Lloyd Banks Insists Kanye West/ 50 Cent Collabo Is 'Gonna Happen'

MTV writes:

By now, it's no secret that Kanye West is a big fan of Lloyd Banks and vice versa. Their mutual admiration might be odd, considering that G-Unit General 50 Cent and 'Ye were embroiled in a rivalry of sorts back in 2007, when their respective LPs, Graduation and Curtis went head-to-head in a release-date showdown. Fif has continued to throw jabs at Kanye over the years, calling his music "safe."

Still, that hasn't stopped the two from working together on 50's upcoming LP. Earlier Thursday (November 11), when Lloyd Banks chopped it up with Sway on "RapFix Live," he said he hadn't heard any new music but confirmed the two are definitely collaborating.

"I know that's gonna happen," he said. "It's sweeter when there's something to wait for. If it happens immediately, there's nothing to wait for. Better late than never."

Banks claimed that the reason 50 is able to work with Kanye now is because their beef was never that deep in the first place.

"If you notice, like, 50 says it all the time: They never would have been able to stand and do the Rolling Stone cover and things like that if there were any kind of tension in a personal way," he said. "This is a competitive sport. It's a vocal sport. So things are documented and you hold onto it. You gotta ask yourself: What did they say before the hype happened? As we grow older, man, you feel kinda stupid sitting next to somebody, you end up in the same venue five years later, knowing that you dissed me, I dissed you because we all had the rapper thing going on."

To hear Banks tell it, one of the reasons why he hasn't heard 50's work with Kanye thus far is because the G-Unit members typically work on their respective LPs separately then play them for each other when they're nearing completion.

"All three albums [50's] never really been there through the recording process," he said. "We're excited to hear it when it's done. I love when 50 comes to my house and he can play me 14 records straight. Then I get a chance to be a fan at the same time. 50's the same way. He respects what I do to the point where he'll just come in at the tail end of the album, where I might have 14 songs done and I'll play it for him, and he can hear it mixed down and mastered and say, 'I like this one.' "

Banks said 50 has the ability to identify which songs of his will be the best ones to release as singles.

"He's always picked the sweet spot, like, 'That's my joint,' " he said. "When I brought him 'Beamer Benz or Bentley,' it was already mixed and mastered. I wanted him to hear it like that. You know what he said? 'Push the button. Get on the phone with iTunes, let's get it linked up, push the button tomorrow.' He financed the situation all the way through."