I got back home and I realized that I missed it so much,” adds Lloyd. “When I was in L.A., I was by myself, which was another challenge, to eliminate myself from what I call ‘healthy distractions.’ I had my house in Atlanta and I had an apartment on Sunset, and it was like ‘Why am I wasting money?’ So I went back to Atlanta. “I was missing the people that really mattered most,” he confesses. “I didn’t have to put out albums for a check. Between perfecting his chords, and hitting the road with Lil Wayne, Trey Songz, and Diddy’s Dirty Money crew, Lloyd decided to leave L.A., and move back to Atlanta. The newly-discovered “talent” came in the form of a guitar (named Sylvia, after his late grandmother), and he played it every day. “To not point the finger anymore, to not require anything but accountability for my own actions.
“I was focused on trying to not look to other people for validation,” he reveals. The haircut triggered a transformation that made him move from Atlanta to Los Angeles. “It was supposed to be a reflection of ‘From this day forward, I’m going to rebuild, strip it all the way down to work on myself.’ Cutting off a big part of me for someone else was the first step.” Before his 2011 album, King of Hearts, was released, Lloyd decided to chop off his hair and donate it to children with cancer. Over the next two years, he would release Lessons in Love, sever ties with Murder Inc. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100, and topped the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs charts. In 2007, Lloyd snagged his first Top 10 single with the Lil-Wayne assisted, “You.” The lead track from his Street Love LP landed at No.
“But it took me away from people who I really needed at times, and who I felt really needed me.” “My life wasn’t mine anymore-which is a blessing, not a complaint,” he says of entering the music business early on. Thanks to the album’s title track and single, “Hey Young Girl,” buzz around the “ curly headed black boy” was building, and it may have been too fast for him to keep up. Records where he released his 2004 debut album Southside. Once the group dismantled, he hopped around different labels and eventually landed at Irv Gotti’s Murder Inc. Lloyd signed his first record deal at 10 years old, and put out his first project by age 13 as a member of the teen pop group N-Toon. ”įor more than half of his life, music has been both a passion and a paycheck. I had to put out Street Love because I didn’t have a choice, my family was. “ I had to do that when Katrina happened. “I didn’t have to put out albums for a check,” he says. Over the last several years, Lloyd has been on a self development journey, which involved taking a break from music. Unfortunately, it takes some kind of a catalyst–even though we all have mamas and sisters and strong women to draw from–but my nieces made me care about what it means to love a woman.” “My nieces made me reevaluate how everything represents them. “I love my nieces, let that be the first thing I state on the record,” he tells VIBE over lunch.