Texas-native rapper Erica Banks recently dropped her new album Diary Of The Flow Queen. Today, she’s back with a new music video for the track “Trick.”
The video goes well with the song, which is a relentlessly confident anthem with a catchy beat. It takes place at a strip club and is full of cash, smoke, and skin. The press release states that it “might just be her wildest and definitely most bodacious video yet,” and it’s not wrong.
Last year, Banks went viral with her hit “Buss It,” which was so massive that DaBaby’s label Billion Dollar Baby Entertainment offered to take her on. She turned it down. “I had already turned everybody down,” she said in an interview. “I personally did not sign with DaBaby because I was very excited, it was my second offer, I was like, ‘Hell yeah.’ I was about to get all the planning done. But then I called my mom, like, ‘This is what I’m about to do, I’m about to go sign with DaBaby.’ She’s like, ‘Oh no, we need to slow down. This is only the second offer. We’re not gonna just jump on whatever.’”
Watch the video for “Trick” above.
Erica Banks is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
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Ever since making her debut as part of the growing roster of 1501 Certified Entertainment, Dallas rapper Erica Banks has contended with comparisons to her predecessor as the label’s crown jewel, Megan Thee Stallion. The parallels are obvious; the two women are Texas natives who pride themselves on their lyricism and flow, and both embrace an unapologetic approach to their sexual subject matter.
Tabbed by some fans as a replacement for Meg, signed specifically to spite and undermine Thee Stallion’s successful run in the face of her feud with her erstwhile benefactors, Erica Banks was initially mocked when footage of early performances circulated online. As her viral breakout “Buss It” became popular on TikTok, increasing her exposure to a wider audience, the comparisons likewise became more prominent, even prompting speculation that the two women had beef of their own.
But the thing that gets lost in all of this is that Erica Banks is an accomplished, established rapper in her own right, with four mixtapes to her name already – three self-released — before 1501 ever entered the picture. And now, her debut studio album, Diary Of The Flow Queen, has arrived to further differentiate her from her esteemed colleague and establish her as an artist worth giving attention to on her own merits.
Within moments of pressing play, it becomes apparent that the superficial similarities between Erica and Meg remain on the surface level. While the latter’s punchy delivery can occasionally subsume her Texas drawl, Banks’ accent determines her tempo, slowing her flow down even on the more uptempo tracks. Since she’s still in the early stages of her career – think Meg on the Tina Snow and Fever EPs – Banks has yet to experiment with pop-leaning musical styles, sticking to bass-forward, trunk-thumping Texas beats for the majority of the album.
This works to her advantage on tracks like “Slim Waist” and “Nasty” with Bankroll Freddie, on which she also shows that she has multiple vocal tones to match the mood of the song. While her voice is usually a low-register growl, she can pitch up an octave or two for more sultry come-ons when she isn’t straight-up bragging about her sexual prowess. On the penultimate song, “Work,” she even does some singing – an area where her ostensible rival has stumbled in the past – weaving between her usual rhythmic attack and the melodic flow that dominates rap playlists these days.
There are also few features; the aforementioned Bankroll Freddie, fellow Texan BeatKing, and rising New York rapper DreamDoll (who both appear on “Toot That“) are the only voices other than Erica’s on the album. This allows the DeSoto native to show that she’s capable of holding her own for a full project without growing stale – a testament to the above-mentioned malleability of her voice. Diary Of The Flow Queen may not meander far afield of the same lyrical territory that has been explored by many of the other women in hip-hop taking over the charts lately, but as Cardi B once explained, that’s what the fans want.
More importantly, the album establishes that Erica Banks has her own branch of that lineage, with all the potential to reach the same heights of notoriety as peers like Cardi B, Latto, Saweetie, and yes, even Megan Thee Stallion. She could very well be just one hit away; hopefully, 1501 learned its lesson and extended a contract that will keep their latest star happier than their last.
Diary Of The Flow Queen is out now on 1501 Certified and 300 Entertainment. Get it here.
Erica Banks is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.
Erica Banks is back and has released her new mixtape Diary of The Flow Queen. The incendiary new mixtape is jam-packed with a showcase of her flow and records primed for the clubs. Features include DreamDoll, Bankroll Freddie and BeatKing, along with the new single “Trick.”
“Diary of the Flow Queen is definitely the party girl pack all in one.,” said Erica Banks. “I’m letting my fans get in my head as to what I think a good time is, as I have put it into music. This one’s for the women that enjoy fun, and are not to be played with. Definitely a memorable project, my favorite so far.”
This summer you can catch Banks at Lollapalooza in Chicago, Day N Vegas and Rolling Loud. You can hear the new release below.
