Name: Trillary Banks

Where She’s From: Leicester

When She Started: 2007

Genre: UK Rap/Dancehall

File Next To: Br3nya, Ms. Banks, Alicai Harley

Sounds Like: “It’s just TRILL! Real, and sometimes very raw. My sound is a fusion of my roots: rap, grime, R&B at times and of course, dancehall.”

First Music That Inspired Her: “Growing up listening to music made me feel good. Also, listening to live sets but still feeling the vibes through the tape made me even more intrigued to make music myself; these people were from the ends—just like me—making their own rhymes about themselves. I felt like I wanted to do that too.”

For the past decade, Leicester’s Trillary Banks has been slowly and steadily building an empire. Having laid down the foundations first as Lady Skeng and Pinky GoGetta and then as Trillary Banks via a tireless stream of singles, freestyles and mixtapes, Banks finally released her debut album proper, Vote 4 Trillary. The whole album itself plays out like the culmination of all her hard work, tying together her different facets. Right from the first track, “The Intro”, Banks sets the scene with one of her most lyrically intensive and reflective tracks to date, telling her story so far and celebrating the fact that, in 2019, she’s going stronger than ever.

We’ve written before about the added value that comes from having as many different accents as possible in grime and rap, so we’re not going to bore you too much with that. But we will say that few in this world prove our point like Trillary Banks. Her sure-footed, immovable flow slinks across rap and dancehall beats, using her Leicestershire twang to push her lyrics into different directions and rhyme schemes.

Trillary’s musical upbringing was based around a balanced diet of jungle from her dad, a DJ “who used to thump down jungle riddims in the house and car.” Her auntie, meanwhile, supplied her with classics like The Miseducation Of Lauryn Hill and reggae; all of which can be heard in her truly unique cocktail of UK rap, dancehall, bashment and R&B. Again, it’s in Vote 4 Trillary that we can hear that most potently. The swaggering dancehall vibes of recent single “White Hennessy”, for example, are immediately followed up by a straight soul-meets-R&B collaboration with Etta Bond—and it’s seamless.

Having strived for so long to build what she has, right now Trillary Banks will no doubt want to enjoy the fruits of her labour. But don’t expect her to slow down for too long, because she’s still got a few goals she hasn’t crossed off her list yet: “To chart in the UK and then worldwide, to win a big award for my music, and to sell out the O3!”