Big Bank Black interview: Changing the Rap Game through Lyrical Emphasis

Big Bank Black’s cause is to show forth rap from a different perspective. Focusing on enjoying time rather than serving time, Big Bank Black has catapulted himself to becoming a well-known Southern rapper. With roots in Atlanta, Big Bank Black released a mixtape and established his own company Duct Tape Entertainment. Parlé caught up with him to conduct a Big Bank Black interview so we could ask him about music and his company.

Parlé: What is Duct Tape Entertainment?
Big Bank Black: It’s an entertainment company that I started in 2005. I started it to get my friends out the street.

Parlé: What kind of things does your company do?
Big Bank Black: Well, we put out the “Try it Out” video. We started it in Atlanta, We haven’t got Def Jam to kick in yet, but when the label does kick in; I know it’ll be really big.

Parlé: What was it about music that made you say it was the route for you?
Big Bank Black: It’s what I know. I got to know it from my city and people I know.

Parlé: How was it working with Zaytoven and Kandi on “Try It Out”?
Big Bank Black: Zay used to cut my kids’ hair when they were younger. We’re personal friends. I met Kandi through a friend of mine. No one was a stranger.

Parlé: Are you working on an album at the moment?
Big Bank Black: Well, I put out a mixtape, you know. It’s a street album. There is an album that I plan to put out later this year. I’m going with the mixtape first, though to get the streets more familiar with my sound. I wanna introduce my sound to the industry. I got material lined up so when the label steps in I can go back and re-record. I got thirty songs but put out fifteen bangers for the mixtape.

Parlé: Is “Stop Playin’” from the mixtape, your next single?
Big Bank Black: It should be. Right now in Atlanta we’re working on a few others. We’re trying to break in a lot of songs, I want the people to decide. We got four songs going at the same time, so we’ll see.

Parlé: You’ve said in a past interview that “Stop Playin’” is your favorite. Why and how does that differ from the others you have out now?
Big Bank Black: It’s my vibe, you know. The whole vibe, it’s got an old-school feel to it. I’m an R & B guy. I’ll ride around listening to R & B before I listen to rap any day. It puts you in a good mood.

Parlé: Where would you say you get your motivation from?
Big Bank Black: Day to day. Everything that just goes on. People say that every day. Day-to-day shit. I might get up and see something. I use whatever’s around me.

Parlé: How do you distinguish Duct Tape Entertainment and your style from others in the game right now?
Big Bank Black: I put out everything. Most rappers TRY to be street niggas or whatever, but I’m a street nigga. I’m trying to dumb it down. I ain’t trying to come with the same ole typical story. I try to switch it up and do entertainment, where it’s not so much about my life. At the end of the day, niggas have told my story already. I might as well just entertain. I’ve really lived this. I want people to build their own perception of me. I don’t want people to think I sound the same. A lot of these rappers be around people like me but ain’t really lived the stuff I’ve lived.

Parlé: You were raised by your grandmother…..
Big Bank Black: Yeah, my grandmother kept the block in line. She raised the whole neighborhood. Everybody. She an OG for real. I couldn’t have had a better teacher. You know a lot of people got grandmothers that bake cookies. Naw, my grandmother kept us in line. Let’s say this, if she came home from work and a glass was broke and you ran in there and told her, she’d be like don’t tell me – I’ll figure it out, don’t tell nobody. I raised my kids the same way. Don’t tell on nobody else.

Parlé: What other projects are you working on?
Big Bank Black: Just keeping the mixtape going. The video is out on the web. I just wanna see the response. I just want to do a hit a record. At the end of the day, a hit record is a hit record. I just wanna put some shit out and see what it do. I say to a lot of these upcoming rappers, put out a record and see the response. If people don’t like it, put something else out. So many people have turned this into a hustle, and you can’t knock that. I’m trying to help out a few which is why I signed them to Duct Tape. Getting my name out there, that’s the motivation.

Parlé: How can people get in touch with you?
Big Bank Black: Hit up the MySpace at Bigbankblackdte

Big Bank Black interview image by Diwang Valdez

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