If you told me that there was a major-label rapper out there who was completely free of gimmicks and the market influence imposed by his position, I'd say you were a liar. I'd say that no major label rapper is free from the pressure of an advanced budget nor is he free from the talking-heads often involved in selecting tracks for the "tentative" release date.Lloyd Banks and Obie Trice were set to make a liar out of me, though. They uphold that there is no competition for exec attention at Interscope's happy family and that they scarcely heed the critics' opinions and negative omens about an album getting off to a slow start. The also-ran journalist's term for a second effort has always been sophomore slump. The magazines and websites decree that the second album must outdo the first or address the first in a way. For seasoned emcees, the format for Number Two does not always match their creative intuition.

Shady Aftermath and G-Unit are music imprints with the stamp of public approval in both the streets and the suburbs. Lloyd Banks gets his props from being 50's right hand and Obie was once perceived as an Em protégé. So rather than chase the perfection of their first albums, the approach is piecemeal: take it as you get it and grow.

Obie Trice's follow-up project Second Round's On Me, and Banks' The Rotten Apple are not simply career benchmarks but also an evolution of the thunderous noir pop that their sound embodies. There is room for improvement in hip-hop and Lloyd Banks hopes to be a standard-bearer, another upstart with visions of greatness and the endorsement to reach those heights. Obie Trice is of a humbler outlook but only in terms of the words he assigns to his motivation. For the most part, he also wants top-shelf notoriety among his peers. Described here in two parts are the aspirations of loyal princes vying for the legacy of kings who sit safely in their thrones. I attempted to get familiar with their common ambitions by distinguishing the true intentions dangerously espoused with vast ambition.

Words By Drew Ricketts

TSS: With the kind of backing you've gotten and the success you've already experienced, is there a sense of competition among you?

Obie: Nah, man, nah. I think it's more like you do your thing and let the next dude do his. I know about the other guys' stuff but that don't [have to] concern me.

TSS: Doesn't selling 2 million the first time out bring with it another kind of pressure though?

Banks: I mean, that's a pressure I welcome. This is a mission that's 10-11 years in the making. It started off in my grandmother's living room with me, Fifty and Yayo. I look at it as, I gotta step to the forefront. I don't have an A&R. I pick every beat and song you hear on the album.

TSS: Do you consult with others like 50 or Em about which ones will make the final cut? I've heard those guys put a lot of blood and sweat in the studio session.

Obie: I don't really. I know how Em and 50 like to work and it drives me but once I'm in there I just let it take me where it takes me. I never have this laid-out plan about what song is going to come out when I hear the track.

Banks: When the final edit of my album is done, I might go to 50 to pick ten tracks after I picked ten tracks. That helps me come up with a final 6 [definites] for release. 50 is a master at that. He knows how records work and what response they get. I take his opinion because he's a genius when it comes to that.

Obie: Both Em and Dre have distinctive sounding style and I always want to have that too. I get in [the booth] and spazz out. I knock it out. When they leave, they know my passion and that's what I want listener to feel too, like 'that boy there is from the gutta' and they know how hard I am. I just do what I wanna do -- there's no particular direction in the studio.

TSS: Banks, on the "In Da Club" record you're quoted by 50 suggesting he 'switch the style up', one line that made me familiar with you before the exposure. What did you mean by that? What did you want to switch from?

Banks: It was about breaking new order in rap. Let's turn it around from being what it is now to something bigger. We knew we had to bring the street-type records to the radio and, at the end of the day, that's what we did. No radio stations were playing mixtape joints until we got it that way. We forced their hand because the DJ's would show us love until people kept calling the stations and requesting the songs. It all starts with the streets feeling you and we never got away from that.

TSS: To me, a rapper's style and swagger come from the place where he was born. Tell me about Detroit...since no one knows much about the city except some of the negative things there.

Obie: You hear a lot of things about Detroit but I know what’s here. I stay here, I only leave when I go to record or do promotion. We have the Hip Hop Shop and Alvin’s, Maurice Malone’s first store is in the D. There’s different attractions that the average person won’t know about.

TSS: How does it feel to hear the prevailing opinion be about New York’s decline and the lack of music coming out of it when G-Unit is basically a NY clique?

Banks: It’s not easy. Honestly, I don’t know what it is. We keep coming out with the top records. If you look at the last five years in hip-hop, New York groups have the top sales – not even just sales though…If we’re speaking facts, at the end of the day, we’re producing a lot of talent in New York still. We’re used to being the underdogs. The thing is when you thrive on proving people wrong, and doing more every time it’s a good reward. ‘Win before the win’ is the motto. We’re so used to forcing the issue and we won’t be denied.

TSS: What are your aspirations for this album?

Obie: I want people to listen to it. I have a lot of different kinds of joints on there and I want people to leave with the feeling that I put it down. They used to saying things about me – or validating me because of the whiteboy (Em) and that’s only one part of it.

TSS: The thing I can identify about your style is that it’s unpredictable in terms of how you choose your words. You go from one train of thought and pattern into another very smoothly.

Obie: It’s unexplainable. That’s nothing I do on purpose. On this [album] I tried the double-time flow for the first time and did it pretty good. That was nothing planned but I like to make sure I’m developing from one phase to another. I’m using everything I learned along the way and from the first time around.

TSS: How do you describe the changes you’ve made since you were a mixtape MC out of Southside Queens?

Banks: I never had the opportunity to develop an ego. I set my standards high and go for them. Even when the first record did well, I didn’t feel like I made it. I wrote the second album in my house -- I have a studio I built in there for that. I wanted it to be in the same vein as Hunger for More. This is what I do and it’s a job. Don’t get me wrong; it’s also something that I love and I make records for the streets. Whatever the streets say. And there’s no telling when I check the Myspace hits or find out from DJs which songs are getting love. Yet they censor G-Unit more than they censor other rappers you hear. It’s like the things we say have more weight or when you’re a “lyricist” they have to censor more.

TSS: Last time out, despite conflict between 50 and Game he was able to sell 5 million records. Do you feel the same storm of controversy would’ve helped Hunger for More’s sales?

Banks: Yeah it helped him. C’mon who are we talking about here? When you use word association and say his name he’s attached to G-Unit [brand]. He can’t show me one ASCAP plaque. I have about 8 or 9 ASCAP plaques on the wall and he can’t show me one. He didn’t write those records. I remember when they had him in the studio, in fact, that’s where I met dude…in the B studio. Me and all the other guys work in the A studio. He was still having trouble recording and learning how the process works. You cannot buy that talent. You can have everything in the world (record sales) but you can’t buy talent or respect.

TSS: Usually rappers with your fame have other business ventures in the works. What are yours?

Banks: I’m starting off and I’m counting my paces. I still have a lot to prove as a solo artist before I do anything else. Groupie Love was crazy. We won four AVN (Adult Video News) awards for that. After that, Hugh Hefner gave me a call to congratulate. It was crazy. To see the love it got was promising but I want to keep doing the music. Maybe down the line we can come out with the next Groupie Love.

TSS: Does Jimmy Iovine own the masters of your records.

Banks: (Laughs) Between me and you, Jimmy Iovine owns everything. This is all his.

TSS: Do you smoke and if so what do you smoke?

Obie: I don’t smoke. I stopped a couple of years ago. I’m more of a drinks man.

TSS: What do you drink on?

Obie: I like to have Henny or Grey Goose and cranberry or if I’m doing it simple…a couple of beers.

Banks: I smoke the best buds. I smoke that shit that make you put the towel under the hotel door. Only the Cali cush for me.

TSS: What would you say to your first ex-girlfriend?

Banks: Take a good look at me. Take a gooood look at me. I think that’s all I’d have to say to that.

For more info on Lloyd Banks, visit www.lloydbanksonline.com and www.myspace/gangstabanks

For more info on Obie Trice, visit www.obietrice.com and www.myspace/obietrice