Lloyd Banks and Juelz Santana, "Beamer, Benz Or Bentley"

Are we witnessing the commercial comeback for New-York-rap-besides-Jay-Z that everybody’s been waiting for? Probably not. While you hear hear Lloyd Banks and Juelz Santana’s”Beamer, Benz Or Bentley,” on the city streets these days, the song hasn’t yet cracked Billboard’s national charts. I think it’s just okay. A catchy-if-formulaic beat built off the kind of simple, ascending and descending keyboard line that worked for Lil Wayne’s “Lollipop” two years ago, and Mims’ “This Is Why I’m Hot” the year before that, and playboy rhymes about money, cars and women. Much less exciting, in my opinion, than the grittier sounds issued by Banks’ G-Unit colleague Tony Yayo, or Staten Island’s resurgent Wu-Tang Clan. The best thing about the video, I think, is Juelz’ eye-wear. Wu-Tang’s Raekwon was caught on camera in something similar lately, too. So at the very least, we might be witnessing the comeback of one of the greatest and most ridiculous ’80s hip-hip fashion innovations: urban ski goggles.