Burt Bankkz puts his music to melodic work in hip-hop statement track “Dreams”
By Kurt Beyers
On the surface, “Dreams,” the latest single by Burt Bankkz, is a righteous hip-hop ballad about going after dreams, in his case, music as a way out of the hardship of growing up on the streets of a hard section of Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
“I made the song based on the past struggles that I’ve been going through with life, growing up as a kid in a poor community and stuff.”
The guitar and the beat gently rock through his story of escape. Burt delivers the lyrics at speed but in waves set to the slower pace of the melody, telling a story of dreams, not just in life and livelihood, but also in music.
The song is based on his life, but it is also about what he wants to do with his music.
“It’s basically just to shine light on areas where, like nowadays, rappers are mostly rapping about killing people or all this other stuff, all this other negativity. I’m just trying to shine a positive light.”
I’ve been down this road
They tellin’ me slow down
’Cause I’m getting’ too old
I do this for my family
And people up the road
The lyrics delivered by featured artist T-Rell come fast and hard, focusing on the work that makes the dreams reality.
I ain’t never lettin’ go
I got too much to do
I got big dreams
The video and the track dropped simultaneously.
Bankkz has been rapping since age 11, growing up in the hardship and violence of the Deepside neighborhood of Fort Lauderdale.
“The neighborhood wasn’t too good, you know, a lot of robbing, killing and selling drugs and stuff like that. Just a typical neighborhood.”
He started rapping with his older brother, who encouraged him to continue with it. Gradually, he began putting his focus to the music instead of the street.
He put in the work, “the hustle,” and “Dreams” is about the work as much as the dream. For the video, he drove 20 hours from Fort Lauderdale to Oklahoma City, where T-Rell was, to shoot the video because “it would have been more money for me to fly him down to Florida for the shoot.”
His previous releases have been more straightforward rap, but with “Dreams” the music, the melody and the rhythm out front.
“I want to take a different path, because, like I say, everybody around me is doing the same thing. Especially in Florida, everybody’s doing the same thing. So, I wanted to try to give the world, who I really am, just do stuff naturally, how I feel I should do it.”
“Dreams” pulls the listener in. The dream is told through Bankkz’s lyrics, coming in bursts that are tied to the easy rhythm of the instruments, and the slow beat. Together, they create a dreamy vibe yet build up to the intensity of T-Rell’s insistent declaration of purpose.
Going forward, he said, his music will be more like “Dreams,” and his last two songs, the melodic “Only God Can Judge Me” and “They Don’t Know” rather than the machine-gun rap of “Clark Kent” and “Check.”
“I’m trying to find a clearer route, a clearer crowd,” he said. “I’m just trying to find more ways where I can be creative and learn.”
His plan is to develop his music and do the work involved in seeking his fan base — writing and putting out more songs.
And learning the business of music.
“I plan to hit the ground running, trying to network with mainstream artists, and get to the next level, elevate my music and get it heard — learning more about promotion, running ads, the whole nine yards.”
Connect to Burt Bankkz on all platforms for new music, videos, and social posts.
“Dreams,” YouTube
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