Robin Banks (rapper)

Robin Banks was born in Toronto, Ontario. Robin Banks grew up in the North-West end of Toronto, known as the infamous Jane & Finch intersection.[2] He starting gaining an interest in rap music and hip-hop at a young age, as he rapped in front of his friends in middle school. His favorite artist was New York rapper, 50 Cent, saying that he was his biggest influence to start a rap career.[3]

Banks’ music career started in 2014, uploading his first song and music video Don’t Try Me featuring fellow Toronto rapper, Big Billz.[4] 2015 was the year he dropped his most well known tracks, as Banks has uploaded many of his music videos on YouTube. In January 2015, he uploaded his first single, Up Next, which currently stands at over 1,900,000 views.[5] In May 2015, he released Malis Off A Molly, that has over 600,000 views.[6] In July 2015, he released Club TT which sits at just above 380,000 views.[7] He also uploaded music videos like Wass Gang, which has over 4,000,000 views[8] and Baba Freestyle, which has about 1,000,000 views,[9] respectively. Banks also did remixes of Drake’s song Controlla and The Weeknd’s song Starboy.[10][11] In October 2015, Banks released his first mixtape titled, The Entertainment on DatPiff.[12]

In 2016, he released Priceless which featured Toronto artist Fb. The track was certified gold by Music Canada on August 19, 2020.[13]

In 2017, he released a song with Peso P titled Come Thru.

Banks founded UpTop Movement Inc, a record label based in Toronto. The record label showcases young and upcoming artists from the North-West end of Toronto, such as Burna Bandz, Houdini, and the Tallup Twinz.[14]

Banks has claimed that he has had numerous shows that were supposed to booked at clubs in Toronto, but police shut them down for his alleged gang ties in the Driftwood area.[15] His friend and fellow artist, Pressa is linked to the Toronto gang, Young Buck Killers, so police believe that Banks is some how linked to their criminal ring.[16]

In February 2018, after a long hiatus from releasing a major tape, Banks released his mixtape Still Here. The cover of the mixtape shows Banks’ body and his scars from the bullets he took during a shooting incident in 2017.[17] The mixtape features UpTop Movement Inc artists like Burna Bandz, Area boy, and Layla Hendrix.

Banks launched Uptop Movement, Inc. in 2013 with Shem aka BG. An independent record label for artists from the north-west borough of Toronto to gain recognition.[18] The labels original carnation included Robin Banks, Houdini, Burna Bandz, Tallup Twinz, J Neat, WhyG, SupaWassi and Pressa. They have since gone on to release two compilation albums.[19] Northside Jane (2019) and Northside Jane 2 (2020).[20] [21]

On April 3, 2017, Banks was involved in a shooting incident at a nightclub in Woodbridge.[22] He was shot 9 times inside the club, and his injuries included damage to his spinal cord. Early reports after the shooting claimed that he had life-threatening injuries and he possibly could die, but after some hours at the hospital, he was in stable condition.[1] It is believed that he was specifically targeted because he was $10,000 in debt with the shooter.[23] The suspect, Nicholas Rhoden, was arrested and charged with a list of firearm charges and possession of a substance with the intent of selling and trafficking. Another suspect, Rushawn Anderson, turned himself in as well.[24]

He received support on social media platforms, with the hashtag “#PrayforRobinBanks” circling through different outlets. Rapper Meek Mill showed his support on Instagram by posting a picture of Banks, captioning “Pray 4 da kid.”[1]

His family posted a YouCaring page for help covering the extensive medical bills that came out to $300,000.[25]

Robin Banks is of Jamaican and Somali descent.[2] He constantly mentions Somali terms in his songs and has helped fellow Somalian artists like Top5 and Layla Hendrix gain recognition in the hip-hop scene. His main fan base comes from Toronto, but his music is known throughout the Greater Toronto Area.

Banks is from the Driftwood area of Toronto in the North-West section. The area is known to be a very difficult place to live in due to low education, employment and morality rates.[16] He said he had to survive to get out of that area and that rap was his escape from the gang life and drug game.[3]