Tate Kobang

Baltimore rapper Tate Kobang secured his record deal through a genuine freestyle whose loose, rapid delivery earned the title "Bank Roll." The instrumental for his 2015 recording came directly from Tim Trees’ 2000 single “Bank Rolls,” a regional Baltimore favorite that first reached Kobang when he was eight. A decade afterward he began releasing his own hip-hop projects, among them the 2012 mixtape Book of Joshua. The 2014 release Crown of Thorns followed, and in 2015 he put out Live Hazey together with a new take on “Bank Rolls” that kept the original beat while swapping the lyrics, initially intended only as a promotional giveaway. The track became a major success, leading Kobang to sign with 300 Entertainment by the close of summer 2015.