Serving as right-hand-man to superstar 50 Cent, rapper Lloyd Banks helped to propel the group G-Unit from hip-hop’s mixtape circuit to the top of the charts. • Circa 2000, Banks formed G-Unit with fellow Queens rappers 50 Cent and Tony Yayo. The trio commanded the attention of the streets with a string of early mixtapes beginning with 2002’s 50 Cent Is the Future. • Following the chart-topping success of 50 Cent’s 2003 debut album, Get Rich or Die Tryin’, G-Unit scored a Top 5 album with their 2003 debut, Beg for Mercy. • Banks dropped his debut, The Hunger for More, in 2004. Featuring the Top 10 single “On Fire”, coproduced and cowritten by Eminem, the album hit No. 1 on both the Billboard 200 and Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart. • He notched his second No. 1 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart with his 2006 sophomore effort, Rotten Apple. • The rapper has dubbed himself the “PLK”, or “Punchline King”, on account of his sharp wordplay. • Banks was on board when G-Unit reunited in 2014 and released a pair of EPs: 2014’s The Beauty of Independence and 2015’s The Beast Is G-Unit. 50 Cent announced in 2018 that Banks was no longer with G-Unit.