TSR Teens

(EXCLUSIVE) Erica Banks Steps Into The Shade Room To Talk About Megan Thee Stallion, Nicki Minaj, BBLs, Who’d She’d Shoot Her Shot At, And More!

<p><strong>Erica Banks<&sol;strong> is that gworl&period; And&comma; while her name and face have constantly been taking over the headlines&comma; there’s a side to her that many people don’t know&comma; but probably could relate to&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Banks&comma; a native of Dallas&comma; Texas&comma; signed to 1501 Certified Entertainment in the spring of 2019 after playing a snippet of her viral hit &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Buss It” for the label’s CEO&comma; Carl Crawford&comma; on Instagram Live&period; A few months later&comma; the song was on almost everyone&&num;8217&semi;s TikTok and Instagram feeds catching the attention of celebrities&comma; like Chloe Bailey&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;instagram&period;com&sol;reel&sol;CJ4aS35h52w&sol;&quest;igshid&equals;hm530cm609f1">Monica<&sol;a>&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;TraceeEllisRoss&sol;status&sol;1349460843365244928">Tracee Ellis Ross<&sol;a>&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;tiktok&period;com&sol;&commat;gabunion&sol;video&sol;6916635402153561350">Gabrielle Union<&sol;a>&comma; and many more&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-instagram data-shortcode&equals;"CKUsprqhjrM" layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"600" data-captioned><&sol;amp-instagram><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Buss It” wouldn’t be the last time this Flow Queen went viral&period; It seems like every other day she is either defending herself for something she has said or for someone she has dated&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A lot of folks are wondering things that can only be answered and explained by Miss Banks herself&comma; which is why she sat down exclusively with <strong><em>The Director of Social Content for The Shade Room Teens&comma; <&sol;em>Taylor Bickham&comma;<&sol;strong> at SXSW to clear the air and give her perspective of the situations that have transpired over the past year or so&comma; like <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dev&period;theshaderoom&period;com&sol;coi-leray-responds-to-erica-banks-saying-nicki-minaj-entertains-the-girls-who-dont-know-how-to-rap&sol;">her misunderstanding with Nicki Minaj<&sol;a>&comma; her comparison to Megan Thee Stallion&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dev&period;theshaderoom&period;com&sol;erica-banks-responds-to-backlash-after-listing-physical-traits-her-friends-must-meet-to-party-with-her&sol;&quest;&lowbar;gl&equals;1&ast;yx6wrx&ast;&lowbar;up&ast;MQ&period;&period;&ast;&lowbar;ga&ast;MTQ3NTM0NjcyOS4xNjc5NTkxODU5&ast;&lowbar;ga&lowbar;V2HX8YP3XL&ast;MTY3OTU5MTg1Ny4xLjAuMTY3OTU5MTg1Ny4wLjAuMA&period;&period;">even the incident when a video from her &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Close Friends” was leaked<&sol;a>&comma; and more&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-instagram data-shortcode&equals;"CiutEuHNVlw" layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"600" data-captioned><&sol;amp-instagram><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Erica Banks Reflects On How This Past Year Affected Her Mental Health<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; You had a very busy year last year&period; There was a lot that went on&period; I want to first talk about how this past year has affected your mental health&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> Last year was crazy for me&period; Really the whole three years has been crazy for me especially when you are in the media all the time&period; When you are in the media all the time&comma; it’s kind of like… you have to be a certain kind of person to a certain extent&period; So&comma; once my mind was wrapped around that it affected my mental health a lot because for a minute I was like &OpenCurlyQuote;wow&comma; I really can’t be myself’ with this particular career&comma; and I am just not used to not being me&period; So&comma; there’s been a lot of times where&period;&period; I wouldn’t say I’ve had an identity crisis but I’ve went through times where I’m like&comma; damn&comma; am I her or am I her&quest; It takes a toll on you&period; I am still human&period; I cry all the time about a lot of different things&period; But&comma; it has made me who I am&period; And&comma; I am still standing three years later so&period;&period; You know&period;&period; Shoutout to the man upstairs&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; Growing up in the limelight&comma; it seems like you still have to answer for mistakes you made as a kid&period; How does that make you feel&quest; How do you deal with it&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> Um… it makes me feel like the world is against me&period; That’s how it feels&period; Of course&comma; as a celebrity… everything I do is magnified&period; So&comma; I have to be very mindful and careful of how I say things&comma; and it can be a little irritating sometimes because I don’t ever want to come off&comma; especially to my fans&comma; as this fake person&comma; and that’s why I’m so real and so vocal&period; But&comma; I have learned&comma; after going through things to say things a certain way if you’re going to say it&period; Not so much filter it&period;&period; But&comma; don’t be so… you &lbrack;Erica&rsqb; with it&period; Because sometimes being too much of you can rub people the wrong way&comma; and you don’t always want to do that&period; So&comma; I’ve learned a lot&period; The industry has definitely taught me how to maneuver&comma; also in a political way&period; Where I am now&comma; I feel like I am in a very great place&period; Even with the mistakes I’ve made&comma; I don’t regret anything&period; I feel like everything is a learning experience&comma; and even my experience&comma; can teach someone else wanting to do music&period; At the end of the day&comma; you just have to take it with a grain of salt&period; It’s still life&period; We’re all still human and you just keep on moving&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; I feel like it’s also not just you being you&comma; but also&comma; people not understanding where you are from&period; So&comma; there may be things that are understood in Dallas that may not be understood in New York&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> Right&excl; It’s a lot of times that when I say certain things that people from Down South understood it&comma; but everyone else was kind of like… &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;why she say that&excl;&quest;” You know&quest; But&comma; like you said&comma; it just depends on who is receiving it&period; Because&comma; everyone is going to receive it differently&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; With all the things that happened and you prioritizing your mental health&comma; what would you suggest to other people that are wanting to be in the spotlight&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> As far as mental health goes&comma; I would say to first know and understand what you are getting into&period; Look into it… ask about it… get with people who are in the industry so they can maybe give you some kind of insight before going into it&period; The second thing would be to… I can’t tell people to remain spiritual&period;&period; Everyone isn’t into that but for me&comma; remaining spiritual and always talking to my God has worked for me&period; So&comma; whatever religion you have I would say tap into that&period; That can give you a warm comfortable space to live in and overall surround yourself with people who want to see you win&period; You know&period;&period; That matters&period; I feel like… if you surround yourself with people who don’t want to see you win… you’re never going to win because you are your environment&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Erica Banks Says She Would Shoot Her Shot With Erica Mena<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; I like that you said that because I want to segue into the incident that happened where someone exposed something that was in your close friends&period; Did you have to reevaluate your circle&quest; What were the things you had to do when that incident happened outside of the things that happened in the media&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> Yeah absolutely I had to reevaluate my circle which isn’t very big anyway&period; But&comma; I had to narrow it down even smaller because whoever I consider these people to be&comma; they consider themselves something else&comma; clearly&period; Which is not a friend&period; So&comma; I had to cut some people off&period; You know&period;&period; It was no hard feelings&period; To this day I still don’t know&period;&period; I would love to know&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; I was about to ask&comma; did you know who&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> I don’t know… I have like three contenders but I can’t pin it on nobody&period; You know&quest; And&comma; I am not the person to be like&comma; you did it&excl; You know what I’m saying&quest; So&comma; whatever f— it&period; If I find out later&comma; I will find out later&comma; but I just had to cut my circle down and now we are down to a circle that’s not very big&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; With this incident that happened&comma; I know you talk about it a lot in the media of it being a misunderstanding of what you were saying and it being a violation of privacy&comma; so what did you mean exactly&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> Yeah&comma; so a lot of people&comma; especially if you don’t know me&comma; were misunderstood&period;&period; It was taken out of context… and me&comma; like I said in my last interview&comma; I am very non filtered&period; When I speak it comes off however the hell I want it to especially if I know you and I know you know me so you know how i mean it&period; But as far as the type of women I was referring to was actually… my type&comma; literally&period; Because some people know&comma; some people don’t know&period;&period; I like men and women&period; So&comma; when I go to the club&comma; I like eye candy so I am going to go off of what I think is cool for me when I get home and I want to …&period; But&comma; as I said in my last interview&comma; everything isn’t always about the look of something&period; But&comma; me coming into the industry&period;&period; I started to believe that&period;&period; Like okay… this sh— DO matter&period; It do matter what you look like&period; It do matter what you have on&comma; and I took on that thought process just from being in the industry and how it is and I kind of took it upon myself and thinking maybe this is how I am supposed to do it&comma; so this is the type I want&period; So&comma; I started to follow what was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;industry”&comma; which isn’t even me but you know&comma; I felt like I fell into that just by being consumed with what I am around&period; But now&comma; I just don’t even press it&period; If you want to come out with Erica Banks&comma; cool&period; Because it was misconstrued and I don’t want people to feel like I am that type of girl because i’m really not&period; So now&comma; it don’t even matter&period; Come if you come&period; If I think you fine&comma; we can get it on later&period; It’s just not that deep&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; Well with that being said&comma; what is your type&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> I like&period;&period; Real juicy&period; I like&period;&period; Bouncy&period; It don’t have to be a BBL&period; Sh— I ain’t always had a BBL&comma; so you know&period;&period; Some of the girls I’ve been with ain’t had no BBL&period; Let’s cut the BBL sh— out&period; I feel like once I got a BBL&period; I became the BBL girl&comma; and it’s never that&period; Skin complexion does not matter&period; We like all ethnicities&period; We like Latinos&period;&period; We like brownskin… I’ve never tried a white girl though&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; What about personality wise&quest; What do you cling to&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> Personality wise&period;&period; I cling to bubbly&period; I like social&period; I don’t like someone who is too quiet&period; I don’t like nobody who don’t like to drink&period; If you don’t do what I like to do&comma; I don’t want to kick it&period; Love a pretty smile&period;&period; Don’t have to be veneers&period; I have to say a lot this because they act like I am so specific with what I like in my life&period; As long as she funny&comma; like to have a good time&comma; she my type of girl&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; Okay&comma; so what about from a guy&&num;8217&semi;s perspective&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Erica Banks&colon; Guys… I like someone who is hard working&period; I like someone who is understanding&period; Secure… Let me say that again… SECURE&period; As far as looks&comma; I don’t even really know what my type is with dudes because I may get a dude that looks like this&period;&period; And next week I get a guy that looks like that&period; Even growing up my mom used to tell me&period;&period; I don’t even know what you like forreal because you always just bringing anybody in here&period; So&comma; I don’t really have a physical requirements for a dude&period; If I like him&comma; I like him&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; If you could shoot your shot at one celebrity &lpar;male or female&rpar; who would it be&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> You know what&period;&period; if it was a woman… I love me some Erica Mena&period; Erica Mena is something to do&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; I feel like it would be frustrating to date someone with the same name as me&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> I&period;&period; think that kind of would&period; I never done that — that would be a little weird&excl; I would probably find another name to call her… a cute little nickname or something&period; I met her a couple of weeks ago&comma; and her energy was just so vibrant&period;&period; bubbly…&period; what I like&excl; I was like you know… I could see myself with her&period;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-instagram data-shortcode&equals;"Cl14vz6Pe1t" layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"600" data-captioned><&sol;amp-instagram><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Erica Banks Says That She Would Have Been An Entrepreneur If She Didn&&num;8217&semi;t Become A Rapper<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; How does your family deal with the media storm when they see you in the headlines or going viral&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> They call me all the time&period; I be telling them &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;mom and dad you don’t have to call me it’s cool today&period; I know y’all see me on the blogs&comma; but it’s cool&period;” But&comma; when it first started happening they would call me and be like &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;E&comma; are you okay&quest; We know this is a lot&period; We know this isn’t you&period; Just understand this is going to happen forever&comma; just block it out&period;” You know they are still my parents so they want to make sure that I’m comfortable or that I’m good&period; But at this point&comma; we all kind of understand that this is what my life is now&comma; so they don’t really panic anymore&period; They just call to check on me to make sure that I’m good when stuff does happen&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; So you mentioned earlier that if you wanted to be in this job&comma; in this industry&comma; that’s what this looks like&comma; but if you had to pick another job&comma; what other career would you have chosen&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> I would have been an entrepreneur&period; I would have opened a nail shop&comma; which I still want to do&period; I would have opened a beauty supply&period; I would have probably sold hair&period; I would do clothes&comma; for sure&period; I would get into my cooking thing… probably sell plates&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><em>Taylor Bickham&colon; You can cook&quest;&quest;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> What&quest;&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><em>Taylor Bickham&colon; What’s your best dish&quest;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> Baked Chicken&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-instagram data-shortcode&equals;"CpBJD5gMTB2" layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"600" data-captioned><&sol;amp-instagram><&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3><&sol;h3>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Erica Banks Says She Wanted A BBL At 16 Before Becoming A Rapper<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; Haha&comma; okay you talk about getting a lot of attention and backlash for having a BBL&comma; and that is very common in the industry&comma; but is very categorized&comma; so tell me what made you make the decision to get a BBL&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> Oh girl when I was in high school&comma; I knew I was going to do it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; Really&quest;&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> What&quest; Yes&excl; I knew I was going to do&period; And&comma; I knew I was going to do it because I knew what I wanted to look like&period; But&comma; I also knew that I didn’t want to go to the gym and do it&period; Because I went to the gym when I signed with 1501&period; They had me in the gym for a good six months&comma; and after those six months I was like&comma; I am tired of sweating out my frontal every day&period; I am tired of spending money on a wig every two days because I am sweating at the gym&period; I am starting to look good but I am tired of this sh—&period; They had me picking up tires&comma; and running relays&period; I’m like this ain’t my cup of tea&period; I’d rather just get it done&period; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dev&period;theshaderoom&period;com&sol;video-erica-banks-had-work-done-to-her-body-she-is-proud-about-it-i-got-my-body-done&sol;">So&comma; I got me some money and I went and got it done<&sol;a>&period; I know a lot of people would think I got it done because of what I do&period; But&comma; i didn’t know at 16 I would be rapping&period; But&comma; I knew at 16&comma; I wanted a BBL&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-instagram data-shortcode&equals;"Cc5smWcOPSU" layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"600" data-captioned><&sol;amp-instagram><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; Did you talk to your parents about it when you were 16&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> Oh yeah&excl; My mama was like &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;you don’t need to do that”&period; She used to show me pictures of botched butts and tell me this is what is going to happen to me&period; She still do that&period;&period; I’m like girl…<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; Were you worried about how it may turn out&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> Um&period;&period; I was a little freaked out when she first started showing me because they had a TV show about that&period; She used to make me watch that too&period; But&comma; I used to be scared with what I saw on TV&comma; but i would always think…”I don’t think God gone let that happen to me” and I mean you know… I also feel like whatever happens&period;&period; supposed to happen&period; God forbid anything bad happen to me but I would tell her I feel what you saying but I am just gone try it just to see&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; In terms of young girls&comma; how can they still love their natural bodies in a world where we can make those kinds of adjustments&quest; What would be your suggestion to them to be able to still love their bodies&comma; at this time&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> I would say to young girls&period; Wait until you get older to see what you look like&period; You might like your body by 23&period; And&comma; if you don’t&comma; or you want to enhance it&comma; by all means do so&period; It’s your body&period; Whatever you want to do with it&period;&period; Whether you want to keep it natural… get a BBL… or whatever&period; But&comma; as far as loving yourself&period;&period; I would say it starts there&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; I feel like a lot of people feel like&comma; &&num;8220&semi;I will love myself more if this happens&&num;8221&semi;&comma; but if you don’t love yourself before you get a BBL&comma; you probably won’t after&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks<&sol;strong>&colon; Exactly&period;&period; It starts within&period; I was happy inside before I got a BBL&comma; so now it probably looks like I’m cocky as hell&period; But&comma; I was already happy so it just started on the inside&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Erica Banks Says She Will Still Be A Die-Hard &&num;8220&semi;Barb&&num;8221&semi; Whether She Gets A Feature From Nicki Minaj&comma; Or Not<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; Now&comma; let’s get into this Nicki Minaj situation because you are a Barb&comma; right&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> Yes I am&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; And&comma; you are a proud Barb regardless of everything that’s happened&comma; so what was the misunderstanding&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> Girl…&period; You know I’ve said this too&comma; a lot of times people are misunderstood when they don’t know each other&period; Or&comma; when they’ve never spoken to each other&comma; so like&comma; if I never met you and you made a statement about me or whatever and I don’t know you&period; I could probably take it the wrong way because I don’t know you&period; I don’t know how you meant it&period; But with my situation&comma; long story short… I agreed with a statement that a person said and when I agreed with them…&period; I was just being a super fan of Nicki Minaj&period; And&comma; I’m just like… <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dev&period;theshaderoom&period;com&sol;exclusive-erica-banks-nicki-minaj-feature&sol;">I would love to work with Nicki Minaj<&sol;a>&period; That’s really all it was&period; I think it was misunderstood on her end just because we don’t know each other&period; So it probably came off&period;&period; However it did to her&comma; but regardless of that I’m still a Barb&period; I still know every word&period; I’m still listening to &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Red Ruby Da Sleeze”&period; I don’t care what the internet say&period; They love to say &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;oh she’s just doing that for the feature” or &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;oh she&&num;8217&semi;s still trying to do this&period; That’s dead&period;” And&comma; I’m like if it’s dead&comma; let it be dead&comma; but I’m still a fan&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-instagram data-shortcode&equals;"CcdzpmoP3tm" layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"600" data-captioned><&sol;amp-instagram><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; So&comma; regardless if you got a feature with her or not&comma; you’d still be a fan&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks<&sol;strong>&colon; I would still be a die-hard Nicki Minaj fan&period; But&comma; she better call me lol&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; Are you still <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dev&period;theshaderoom&period;com&sol;erica-banks-clarifies-that-she-has-love-for-nicki-minaj-after-people-thought-she-unfollowed-her-says-she-was-blocked-after-making-a-certain-comment&sol;">blocked<&sol;a>&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks<&sol;strong>&colon; Girl&comma; yeah&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; Have you reached out since&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> I reached out that same day from <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;instagram&period;com&sol;cookingwithebanks&quest;igshid&equals;YmMyMTA2M2Y&equals;">my cooking page<&sol;a>&comma; but I haven’t heard from her since then&comma; so no&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><em>Taylor Bickham&colon; So&comma; if you could say something to Nicki right now&comma; what would it be&quest;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> Um… I don’t know… if I had to come off the top&period; I would be like&period;&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Now girl… you know”&period; You know&quest; I would come at her like a real person&period; It wouldn’t even be scripted&period; I would just be like&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Girl&comma; you know what I meant&period; Why you do that&quest;” You know… I would kind of do it on a joking tip because that’s just my personality&period; I feel like she would understand me if we spoke like how me and you are speaking versus Instagram&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Erica Banks Gives Megan The Stallion Her Flowers &amp&semi; Deads Any Beef Rumors<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; Outside of the things that’s happened with Nicki&comma; another rap girl that comes up with your name a lot is Megan The Stallion&period; How do you feel about the comparison&quest; Do y’all have a relationship&quest; Is this &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;beef” just something the internet made up&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> Honestly how I feel about it is that I’m honored to be compared to someone of such a high caliber&period; Because let’s be real&period;&period; She’s amazing&period; Her music is amazing&period; She’s doing her thing&period; Salute to her&period; But&comma; when it comes to the comparisons&comma; it’s just something the people are going to do&period; You know&period;&period; And&comma; with the internet&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dev&period;theshaderoom&period;com&sol;erica-banks-seemingly-responds-to-fans-who-say-she-copied-megan-thee-stallions-video&sol;">you have to let the internet do what it’s gone do&comma;<&sol;a> and that’s be messy&period; That’s turn people against each other&period; We don’t have a problem&period; We’ve never met in person&comma; which is crazy to think when you look at the internet and what they’ve said&period; I think I really allowed the internet to consume me with that — with the whole thought of being against her&period; I started to feel like&period;&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Damn&comma; do we really have a problem&quest;” and one day I realized… we really don’t&period; We actually had a conversation back in 2020&period; Very brief&period; Just heartfelt&period; Just sharing heart to heart girl sh—&period; But&comma; other than that&period; Nah&comma; we haven’t spoken&period; It’s just an internet thing&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; Do you feel like the internet and industry does that a lot with women&quest; Putting them against each other&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> I think it’s because they know women are catty&comma; and very egotistical&period; And&comma; they know the men don’t really care about all of that&period; Men aren’t going to go back and forth on the internet all day about who better&period; They don’t care about that&period; They’re men&period; That’s not something they even feed into&period; If anything they gone dap each other up&comma; and go kick it at the studio&period; But girls&comma; when somebody say they are better than somebody else&comma; it’s like World War III&period; I think the internet does this with the women because they know the women are going to go for it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-instagram data-shortcode&equals;"CdyZyNrp9yw" layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"600" data-captioned><&sol;amp-instagram><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Erica Banks Reflects On Her Journey To Hip Hop &amp&semi; How Nicki Minaj Inspired Her In 5th Grade<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; It’s the 50th Anniversary of Hip Hop&period; I want to segue a little bit and talk about your journey into Hip Hop&period; What made you want to hone into that&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> Honestly&period;&period; it was Nicki Minaj&excl; I was in the 5th grade&comma; and I think it was the Drake &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Best I Ever Had &lpar;Remix&rpar;” that she was on&comma; and I was like… who is this girl singing on here&quest;&excl; I like it&excl; And&comma; then it turned out to be Nicki Minaj&period; You know… I’m in like 5th grade&period; I’m like&period;&period; 11 years old&comma; and I’m seeing this Barbie girl in pink rap and now I want to do it&period; I’ll never forget I got me a composition book two days after hearing that song&comma; and I wanted to do what she was doing&period; I just started writing raps&period; Like&comma; my mom still got the composition books&period; So yeah… she was my biggest inspiration&period; Growing up&comma; I listened to her &lbrack;Nicki&rsqb;&comma; Missy Elliot&comma; Lil Wayne&comma; Drake… the whole Young Money era I was locked in&period; Everybody had their own style&period; Even today&comma; they still do&period; They were a big inspiration on why I went into rap&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;"alignnone size-full wp-image-117187" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dev&period;theshaderoom&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2023&sol;03&sol;Erica-Banks-Composition-Book-2-scaled&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1140" height&equals;"1520" &sol;> <img class&equals;"alignnone size-daze&lowbar;wrapper&lowbar;width wp-image-117188" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;dev&period;theshaderoom&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2023&sol;03&sol;Erica-Banks-Composition-Book-scaled&period;jpg&quest;w&equals;1140" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"1140" height&equals;"1520" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; With it being Women’s History Month&comma; who is your Mount Rushmore of Female Rappers&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks<&sol;strong>&colon; It would be Nicki Minaj&comma; Missy Elliot&period; Hmmm… I’mma have to go with Eve&period; Then&comma; MC Lyte and Queen Latifah&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; What Hip Hop Album Changed Your Life&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> What Hip Hop album changed my life… Pink Friday&period; Pink Friday&comma; for sure&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Save Me” and &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Right Thru Me”&&num;8230&semi;&period; did a lot for me&period; Even the mixtapes&comma; like&period;&period; Chile… I’m a Barb&period; Come on&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<h3 style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;">Erica Banks Talks About &&num;8220&semi;Buss It&&num;8221&semi; Going Viral &amp&semi; How She Hated The Song<&sol;h3>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; I want to talk to you about &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Buss It” going viral&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> I love talking about it&period; That’s like my child&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; Everyone hopped on it&excl;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> What’s crazy is&period;&period; I didn’t even like &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Buss It”&period; I wasn’t going to put it out&period; I had my whole tracklist and I trashed it because it wasn’t good enough&period; And&comma; when I signed with 1501&comma; Carl and D-Boy&comma; my manager… they were like&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Nah&comma; this is hard&period; We need to put this out&period; This is good&period;” And&comma; I’m like &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Ahhh… Whatever” I personally feel like &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Toot That” is a better song&period; Or&comma; at the time I did&period; So&comma; we put it out and it went viral in under six months&comma; and it was crazy&period; It was overwhelming<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; So&comma; who hopped on the challenge that you were excited about&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> Girl&period;&period; Tracee Ellis Ross&period; I was like what the f—&period; Like&comma; Gabrielle Union… what the f—-&period; Monica… what the f—-&period; Everybody was just tuned in&period; But&comma; I think at that point is when I started to feel like… okay this is working&period; Maybe I am supposed to be doing this&period; Damn&comma; I didn’t even like this song and it’s doing this&period; It gave me confidence as an artist&comma; too&comma; because I didn’t like the song&period; So&comma; now&comma; even sh— that I don’t like&comma; I still put it out&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; It’s crazy that you didn’t like the song&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> I hated it&period; I still hate it&comma; lol&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; Really&comma; why&quest;&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> It’s just I felt like I could do a lot better&period; But&comma; like in today’s world&comma; it seems like the simpler music is what people want&period; If I got on the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Buss It” beat today&period; It would be so much harder&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; Do it&period; You coming out with a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Buss It” Remix&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> That would be hard&comma; huh&quest; You might have said something&period; You might have just did something right there&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-tiktok data-src&equals;"6916349787650510086" width&equals;"325" height&equals;"575"><&sol;amp-tiktok><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; So&comma; what’s next for you&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> Everything — what’s not next&excl; So&comma; I’m getting ready to drop my single&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Ain’t Got Time” at the end of this month&period; We’re excited about that&period; We have the video for that&comma; and my fans have been going crazy at my neck about it since December&period; So&comma; we finally putting that out&comma; and following that we will do press runs and tours&period; I did a tour last summer with Summer Walker and T-Pain&period; And&comma; I spoke with T-Pain recently and he’s about to relaunch the next tour&comma; so y’all will probably see me on that&period; And&comma; of course&comma; following the single we will have a project&period;&period; Merchandise&period;&period; I’m getting into my cooking show more&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; So&comma; you’re going to be putting out recipes&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> Oh baby&comma; I’m gonna publish a cookbook&period; I don’t know what I’m going to call it&period; But&comma; I’m publishing a cookbook this year&period; And&comma; you better buy it&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Taylor Bickham&colon; If you could say something to your fans or The Shade Room readers&comma; what would it be&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Erica Banks&colon;<&sol;strong> I would want to tell my fans that I love them dearly&period; I appreciate their support from day zero to now&period; From supporting my Soundcloud music&comma; all the way to being in the comments defending me today&period; And&comma; a lot of times&comma; if I’m not posting a lot&comma; they think that something’s wrong&period; Or&comma; I be seeing the comments&period;&period; they think I’m laid up with a n—&&num;8211&semi;&comma; and sometimes I do be laid up with a n—-&comma; lol&comma; but always know that I’m always working whether I’m posting or not&period; I love my fans&period; Big shoutout to them&comma; and we locked in forever&period; Period&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine; 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Taylor Bickham

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