The FlashFWD Awards, a night of Intern ... More >>

Live: Rick Ross Lives Out His Dreams At Summer Jam

​Hot 97 Summer Jam New Meadowlands Stadium Sunday, June 5 Better than: Sitting at home and moping like 50 Cent. Rick Ross closed out Summer Jam. Just so there's no revisionist history here, let's remember how incredible that statement is. Three years ago, Ross was the punching bag of hip-h ... More >>

Fabolous Loosens Up On The S.O.U.L. Tape

​At this point, Fabolous's spot in hip-hop is carved in stone. He's the Welterweight Champion of Punchlines, the master jabber who has fruitlessly chased the knockout blow for so long the pursuit defines him. His chronic, career-long inability to say "no" to A&R men has resulted in some of the ... More >>

Hot 97 Announces The Seemingly Young Money-Sponsored Summer Jam '11 Lineup

​ Hot 97 has announced the lineup for Summer Jam '11, and it's (perhaps unsurprisingly) filled with Young Money acts: superstars Lil Wayne and Drake act as the de facto headliners, while a non-specific set by Young Money, the label, is on tap. Could that possibly mean an eventual cameo by Nic ... More >>

Zach Baron's Top 10 Singles of 2010

Rich aliens, rich alienation. Still via connect.in.com​With sincere apologies to Chuck Eddy, my two favorite records of the year also produced my two favorite singles: funny how that happens. And though ten songs increasingly feels like about forty too few, especially when Dr. Luke is working, ... More >>

Was 2010 The Best Year For Music Ever? LCD Soundsystem and Nostalgia's Creeping Scourge

Welcome to Sound of the City's year-in-review rock-critic roundtable, an amiable ongoing conversation between five prominent Voice critics: Rob Harvilla, Zach Baron, Sean Fennessey, Maura Johnston, and Rich Juzwiak. We'll be here all week! James Murphy, pulling no punches.​Dear fellow illumin ... More >>

Was 2010 The Best Year For Music Ever? Five SOTC Critics Discuss.

Great song, at least​Welcome to Sound of the City's year-in-review rock-critic roundtable, an amiable ongoing conversation between five prominent Voice critics: myself, Zach Baron, Sean Fennessey, Maura Johnston, and Rich Juzwiak. Let us acknowledge at the onset that we are ripping this off fr ... More >>

Live: Fabolous and Nicki Minaj Bring Kanye West, Rihanna, and Juelz Santana to a Thanksgiving Show at Hammerstein

Fabolous/Nicki Minaj Hammerstein Ballroom November 25, 2010 Better Than: Awkward Post-Dinner Small Talk Because the purpose of the Fabolous and Nicki Minaj's Thanksgiving double-billing was, according to the promotion, to give thanks to two of the most talented rappers in New York City (or perha ... More >>

Week in Review: All Kanye, All The Time

​In the week Kanye West finally let us in on My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (for the small price of $3.99!, we informed you of the rapper's last-minute Bowery Ballroom show, interviewed an intern who typed his Captcha faster than we did, and ultimately gave you a song-by-song breakdown of h ... More >>

Lloyd Banks Also Has A New Album Out This Week, Everybody

​As previously noted with regards to Nicki Minaj, this is an absolutely terrible week to put out a record if you are anyone other than Kanye West, who with his 10.0 reviews and $3.99 Amazon sales will be hogging every last bit of the spotlight in his (failed, ultimately, probably?) quest to ou ... More >>

The 10 Best Posse Cuts of 2010 (So Far)

​Posse cuts are like friendlier versions of the WWE's Royal Rumble -- a platform designed to showcase all of the stars in the game, both up-and-coming and certified. Think back to the Main Source's 1991 "Live At The Barbecue," featuring Akinyele, Joe Fatal, and the debut of a rapper named Nas, ... More >>

The 10 Best Verses From Kanye West's Good Friday Project, So Far

​As sustained, goodwill-generating rap publicity stunts go, Kanye West's G.O.O.D. Fridays series is almost entirely without precedent. Other rappers, guys like Freeway and Crooked I, have given away free music in regular installments, but those guys are B-listers and supporting players, and th ... More >>

GOOD Friday: Kanye West Begrudgingly Drops "Christian Dior Denim Flow," Preps for SNL

​Kanye West was not himself this week. Online, at least, where West has enjoyed repeated recent successes, he was frustrated and felt betrayed by the leak of an unauthorized, unfinished track called "Lost in the World." "It would have seemed like since I give free music every week even the low ... More >>

Download These Are Powers' Game-Changing New Club Banger (!), "Anything Above Nothing"

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing new and emerging MP3s from local talent. ​It's been generally impossible to keep up with the ever-changing moods of tireless, futurist dance trio These Are Powers. In roughly six releases over four years, they've dabbled in don't-call-us-No ... More >>

A People's History of Summer Jam 2010

Drake debuts, Trey Songz gyrates, and DJ Khaled wins at the hip-hop event of the year

Joell Ortiz vs. Gentrification

Of Brooklyn, yes, but also of the NYC hip-hop on which he still aims to make his name

Lloyd Banks Has An 8-Year-Old Kid In His Entourage

Tony Yayo (left, under a towel), a tiny child (center), and Lloyd Banks (right).​ Not much to report from last night's bizarrely curated Lloyd Banks/Reflection Eternal/Cory Gunz/Jackie Chain showcase at the Nokia Theater, besides the fact that New York still goes crazy for "Beemer, Benz or Be ... More >>

Week in Review: Born Free

That's how you listen to Ghostface! Photo by Rebecca Smeyne​In the week M.I.A. broke the internet in a tidal wave of blood and guts and red hair, we did our best to put it back together.

New York's Most Fierce 2010 Rap Single, "Beamer, Benz, or Bentley," Gets Perhaps 2010's Dullest Video

Still not in the least sick of hearing this song come on the radio--whether in the original, menacing Juelz Santana/Lloyd Banks vintage, the Joell Ortiz "Nissan, Honda, Chevy" remix, or the blistering Fabolous remake from There Is No Competition 2. That said, they somehow found a whips-n-vixens vi ... More >>

G-Unit's Lloyd Banks Arrested After Canadian Crime Spree

​Months after G-Unit affiliate Lodi Mack was gunned down after taking an assault charge for his boss, Tony Yayo, 50 Cent's rap crew is in trouble with the law again--this time up north, in Ontario, Canada, where Lloyd Banks is being held on assault and robbery charges. Banks and three goons ap ... More >>

Status Ain't Hood Interviews Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo

50 Cent's Empire Crumbles

When Will Young Buck Leave G-Unit?

50 Cent vs. Cam'ron: Internet Beef

Conscience Rap

In the wake of the Source trial, hip-hop staffers ponder their contribution to the culture

The Game Goes to War (Again)

50 Cent vs. Diddy: Battle of the Rap Villains

Hip-Hop's New No Wave

Downtown's odd relationship with rap bravado continues this fall—now with Muppet costumes

Busta Rhymes' Bodyguard Murdered at Video Shoot

The Quarterly Report: Status Ain't Hood's Favorite New Albums

Real Rap Videos Vs. SNL Narnia Skit

Young Buck Isn't Going to Prison Because Young Buck is Awesome

War Stories

50 and Eminem drip sweat and hit blood

White Freedom

The angstiest wigga alive exercises privilege, bears cross, rallies flock, begs forgiveness

Life After 50

Nondescript voice raps like he means it; spawns disciples