Lloyd Banks, The Hunger for More (June 29, 2004)
Lloyd Banks is garnering acclaim for a series of high-profile mixtapes, an allegiance with a superstar rap crew (50 Cent’s platinum-certified G-Unit), and a distinct voice that sounds cool and husky, expressing a surprisingly soft elegance. But he’s just as obsessed with hits as the next rapper, and has stocked his debut, The Hunger for More, with a disc full of potential ones. Some of them, such as “Warrior” or “If You So Gangsta” hit the mark, smoothly blending dark, menacing beats with restrained braggadocio. But there’s more than a few misses, from the plodding opener “Ain’t No Click” to “Warrior Part 2,” an ineffective collaboration with Eminem, 50 Cent, and Nate Dogg. Producers include Timbaland and Danjahandz, who produced the smoothly effective single “I’m So Fly; and Eminem and Kwame (here called K1Mil), who worked on the top 10, the bombastically cinematic top 10 hit “On Fire.” G-Unit/Interscope.