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
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
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
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
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
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.