MUSIC

It was their second headline visit to NYC, and the room was so packed that you had to stand up straight.

"I felt like he was being a little bit mistreated in some circles and I asked myself, what would Johnny Cash do? He would step up for this young man."

"Every song is an anthem played from the gut — the guitars willing you not to be taken for granted, not to put up with outdated rules and laws, but to speak out and grab your future by throat and change your own destiny."

'Rolls Royce Umbrella' is a rags-to-riches song. It goes like ‘from misery to mimosas’ and ‘I was poor and now I’m poured up.’

“The only difference is the subject matter, which is something you might find in an outlaw country song, or a rap song. Tales of drugs and streets."

Fashion and art colliding together — everything was so fresh and new

By day that gig was housekeeping; by night she’d take the 41 bus to sing at neighborhood spots like the Night Cap on Flatbush Avenue

"Is this art? It must be, no one seems to like it.”

Like all of the best rappers, indeed like all the best songwriters period, Banks is a storyteller