RZA & Interpol Frontman Paul Banks Unveil "Very Unique and Very Peculiar" Banks & Steelz Creation, "Love + War" Ahead of Warner Bros. Full-length (Zane Lowe World First Premiere)

"Just in from the department of unexpectedness,

Banks

(no, not

Lloyd

) has upped a mixtape and it's called

EVERYBODY ON MY D*CK LIKE THEY SUPPOSED TO BE

. Actually, we kinda knew this was happening.

Paul [Banks]

sent over a rough mixtape about nine months ago of his beats and production and it was genius. And what, with all the

Kendricks

and the

A$APs

and whatever, we thought a mixtape would take

Banks

to new heights if we got it out months before release... In this case,

Paul

called in a some mega-favors and got features from

El-P

, Talib [Kweli],

Mike G

, and hold up,

HIGH PRIZM

(né

High Priest

)," reads

Matablog's

tongue-in-cheek press release published accompanying

Interpol

frontman

Paul Banks'

surprisingly great 2013 "mixtape,"

Everybody On My D*ck Like They Supposed to Be

. It would appear as though around the same general time frame,

Banks

miraculously managed to link up with avid chess player and

Wu-Tang Clan

founding member

RZA

; "Me and

Paul Banks

from

Interpol

, we're doing an album together. I love

Paul

. [We've] been working on it for six months now. He just left my house. He came and spent two weeks at my house - I have a guesthouse in my studio,"

RZA

revealed to

Rolling Stone

nearly four years ago. "We went to the studio and we started writing songs and they sound very, very different than what I do, but very unique and very peculiar. But it won't be out for a while,"

RZA

exuberantly continued.

Wednesday afternoon out of the blue, nearly four years after candidly mentioning the loose formation of their genre-blending project,

Paul Banks

and

RZA

, now known as

Banks & Steelz

, announced that they would be premiering their as-yet-untitled debut single on

Zane Lowe

's

Beats 1 Radio

show the following afternoon. Low and behold, Thursday afternoon, coinciding with a couple

LA

and

New York

-area

@banksandsteelz

pop-up shops,

Banks & Steelz

gifted Lowe their sultry horn and guitar-assisted single,

"Love + War"

alongside sharp-tongued

Wu-Tang

swordsmen

Ghostface Killah

. It's a rather thought-provoking tasteful melding of

RZA

and

Paul Banks

beloved

Staten Island Hip-Hop

and critically-acclaimed

Indie Rock

stylings, which to my ears at least, tends to evoke both

Santana & Rob Thomas'

GRAMMY

-winning

"Smooth"

and

Common

's

John Mayer

-assisted

Kanye & J Dilla

-produced

G.O.O.D. Music

album,

Be

(2005). Then, Friday morning, mere hours after having initially announced their long-gestated project,

Banks & Steelz

again unveiled

"Love + War"'s

Arms Race

-directed visual accompaniment; "this video is unlisted. Be considerate and think twice before sharing," reads a rather cryptic message mysteriously packaged along with

"Love + War"'

s embedded code. It appears to be a loose 6-minute homage to

RZA

's friend and frequent collaborator

Quentin Tarantino

's cult classic

Reservoir Dogs

and its iconic, often imitated "ear" scene.

Banks & Steelz

have yet to announce any concrete release plans for their debut

Warner Bros.

full-length, although they have in fact booked a string of concert dates at

FYF Fest

, Life Is Beautiful, and

Austin City Limits

this summer.

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