After eleven years, Lloyd Banks returned with his brand new studio album The Course Of The Inevitable, released independently through Money By Any Means, INC. Largely keeping his rollout reserved to social media, counting down the days with spoken word trailers and tracklist reveals, it was evident that Banks was lining up a gift for the loyal fans.
When The Course Of The Inevitable dropped on June 4th, 2021, it shared the same release date as Lil Baby and Lil Durk's The Voice Of The Heroes. Heavy competition from two of hip-hop's biggest artists in the game, who went on to lock down the number one album on the Billboard charts with an impressive 158K in album-equivalent units.
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Yet Banks' project went on to capture the attention of some of hip-hop's biggest names and most respected legends, with J. Cole, Travis Scott, Busta Rhymes, Raekwon, Conway The Machine, and Benny The Butcher having come forward to show support. Now, Banks' first-week sales figures have arrived, with reports indicating that the album moved 12K album-equivalent units.
Given that the album was released independently, not to mention alongside a batch of Course Of The Inevitable merch, the numbers are actually rather solid for the Punchline King. Though his days at the charts may have faded -- lest we forget that Banks used to be a commercial juggernaut in the early millennium, having debuted at number one with 433,00k albums sold in 2004.
Be sure to show some support to Banks and keep those COTI numbers running, as the album is genuinely one of the year's most engaging listens -- be sure to check out our full review right here.