It's easy to remember an era where shots were fired on mixtapes -- now, social media has become the preferred weapon of choice. It doesn't take much to reopen old wounds, as Rick Ross recently proved over the weekend. Though hatchets get buried all the time, in the rap game, the scars of deep grudges seldom fully heal.
Fans likely recall Rozay's heated feud with not only 50 Cent, but Lloyd Banks, who took aim at the self-proclaimed boss with the incendiary "Officer Down." Originally released in 2009, Banks' infamous diss has since been immortalized as a fan favorite, ammunition for those still waving the admittedly faded G-Unit banner. In a surprising turn, Rick Ross recently took a moment to call out Lloyd Banks by name, taunting the Punchline King following a legal victory against 50 Cent.
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"Banks, you still got some money? Show us what you livin' like," gloats Ross, reveling in the glow of a hard-won legal victory. "If you ain't got no money, I'll give you five grand for the Banks name. That might be one of my aliases -- Dank Sinatra." He also mockingly suggests that Banks name his next project Victim Of Circumstance, an allusion to his complicated relationship with 50.
Natrually, many of Banks' still-loyal fans took the shot personally, flooding the pseudo-retired rapper's timeline with word of the offending jabs. Perhaps in a vain hope that Banks would find himself spurred into the booth with a chip on his shoulder. Be that as it may, the rapper responded with as much stoicism as might have been expected. "I’ll NEVER join the circus," he declares, seemingly nipping hopes of an "Officer Down, Again" in the bud. "So don’t expect it from me..peace & love."
While he might not be lining up any retaliatory bars in the imminent future, that's not to say Banks isn't working. He was recently on the hunt for instrumentals, seemingly indicating a return to the mixtape grind.