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= Robin Banks (rapper) =

Liban Randall (born February 27, 1995), known professionally as Robin Banks (sometimes stylized as ROBIN BANK$) is a Canadian rapper who was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario. He is best known for his hit songs “Up Next” and “Wass Gang”, which features fellow Toronto rapper Pressa. In April 2017, Robin Banks was shot 9 times at a hookah lounge in Vaughan, Ontario and left in critical condition to injuries to his spinal cord.

Early Life
Robin Banks was born Liban Randall in Toronto, Ontario. Robin Banks grew up in the North-West end of Toronto, known as the infamous Jane & Finch intersection. Robin Banks starting gaining an interest in rap music and hip-hop at a young age, as he rapped in front of his friends in middle school. His favorite artist was New York rapper, 50 Cent, saying that he was his biggest influence to start a rap career.

Career
Robin Banks’ music career started in 2014, uploading his first song and music video “Don’t Try Me” featuring fellow Toronto rapper, Big Billz. 2015 was the year he dropped his most well known tracks, as Robin Banks has uploaded many of his music videos on YouTube. In January 2015, he uploaded his first single, “Up Next”, which currently stands at over 1,900,000 views. In May 2015, released “Malis Off A Molly”, currently has over 600,000 views. In July 2015 he released “Club TT” which sits at just above 380,000 views. He also uploaded music videos like “Wass Gang”, which has over 4,000,000 views, and "Baba Freestyle", which has about 1,000,000 views , respectively. Robin Banks also did remixes of Drake’s song “Controlla” and The Weeknd’s song “Starboy”. In October 2015, Robin Banks released his first mixtape titled, “The Entertainment” on DatPiff.

In 2016, he released “Priceless” which featured Toronto artist Fb. The track currently has over 3,000,000 plays on Spotify. In 2017, he released a song with Peso P titled “Come Thru”.

Robin Banks founded UpTop Movement Inc, a record label based in Toronto. The record label showcases young and upcoming artists from the North-West end of Toronto, such as Burna Bandz, Houdini, and the Tallup Twinz.

Robin Banks has claimed that he has had numerous shows that were supposed to booked at clubs in Toronto, but police shut them down for his alleged gang ties in the Driftwood area. His friend and fellow artist Pressa is linked to the Toronto gang, Young Buck Killers, so police believe that Robin Banks is some how linked to their criminal ring.

In February 2018, after a long hiatus from releasing a major tape, Robin Banks released his mixtape “Still Here”. The cover of the mixtape shows Robin Banks’ body and his scars from the bullets he took during a shooting incident in 2017. The mixtape features UpTop Movement Inc artists like Burna Bandz, area boy, and Layla Hendrix.

Style
Robin Banks’ style of rapping has been compared to the late New York rapper, Speaker Knockerz, incorporating rapping and singing while having a very distinct voice. Most of the songs that Robin Banks produces have to do with him having a good time with his friends through alcohol and drugs. He tries to incorporate the stereotypical rapper life which involves drugs, sex and violence. However they are mostly upbeat songs and he always mentions his friends and brothers that struggled with him in the Jane & Finch area. Robin Banks is also known for using Somalian terms in his raps and is proud of his Somalian Heritage.

Robin Banks has claimed to create the term “I’m TT” which is an acronym for “Too Turnt”, with “Turnt” meaning someone is excited and hyped up about something. The term gained recognition after rapper Drake used it as a caption on Instagram.

Shooting Incident
On April 3, 2017, Robin Banks was involved in a shooting incident at a nightclub in Woodbridge. He was shot 9 times inside the club, in which he damaged his spinal cord. Early reports after the shooting claimed that he had life-threatening injuries and he possibly could die, but after some hours at the hospital, he was in stable condition.[1] It is believed that he was specifically targeted because he was $10,000 in debt with the shooter. The suspect, Nicholas Rhoden, was arrested and charged with a list of firearm charges and possession of a substance with the intent of selling and trafficking. Another suspect, Rushawn Anderson, turned himself in as well.

He received tons of support on social media platforms, with the hashtag “#PrayforRobinBanks” circling through different outlets. Rapper Meek Mill, showed his support on Instagram by posting a picture of Robin Banks, captioning “Pray 4 da kid.”

His family posted a YouCaring page for help covering the extensive medical bills that came out to $300,000.

Personal Life
Robin Banks is of Somalian descent. He constantly mentions Somalian terms in his songs and has helped fellow Somalian artists like Top5 and Layla Hendrix gain recognition in the hip-hop seen. His main fan base comes from Toronto, but his music is known throughout the Greater Toronto Area.

Robin Banks is from the Driftwood area of Toronto in the North-West section. The area is known to be a very difficult place to live in due to low education, employment and morality rate. Robin Banks said he had to survive to get out of that area and that rap was his escape from the gang life and drug game.

Robin Banks has no ties to any gangs and hasn't had any major problems with police.