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Reportage | Music | By Jake Hanrahan | Posted 5 October 2012
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REPORTAGE | Music

Benny Banks: A True Voice Of The Council Estate

Posted: 5 October 2012
Tags: Hip Hop, UK

Benny Banks doesn't rap about champagne, getting all the girls or diamond watches, he's on about skipping school and missing his daughter...

Benny Banks is fast becoming the true voice of the British council estate. Unlike those before him such as Tinie Tempah, Wiley and Tinchy Stryder, he’s not speaking about platinum chains, getting all the girls or trying to be overtly “gangster” in his music. Banks talks about the real issues, the unseen daily occurrences experienced only through a childhood raised on the estate. He talks about bunking off school, nicking penny sweets as a kid from the corner shop and finding it difficult to follow authority without a father there to teach him how to be a man.

When I first saw Benny’s video for “Bada Bing”—his first official single, I immediately felt a sense of familiarity as he strolls through the claustrophobic walkways of a council block. Growing up myself on an estate (albeit in the East Midlands), the gritty, streetwise aura of Benny Banks seems to feel more authentic than any of the artists of the same ilk at the moment. He doesn’t come across as the wannabe trying to be tough for no reason, he’s more the ragamuffin trying to get adults to buy him cigarettes down at Happy Shopper, which spoke more to me on a basic human level than any lyric about shooting holes through someone. Whether this was an intentional image or simply part of Benny’s approach toward life, he seems to be well aware of the fact that this is exactly why he appeals so much to other jaded youths.

“I think I’m relevant,” he tells me. “People find it easy to relate to me. I don’t exaggerate the struggle man. I just tell it how it is.”

Hailing from a North London council estate in Islington, the rapper has caught people’s attention by bringing to light the idea that a lot of young men from rough areas try too hard to make out like they’re earning money when they’re not. With lyrics such as “Brothers act fly with no paper in their pocket/ Stunting on a hottie with their jewellery but it’s borrowed”, (basically telling these posers to not put on a front and remember where you came from), kids with holes in their trainers and eviction notices on their front doors can find solace in the fact that Benny is very much one of them.

Kids with holes in their trainers and eviction notices on their front doors can find solace in the fact that Benny is very much one of them.

Growing up, Benny Banks felt the struggle. His mother found it hard to lead him as a youngster and his father died when he was young. The lyrics “I’m struggling to get it right/ I’m tired of making mumsy cry” allude to the guilt he feels for his wrong doings. This is also a common misconception that the media put on “troubled youths” from deprived areas—that their parents don’t care. The life Benny Banks speaks about is riddled with hard working single mums and dads who have lost control of their children. It’s not always that they don’t care, a lot of the time they’re just as desperate to get by as their kids are.

Without any real guidance Benny eventually ended up in trouble—dealing drugs, smoking weed and spending nights on end away from home. He doesn’t particularly revel in this though. The 23-year-old is a lot more humble to the fact that he did this out of boredom a lot of the time, instead of using it as a “product of my environment” ideology like many other rappers do.

“We get in trouble because there’s nothing out here for the youth any more, all we get is youth clubs and they’re even closing them down. We get nothing, not even guaranteed jobs when we come out of school, so we do what we have to and get judged for it. I wouldn’t say it’s the same for everybody, but it’s definitely a big part of why people are getting in trouble and why they start heading down the wrong road.”

Without music the future for Benny Banks could’ve been much different. Many of his friends have been in and out of prison, such as North West London rapper K Koke, who is signed to Jay-Z’s Roc Nation label. K Koke did eight months in prison in 2011 for attempted murder, before being acquitted. He has since decided to turn over a new leaf when his record label gave him another chance. Benny was lucky enough to see this revelation before getting in any serious trouble.

“For a while I didn’t see music as a way out of crime—I just did it because I liked it,” he says. “But when things got more serious for me and I started to realise that I was getting noticed by people. I realised that there was a way for me to make money using my creative talents. So yeah, music was a way out for me. It made me switch my mind and stop doing a lot of the things I was getting involved in. It really helped me get focussed and sort myself out man.”

Now on his way to success, Benny has appeared on BBC Radio One, 1Xtra, MTV and has 50,000 views on his F64—a video freestyle hosted on the leading British urban Youtube channel “SB.TV” (which is endorsed by Richard Branson no less). He’s toured with American rap sensation Mac Miller and more recently released a single “Who’s the Daddy?” with N-Dubz’ very own front man Dappy.

He says his daughter is “the biggest influence” in his life and even raps about the pain of not seeing her every day.

This song title is fitting, as Benny Banks, like many growing up the same way he has, had his first child when he was 18 (as did I). He says his daughter is “the biggest influence” in his life and even raps about the pain of not seeing her every day, due to the fact they no longer live together: “I value moments with my daughter, ‘cause them moments precious/ I’m hardly ever there, it’s hard to make it better/”. These lyrics speak to a demographic of fathers often demonised in the media because they’re not around. The dads who break up with their children’s mother don’t have their side of the story told enough though, something Benny seems conscious to do.

As a uniquely British sounding artist, with content in his lyrics that are exclusive to the streets of the UK, Benny Banks is adamant that he will always stay true to that ethic.

“A lot of hip-hop artists over here in the UK are just copying what’s going on in America. Everyone’s following fashion, they just want to sound like a typical rapper, talking about: ‘I’ve got a big car and a chain’ and all of that rubbish, but that’s not really what’s going on round here. It’s all giros and benefit scams in this climate. It’s real. I think a lot of people relate to me because when you look at UK rap everyone sees it as thug or gangster music, but I’m not really trying to rap like that, I’m talking about bunking off school and stuff. Everyone’s kind of gone through what I’ve gone through. It’s a wider struggle that everyone can get involved in, in some way.”

Other related stories you might like…

Can Wiley and Ms. D Cause a Heatwave With Their New Single?

Grime Wars: Knives, Pirate Radio and Wiley’s Imaginary Crack Addiction

The Rise Of Grime: From Criminal To Cash Cow

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6:39 am, 5-Oct-2012myleftboot
Cool, but to ignore the likes of Akala, Roots Manuva, Skinnyman and many more who did the same thing for a very long time is pretty disingenuous. He isn't a pioneer, but part of a(relatively short) history.
1:03 pm, 8-Oct-2012AshleySimi
Agree with myleftboot, Broke 'n'English, Jehst, Verb T, Taskforce all formed part of the back bone that is UK hip hop for over a decade and never get a mention. Far more creative than most other UK musicians but with no budget, no Branson endorsements, no Cowell TV show, no single with Dappy. This guy's okay but he's nothing compared to those legends just yet.
10:20 am, 13-Oct-2012Chezzle
Good points from both myleftboot and AshleySimi above. Agree.
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