behind the scene of nicki manaj

Banks also flexes her vocals on a few occasions, most notably on the earworm chorus of “Day Ones,” a dedication to the friends who have stayed by her side. “I actually started singing before I started rapping,” she recalls, explaining she was always a strong singer but stopped practicing in her early teens – “I was always being naughty, smoking and all this stuff – that probably didn’t help!” Unsurprisingly, Banks was born into a musical family (her parents and uncles all made music) in South London and fondly remembers performing for relatives when she was a toddler, enlisting aunties as back-up singers and dancers. “I would have a long-sleeve T-shirt on my head pretending it was a long weave,” she recalls, bursting into infectious laughter. “My family laugh at it now – they’re like ‘Thyra, you were just a baby but you had us in the background!’”

This dedication to music never waned; Banks spent her teenage years polishing her skills, working various jobs to pay for sessions and performing whenever she got a chance. “I would have spent my last for studio time back in the day! Thank God I get loads of help now, but it didn’t come on a plate. Still, I just feel like you should never go into something if you’re not ready to take it all the way.” Again taking her own advice, Banks went all the way and dropped an expansive debut mixtape – Once Upon A Grind – in 2014 and garnered huge support, soon locking down features with the likes of JME, Stormzy, Tinie Tempah and Stefflon Don.

Her profile blew up again with a 2016 freestyle over Kanye West’s “30 Hours,” aired as part of 1Xtra’s Fire In The Booth. “I put in a lot of effort to make sure that was a good freestyle,” Banks says of the overwhelming reaction. “I love any chance to just be free with it because I feel like I mastered the freestyle side of things before I did songs, they’re a bit of a different structure. Any chance I get to just go hot, that’s me!”

It’s clear her fans agree, retweeting her contribution to the #Pengame2challenge in their thousands. In this sense, social media has refreshed the previously male-dominated rap industry, allowing women to breakthrough without a male cosign: “I think females are really showing what we’re made of without needing the men to say, ‘Oh she’s good, let me get you on this song.’ I’m like, ‘No – I’m here, I’m as good as the rest of you guys and I know it!’”

That’s not to say Banks doesn’t still have to fight her corner, or fight off men sliding into her DMs promising collaboration but nurturing an ulterior motive. “Let people know you’re about your business! You don’t have to sleep with a man to get what you want – just get what you want. I would tell women to walk with their eyes open, be vigilant, aware and don’t ever feel pressured to do something because someone offered you something for it. You’ll get there if you need to get there – without opening your legs.”

This thread of female empowerment ties together Banks’ strong back catalogue, which includes several collaborations with the likes of Paigey Cakey, Lisa Mercedez and Shauna Shadae. Banks cites IAMDBB as an artist she’d love to link up with and also repeatedly praises Stefflon Don, whom she counts as both a friend and an inspiration – “I understand her vibe and she understands mine.” Banks also aims to uplift other women, pay homage to her heroes and be sexy on her own terms. The lingerie scene in “Come Thru” is exemplary, inspired by Keisha, the leading lady of Hype Williams film Belly: “She’s so beautiful and she’s got a bob – she’s just so lit!”

She admits she does face some pushback for embracing her sexuality, but says that things aren’t as bad as they once were due to sex-positive trailblazers in the rap industry. “I actually used to be very covered up until I went on holiday, and I was on the beach in a bikini. I was like – “‘This is dead!’ Why am I killing myself to be always covered-up? My body’s nice, so I’ll flaunt it!” Banks also casts beautiful women in her videos, flipping the tired trope of the “video vixen” on its head: “I’m all for women embracing their sexuality on their own terms. I won’t let a man tell me to be sexy so he can use me for views – I’m going to use my own sexuality for views!” At this point she breaks into a hilarious impression of her mother showing friends how sexy her daughter is, again reinforcing her strong presence as a role model in Banks’ life.

Ultimately, it’s refreshing to see a talented musician with a strong sense of who she is as an artist – increasingly rare in an industry which snaps up young stars and signs them to development deals often laced with label interference. Banks may be self-made and unsigned, but she’s managed to gain impressive traction on her own terms – and, she hints, a series of DMs exchanged between Banks and Nicki could yield life-changing results. But The Coldest Winter Ever is more proof that her current team is already enough to lead her to success; in other words, she’s in no rush to sign a deal.“Don’t let them come and decide who you’re going to be,” Banks says sagely. “They might have an understanding of the machine, but they can’t tell who you’re going to be as an artist unless you don’t know yourself. If you don’t know, you shouldn’t be going to get an advance from anyone!”

For more of our interviews, check out our exclusive Q&A and editorial with Bishop Nehru on the release of his new album