Lay Bankz grew up in Southwest Philly with dreams of becoming a rapper.
At just 19 years old, those dreams are a reality.
The rising star showed determination and overcame the odds to become one of the hottest rap prospects to come out of the city in recent years.
Speaking with Metro, Bankz said: “Being a Black woman from such a rough community, growing up wasn’t always the nicest thing. I came from a real nitty gritty city, where if you don’t stand on business then they’ll put you around.
“I’ve been making music for four years but I didn’t get official recognition until two years ago,” she added. “People knew me but gave me the cold shoulder. Nobody in Philly takes you seriously unless you make them.”
Bankz first emerged as a dancer on TikTok and bided her time until she built up a large enough platform to unveil her true talent to the world as an artist.
She now has over 1.5M followers and over 62M likes and uses the social media platform to great effect to gain traction for her music.
“I found a way to incorporate my music in everything, all my content circulates around my music, my dancing and my culture. If I’m going to have such a big platform, then I need to utilize it to channel everything to my music and bring all the attention there.”
TikTok has also had a huge effect on the wider dance/club music scene in Philadelphia with the likes of Lay Bankz, 2Rare and Zahsossa representing the city on a global scale.
Bankz said: “The whole culture has changed around music and dance. TikTok has had such an influence on the industry because everyone has such close access and it’s so easy to go viral on there, anyone can do it.”
Earlier this month, Bankz dropped her debut EP ‘Now You See Me’, unveiling an accomplished and versatile body of work that truly represents who she is as an artist.
However, it wasn’t always smooth sailing for this project, as Bankz admitted she is hard on herself and the concept of the album changed multiple times throughout the 7-month process.
Originally ideas swirled around the album being about Philly and the culture of the city where she’s from or her mental health and heartbreak.
She said: “I came to the final conclusion of ‘Now You See Me’ because I felt like I had to tell a story and this is how the story is starting and what they are finally seeing from me.
“The main reason I called it ‘Now You See Me’ is because I felt like my whole life nobody has ever truly seen me for the artist and the woman that I am. With each song that I put on the EP it shows a sense of character and a sense of productivity and it’s all hard work and from the heart.”
One of the lead singles on the album is ‘Na Na Na’. The song was a breakthrough moment for Bankz as it has reached over 11M streams on Spotify and has been one of the catalysts for her recent success.
Despite the success of ‘Na Na Na’, Bankz insists that this won’t change her approach to music in the future, as she has a clear vision for herself as an artist.
“I’m still the same artist that I’ve been and the plan for me doesn’t change—it’s just about telling my story and telling it in the right way.
“I’m never going to try to underwhelm my consumer because I feel this is what they’d like. I’m always going to surprise you. I’m always going to mess your head up. I’m always going to confuse and make you wonder what’s going on.”
Bankz continues to go from strength to strength and recently collaborated with superstar NLE Choppa on his most recent single “It’s Getting Hot.”
Bankz said this collaboration was a huge learning experience as he shared wisdom and experiences on how to navigate the music industry whilst staying true to yourself.
She said that the biggest lesson she learnt from working with NLE was to “stick to what you believe in.”
“Don’t let anyone take you from point A to point Z to point F. At the end of the day, you’re driving the car and this is your career and you need to make those tough decisions to really identify who you want to be as an artist.”
With ‘Now You See Me’, Bankz set out to showcase her versatility from Club-Rap Bangers to R&B and she certainly achieved that. But she isn’t finished.
“I want to be as versatile as I can. I want people to think of Lay Bankz as an all-time creative. I want to be able to create good music for people to enjoy. I just want to take it to a whole other level and want people to understand me as an artist.
“At the end of the day, not everyone is going to get it, some people are going to like it and some people are going to hate it and regardless of that, I’m going to be authentically myself. It’s all about timing and where I go and how I pace myself but trust me, there’s so much more to come.”
