By Stranga The Great
Hip Hop Vibe Staff Writer
There were a few emcees here and there who made mainstream moves from North Carolina, but none of them have been as high profile as J. Cole. Nearly a month ago, J. Cole released his sophomore album, Born Sinner, and most have been impressed with the album. In the midst of this, Banga Yours Truly came after him.
A fellow Fayetteville, North Carolina emcee, Banga Yours Truly has his own background in the rap game. Obviously, he is not on the same level of popularity as J. Cole, but it does not mean Banga Yours Truly is not known. Over a week ago, Banga Yours Truly released “End of a Cole Mine,” targeting J. Cole.
Banga Yours Truly is getting a pretty bad rap online, so Hip Hop Vibe decided to reach out with him to get his opinion and then fans can make up their minds. In this interview, Banga Yours Truly gave an overview of his career, his moves, and then the J. Cole diss. Find out more about this Fayetteville emcee.
Read the entire interview below:
You have a very polished sound, how long have you been rapping and what inspired you along the way? Well, I been rapping for about twelve years, but really started taking it serious for the past six. What inspired me was the crowd I was around, by them always telling me they love my style of rapping and always reminding to keep going with it because they have so much faith in me. Plus I always was around local rappers who were great at their art and always believed they were good enough to make it to the industry.
Starting my grind in Fayetteville, NC and seeing many come and many go can you tell me how you feel about the current state of hip hop in Fayetteville? The current state of hip hop in Fayetteville to me is “confused.” A lot of people in my city try to follow trends of what’s already out and on the radio. You got a lot of them trying to sound like what’s already being heard, or scared to express their real selves because of them being afraid the audience wont like it, but I always had faith in my style of music.
Your latest mixtape is titled “Dopeboy Decisions” can you describe what the creation process was like when you recorded it? The creation process behind Dopeboy Desicions was basically my life on wax. I go through so much and see so much everyday that I just felt like it had to be talked about and understood in a way that was so blunt and easy to understand but hard to compare to any other. The process was fun though, because I could make a song and it be about my everyday life and then u get to see the reaction on your peer’s faces like “Man I just went through that yesterday!”
Being one of the top up and coming MC’s from Fayetteville how do you seperate life as an artist and life as a guy who grew up in the streets? First of all, I grew up in the streets, but I also always had morals and respect that was taught to me by my parents. A lot of people have a certain image of a person who is from the streets, and I’m here to show them that just because you’re from the streets or in the streets doesn’t mean u have a certain image u have to portray. Its cool to just be yourself.
You have performed with a lot of A-list Industry artist, which performance stands out the most to you and why? A performance that stands out to me the most is the one with Wakka Flocka Flame. I say that because we had so much fun that night and the crowd reacted so well off my music. A lot of them knew all the words and a lot of them just danced to it and I could tell they felt the music.
Describe to me your relationship with Self Made 26 and why you chose to let them back your brand? My relationship with Self Made 26 is family. We started this together and they always had so much faith in me that I could take us to the top so why wouldn’t I let them back me?
Now this is the question we all want to know. You recently released a record dissing rapper J.Cole who is also from Fayetteville. Can you let the people know the reason you chose to do this? To sum that question up, the majority of the people don’t know the whole inside story. See, I don’t get off from dissing other rappers to get attention, I did it to make my statement and to stand behind my name because I know I put in so much work behind my name in Fayetteville and for someone from my city to call their stuff Truly Yours messes with my head. I look at it as if I were to make it big with my name Banga YoursTruly, people who didn’t know me would be like “Oh man, he’s tryna be like J.Cole because they’re from the same small city” when that is far from right. It’s a lot more personal things to the story but just know that I did it for a purpose and not for fame.
It takes a lot of courage to go up against a national recording artist or anyone affiliated with Jay-Z. Have you received any backlash in response to the diss and is the city supportive of the move? I definitely have received both backlash and support from my city with the diss song. I can’t do anything but respect everyone’s opinion but I know what went on and they don’t and whats done in the dark comes to the light. Always!!
Seeing how controversy leads to sucess in the industry where do you predict your movement to be at in the next year? In the next year, I would hope to be on but only time will tell. I have 110% faith in my music, that it is good enough to make it to the industry.
Can you let all the fans know how they can support the movement and how to get in touch with you. You can check me out on Bangayourstruly.com or facebook/bangayourstruly. You can Google me at Banga YoursTruly or search Datpiff.com and type in Banga YoursTruly for my Dopeboy Desicions mixtape. Also you can twitter @Bangayourstruly and YouTube Banga YoursTruly and just click every video you see with my name (laughs), it’s about fifty of them man. I been working! (laughs).
Follow Stranga The Great on Twitter @StrangaTheGreat.
