Lloyd Banks Pledges His Loyalty To G-Unit

Lloyd Banks is no team-jumper. The former "Boy Wonder" turned "Punch Line King" (hey, he's 25 years old now — it was time to switch it up) is adamant that he'll never leave 50 Cent and Tony Yayo.

"I'mma ride the wave when [the fans] are yelling, 'G-Unit,' and I'mma ride the wave when they saying, 'G-Unot,' " he said recently in Brooklyn on the set of the videos for "I Like The Way She Do It" and "Rider Pt. 2." "That's it. It's like being a hard-core Knick fan. I'mma be a Knick fan, and they lose every year. But I'm not gonna be the one to just come at the [championship] parade and be like, 'Yeah!' I wouldn't feel right in here. When they doing my 'E! True Hollywood Story,' its not gonna [say that] I changed."

Banks was on the subject of loyalty because of Young Buck's ouster from G-Unit.

"If you don't like [50], I don't like you: plain and simple. I don't understand why it's so hard for people to get that," Banks said. "I don't hate Buck or nothing like that. He just made decisions that were premature. A lot of them were affecting 50. And at the end of the day, it affects us too, because I hear people say things like, 'Banks is next [to leave].' It's frustrating, because it takes away from everything I put into the brand. This [G-Unit logo] is my first tattoo. Co-founder! We play just as important a part as 50 does.

"When you say, 'He's next,' " Banks continued, "it discredits everything I put into this. I wasn't riding the wave to go with my own wave. I was riding the wave 'cause this is what I wanted to do with the people I grew up with."

Although he doesn't want to leave his crew, Banks does have aspirations outside of rap, just like 50 and Tony Yayo do (the Talk of New York would like to open a franchise of 7-Eleven-style stores called "Tony's").

"Acting is in the near future. I would love to do that," Banks revealed. "I'm an artist too. A lot of people don't know that. I design everything you see. My jewelry? I drew it. The G-Unit spinner? I drew that. I can airbrush and things of that nature. Anything I can see, I can draw. Instead of buying Picassos, buy Banks.

"I used to do it a lot," he added of his art. "To be honest with you, I don't have time to get into it. It's one or the other. I'd be stuck with doing that and can't create music. I'm 25 years old, so I'm taking my time with it."

Banks said that when he starts selling his art, he'll be charging $100,000 to start with. ...