You Rate It: Robb Bank$’ “Tha City” LP

Words by Jesse Serwer—

If you follow rap music via blogs and Tumblr, you may have heard of Robb Bank$, the 19-year-old rapper out of South Florida. And if you’ve heard of Robb Bank$, you may have also heard that is his father is Shaggy. Well, that’s no rumor, it’s true. Although Bank$ has downplayed his paternity in the past (We can’t comprehend why anyone would deny their dad is Shaggy (!) but our guess it has something to do with the disconnect between Robb’s hustler lyrics and financially stable past), his new mixtape Tha City puts the speculation to rest with a cover pic showing a pint-sized Robb photobombing his dad at a family outing.

We’re not totally sold on Robb’s mic skills yet, but he’s procured some interesting production on Tha City from the likes of Cool and Dre and Zaytoven, among others. Of particular note to us is the opening track “Flex (Da City),” which is co-produced by Spaceghostpurrp—another much-talked-about Miami area rapper with Caribbean roots—and prominently features a cryptic sample of Shaggy’s ’90s dancehall peer Red Rat (from “Love Dem Bad” with Buju Banton). We can’t help but notice this is the second tune we’ve heard sample Red Rat in as many weeks, the other being Samantha J’s more explicit homage, “Tight Up Skirt”. Could a Red Rat renaissance be far behind? Listen here:

Stream the whole album below and tell us if you’re digging Robb Bank$ gritty sound, or if you think should he go back to square one and start stunting like his daddy.