Lloyd Banks is not enough

Will 2006 go down in history as the year G-Unit finally lost the plot? You have to assume this is on Fiddy Cent's mind as he prepares to release the sophomore album from his number one weed carrier (his bottom bitch, if you will) Lloyd Banks.

It won't be out for another month or so, but you can go ahead and put the Rotten Apple down as another mark in the 'L' column for Fiddy and G-Unit, along with the likes of Tony Yayo's Thoughts of a Predicate Felon and Mobb Deep's Blood Money.

The Game, arguably the only non-Fiddy member of that camp with any real potential, is already long gone, having been dramatically kicked to the curb as part of the publicity run-up to the release of the Massacre, still the last G-Unit release to really perform on the charts.

Only thing is, I don't think anyone really liked the Massacre. People ran out and copped it because it had a buncha songs that sounded just like songs from Get Rich or Die Trying, which people genuinely enjoyed. I wouldn't go so far as to call it an unqualified success though.

And since Get Rich or Die Trying the movie, as well as its accompanying soundtrack and video game all kinda underperformed, it's been a minute since 50 Cent has done anything that's really connected with the public.

It's no surprise then that he's going back to the mixtape game, which was his bread and butter back in the days before he had his own brand of flavored water (?) and Oprah Winfrey was known to crank "In da Club" on her iPod during pilates.

Admittedly, I find Fiddy going after P. Diddy pretty dang hilarious. The guy is, after all, one of the dirtiest characters in the history of hip-hop. And with his career on a sudden, inexplicable upswing, obviously there's plenty of potential to get Fiddy's name in the paper.

I wonder though if these same tricks will continue to work over and over again. Fiddy Cent already used all manner of publicity stunts to put the Massacre over on the buying public. And that was back when people were still buying rap CDs.