Ant Banks: biography

Ant Banks or Anthony Banks is an American rapper and producer for various West Coast hip hop artists. He was born in Oakland, California. Ant is also known as "The Big Badass" and he released an album of the same name in 1994.

Beginnings and career

He was interested in making music since his childhood. Ant took part in a band at school and that helped him to learn how to play a variety of instruments along the way. He learned Classical music and taught himself to play Funk music. First records
Later, he started to record tapes with his friend, Oakland rapper MC Ant. They recorded their first album, entitled "M.C. Ant The Great” together in 1987 and released it in 1989. The same year, Banks recorded “Life of a Criminal” with M.C. Pooh. Due to the sale in the range of 100,000 to 300,000 units of his first albums,, without a record label or promotion Ant Banks somehow became a prominent figure in the Bay Area hip-hop scene by the early 90s. Co-operation with hip-hop artists
Banks produced songs for such rappers and groups as Too Short, E-40,
Spice 1, Snoop Dogg and 3X Krazy. 1996
In 1996 he appeared on the CD," America is dying Slowly", of Red Hot Organization with other hip hop artists as Biz Markie, Wu-Tang Clan and Fat Joe. This CD was released to raise awareness of the AIDS epidemic among African American men. 1997
To record his compilation CD "Big Things" in 1997, he recruited some of the West Coast's best rappers to assist him. Among them were Ice Cube, 2Pac, E-40, Too Short, Mack-10, and Ice-T. Dabbling in techno music
Banks' talent spread to the techno scene as well. He has also worked on the album "Homework" of the famous French dance band Daft Punk.

Creation of T.W.D.Y

In 1999, Ant started his group T.W.D.Y (The Whole Damn Yay)with Rappin' 4-Tay and Captain Save'Em. Style
It focuses on the hard, sleazy, gangsta style of rap. Content
This group has two albums: debut album Derty Werk (with the hit "Players Holiday”) released in 1999 and their second and final album "Lead the Way" released in 2000. Group status in the year 2000
By then, Ant Banks and Captain Save'Em remained and Rappin' 4-Tay was replaced by Dolla Will. The first album made a name for Ant Banks as one of the West Coast's best producers.