{"id":155480,"date":"2026-01-29T21:34:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T21:34:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/155480\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T21:34:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T21:34:07","slug":"rapper-philip-bank-on-hyphy-kids-cops-and-growing-up-black-in-oakland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/155480\/","title":{"rendered":"Rapper Philip Bank$ on Hyphy kids, cops, and growing up Black in Oakland"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oakland rapper Philip Bank$ knows every corner of Oakland, and seemingly everyone. When he isn\u2019t in the studio collaborating with other Oakland artists, he\u2019s rock climbing at Pacific Pipe, sometimes with other members of the Black Rock Collective<\/a>, or he\u2019s talking with his friends and family about how they can make Oakland better.<\/p>\n

On the day The Oaklandside sat down with Bank$ at World Grounds Cafe in Laurel, he was in the middle of reading \u201cThe Riders Come Out at Night,\u201d<\/a> a book written by The Oaklandside\u2019s Darwin BondGraham and journalist Ali Winston about the Oakland Police Department\u2019s history of corruption and reform<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear from our conversation that Bank$ cares deeply about his hometown. He is knowledgeable about the role that local elected officials and police have played in the community and he\u2019s hungry to learn more about the history of this place.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He tapped that history for his debut solo album \u201cEast Bay Times,\u201d <\/a>released in November, on his 35th birthday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bank$ said the album is a culmination of three years of writing and recording work. He had been toying around with the idea of doing a solo project ever since he and the other members of the hip-hop trio Trey Coastal went their separate ways.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe verbal spreading of knowledge and storytelling is deeply inside of me,\u201d Bank$ said.<\/p>\n

It was producer Jeremy Ward, better known as Hiright \u2014 and a member of the rap group Barbaydose<\/a> \u2014 who pushed Bank$ to get in the studio two years ago. Bank$ already had some tracks in the works, he said, \u201cso in 2024, without me asking or saying anything, Hiright went ahead and created new beats for those tracks.\u201d<\/p>\n

The studio sessions soon became a Town Biz convening. Bank$ recruited rappers Ian Kelly<\/a> for the track \u201cLand of the Oak,\u201d Passwurdz<\/a> of the East Bay hip-hop collective Grand Nationxl<\/a> for \u201cSo Amazing,\u201d and WeInTheCloud<\/a> (a member of Barbaydose) for \u201cSpiritual.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

What Philip Bank$ is listening to now:<\/p>\n

During a recent phone interview, arts and culture journalist Pendarvis Harshaw<\/a> called Bank$ \u201can astute observer.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI have suggested to Phil that he should get into journalism, because of the way that he values the history of Oakland,\u201d Harshaw said. \u201cIn this album, he does that through hip-hop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although a few years apart in age, Harshaw and Bank$ both came of age during the Oakland Hyphy era<\/a>, a style that dominated the sound and culture of Bay Area hip-hop in the late-\u201990s and 2000s.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During the Hyphy era, young men flashed a bombastic sense of style with crisp white tees, baggy jeans, gold grills, and stunna shades. It was a period that produced some of the best uptempo, bass-heavy music of the generation, including the Bay Area classics \u201cTell Me When to Go\u201d by E-40 and \u201cBlow the Whistle\u201d by Too $hort.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have deeply overlapping Oakland communities,\u201d Harshaw said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With their shared Oakland ties, a collaboration came together organically. Bank$ invited Harshaw to the studio last summer and played the tracks, one of them titled \u201cHyphy Kids Got Trauma\u201d \u2014 the same name as a podcast series Harshaw <\/a>had produced in 2023. The phrase had been coined by San Francisco rapper Rich Iyala<\/a>, who used it in the lyrics to a song called \u201cHyphy Kids.\u201d In episode 4 of the podcast series, Harshaw said that Iyala has only ever performed the song live. The phrase resonated so much that graffiti artists\u00a0tagged it all over Oakland.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe sat there and chopped it up, and in between each track, I would give him my thoughts or whatever questions it evoked for each song,\u201d Harshaw said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Harshaw\u2019s commentary became the interludes for five of the tracks, including \u201cJason\u2019s Lyric.\u201d That song is about the death of Bank$\u2019 cousin Jason Roberson, who was gunned down by a gang member<\/a> in 2017. The shooter was ultimately convicted of second-degree murder<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing that was mind-boggling when my cousin Jason was murdered was seeing everyone at his funeral. It was all my family. That means if I died today, these are all the people who would be at my funeral. It was like seeing your own mortality,\u201d Bank$ said<\/p>\n

\u201cLike many other Oakland kids, I lost my first friend to gun violence when I was about 15. I rap so that I can tell other people\u2019s tales. That acknowledgement can lead to healing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The album, he said, was a cathartic experience that gave him space to pour out feelings and thoughts he\u2019d had about growing up as a Black man in Oakland, seeing his hometown change, and processing loss and grief.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the most I\u2019ve ever been able to just say in one project,\u201d Bank$ said. \u201cIt has been freeing and healing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Being from Oakland, I own some of these stories\u2019<\/p>\n

Underneath the high-energy music and style of the Hyphy era, Oakland was plagued by violence and police brutality. In 2006, Oakland experienced 135 deadly shootings<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In his book \u201cOn Loop: Black Sonic Politics of Oakland,\u201d Alex Werth writes<\/a> that the \u201cOakland Police Department came to see hyphy as a proxy for danger and criminality\u201d and used it as an excuse to target young Black men.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEven reading \u2018The Riders Come Out at Night,\u2019 which is the book I\u2019m reading right now, pieces of it inspired my writing,\u201d Bank$ said. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of stories in that book that I know. But then to see how much I don\u2019t know \u2014 it\u2019s crazy imagining myself traversing the city and not knowing all this shit was happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

The track \u201cGreenhouse Gas Chamber\u201d tells the story of when Bank$, at age 19, was hanging out with friends in a car smoking weed only to be harassed by Oakland Police officers, an echo of episodes recounted in the book.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey pulled us out of the car, searched us,\u201d Bank$ said. \u201cBack then, there was no social media to document traffic stops.\u201d<\/p>\n

That search, he said, forever changed the trajectory of one of his friends who was in the car, who ended up caught in the justice system.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing from Oakland, I own some of these stories people don\u2019t know about but can relate to through my lyrics,\u201d Bank$ said. \u201cWhen I\u2019m telling these stories, you could put this in any city. If you\u2019re Black in America, you could understand what I\u2019m talking about. It\u2019s part of our shared history. It goes way beyond Oakland, but I\u2019m able to use Oakland as a setting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bank$ is already spinning ideas about how to perform the music from \u201cEast Bay Times,\u201d in ways that will make sense for the city he loves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thinking outside of the box as to where it is that I can perform,\u201d Bank$ said. \u201cIt might not be something that exists. I\u2019m just trying to be in community, just pull up and do a free show at the lake, or something like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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