Having one of his most successful years since the release of his debut album, 2004'sThe Hunger For More,  it is hard to believe there was a time when Lloyd Banks was ready to hang up the mic. Yet during an interview with XXL for our November issue, the Boy Wonder revealed in the face of a series of tragic events after the unsuccessful release of his sophomore LP, Rotten Apple, he cut himself off from his G-Unit family and almost gave up mcing.

Apparently the stresses surrounding the lack of sales of his second album, along with the loss his father and the heightened health problems of his mother—she suffered two strokes around 2006—was too much for Banks.

“I was completely ready to say fuck it,” Banks told XXL contributing writer Ben Detrick. “50’s whole thing was just, ‘Push on, push on.’ But he didn’t grow up with his mother and his father. Seeing my life pass before my eyes, it was like, no matter how much shit you have or how good you’re doing, you’re going to go through this and be devastated.”

The Queens rapper apparently went 6-months without talking to Fif, but after former G-Unit president Sha Money XL reached out, he ended his self-imposed exile.

Banks will finally be following up his 2006’s Rotten Apple later this month, with the release of his third solo project, H.F.M. 2 on November 21.

Fans can read our entire Lloyd Banks feature in the November 2010 issue of XXL, featuring 50 Cent and Soulja Boy on the cover, onstands nationwide now. —Elan Mancini

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