Sometimes I go back and relisten to the old G-Unit, LOX and Dipset mixtapes, amazed at how much content was put out in that era. It's mind boggling! One of the standouts is the Victory freestyle from the punchline king, Lloyd Banks. Years back Banks explained why it was undoubtedly his biggest mixtape song ever: "That has to be overall the most–the biggest freestyle I had as far as impact wise. Even DJ Clue will tell you that’s when he felt I went from being a mixtape dude to the next dude they expect to pop from the mixtapes… Honestly, I knew what I was following behind. Biggie was one of my favorites. When I did ‘Victory,’ everybody knew that was one of his biggest verses. So to fall behind him, I knew there was pressure behind it. I just wanted to add a different feel. At that time, I was thinking punchline wise. A lot of people used to ask me, ‘Yo you going to run out before the album,’ but when I write naturally, I write witty. I write from the perspective of being different. So, that was one thing that never troubled me. There was a few lines [I liked]. I said, ‘I think I’m the last rapper to scare n*ggas since Craig Mack.’ There was even the Master P line and its funny because I have 100 percent support for Master P, but his sneaker was [ugly] at the time.” Banks adds, "That was the first freestyle I performed. Not only did it help me as far as my recognition goes, but it helped me performance wise cause I got used to being by myself for a whole verse. It’s hard to keep people in tuned for a whole verse with no chorus–on a mixtape too. The breakdown toward the end of the verse, is when I learned over time you can’t rap the same bar cadence throughout 50 bars, you got to at some point change it up." Banks ends it by saying, "I put my all into that, bar for bar.” - via Rap Radar. Happy Born Day to Banks, listen to Victory below...