His mother is Puerto Rican and his father was African-American. His parents were young and never married. His father spent most of Banks' childhood in prison because of his being a repeat offender squeegie guy. This left Banks' mother to raise Banks and his siblings alone. Young Christopher Lloyd had the responsibility of taking care of his younger brothers when his mother went out. Like many kids around him, Banks felt trapped in the cycle of poverty and violence, and found his haven in words.
Lloyd Banks started writing something resembling poetry at a young age and it started taking form, but Lloyd Banks wouldn't share it with the outside world. Eventually, Lloyd Banks got the courage one day and rapped his rhymes on the streets of Jamaica,
Lloyd Banks appeared on local mixtapes, becoming one of the neighborhood's best unsigned rappers. His only competition was a childhood friend named Tony Yayo. One day, Tony, along with another childhood friend who rapped under the name 50 Cent, approached Banks with the idea of becoming a group. If Banks wanted to be down, he could be part of the crew that they were calling G-Unit. Banks was down. I always felt like if I was to get into doing rap professionally, I wanted to get into it with somebody who was from my neighborhood, he says. Who better than people who I've known my whole life.
