Lloyd Banks – Sidewalks

All seems right in the game again, as Lloyd Banks has returned with his first studio album in over ten years, The Course Of The Inevitable. Already receiving early praise from his loyal fans, Banks proved he hasn’t lost a step in the slightest — in fact, he’s arguably more refined than ever, having soaked in the game from a birds-eye view and surged in with a whole playbook of new flows.

While there’s certainly much to unpack across the eighteen-track album, it feels appropriate to highlight “Sidewalks,” the song he originally previewed in the early COTI reveal trailers. Over a tense piano-driven boom-bap instrumental by CARTUNEBEATZ, Banks makes it clear he’s swinging for the jugular off the bat. “Keep molding what you’ve been aware of, left DNA all the places I been,” he spits. “My spot isn’t rented, your favorite rappers don’t race to top 10 / Dangerous the way my mind spinnin’, if opposition chop limbs / Not only did nig*as go clone me, my alter ego got twins.”