Oakland rapper Philip Bank$ delivers his version of ‘East Bay Times'

Philip Banks is a rising star on the Bay Area hip-hop scene, having turned heads and earned much praise with his latest album "East Bay Times."

Of course, this is not the first rodeo for this Oakland-born talent, who has honed his craft for years as a member of the East Bay hip-hop troupe Trey Coastal.

Yet, this is the first time he's struck out on his own - delivering a boldly confident and entertaining debut album of social commentary and striking narratives about his hometown.

I recently had the chance to catch up with this tremendously talented rapper, who - keeping things very real - took the Zoom call while sitting in a car parked outside his home in Oakland.

"This is my office," Banks commented of his ride. "A lot of the album was written right here in my car outside my apartment."

We spent roughly a half an hour chatting it up, talking about music, the hyphy movement and, yes, even our newspaper that shares the same name with his album.

Q: OK, so I now know where a lot of "East Bay Times" was written - in your car. What else can you tell me about your songwriting process?

A: There are different orders that you can do the music in. For this project - for "East Bay Times" - each and every beat was kind of handcrafted by Hiright, the producer. And he gave these beats to me. He explained to me how he kind of made them to order. So, he made these beats one at a time for me to go, take in, and go write to. So, each and every song on the album — it was what that beat was telling me to say, essentially.

The writing process was a lot of, you know, me siloed. But also I get hit with these very random spurts of creativity. A lot of times I would be either at the gym and working out or on my way to work out at night - I rock climb as well, which is kind of a different workout - and just stop and sit in the corner and write.

That was my first time, I think, taking the lyrics kind of to go with me on the road at the gym.

Q: Sounds dangerous. You don’t want to be in the midst of rock climbing - like halfway up a cliff or something - and then be like, "Hey, hang on a second, I have do something with this beat."

A: Oh, no, I would take a little break, you know. When you’re climbing, you’re only up there for like 20 minutes - at most. Sometimes I would just be like, "OK, I’m going to the gym" and then pull up and not even get out of the car - just be struck with so much inspiration.

So it was a little bit of a different writing process. A lot of times in the past, it would just be me and other rappers and producers all in the room together and we'd create right there on the spot. But I think at this point in my life, although that creative juice is very potent when you capture it, it also takes a lot of time that I know me and my peers – my producers, folks who have a lot of kids – we don't have as much time to waste to sit in a room all day creating and bouncing ideas.

So, I’m writing during the day, writing late at night, and then when we go to the studio, I already have everything ready so we can knock it out in two or three hours.

Q: When did you first start thinking about putting recording a full-length debut album?

A: Man, definitely been a long time coming. As you mentioned, I was in the group Trey Coastal for about seven or eight years. During that time, I really was very focused. I loved doing the group thing.

Around the (COVID-19) lockdown, a few people had come to me and said, "You know, we really like what you do with your group. We would love to see what you do when you get to kind of focus on your own thoughts."

And it was never anything that I really seriously drilled down into, you know? When I was with the group, I was always making music, just generally making music, with other people - making solo songs. But it wasn’t until I had heard a couple of the songs I was kind of making - maybe I made two or three kind of loose songs - and realized when they go together it was like, "Oh, wow, these play very well together. This could be this could be something."

I'll put a date on it. The project came out in November 2025. It was maybe the start of 2022. That’s when I’ve made the first song on the album that wasn’t intended to go on a solo album, but that’s kind of what inspired, like, "OK, (expletive), let's keep going on this." And that was "EBMUD." That was the first song that I made on the album.

Q: As you continued to craft more songs, did it quickly become obvious that there was a definite lyrical/narrative theme taking shape?

A: I was very intentional about how the album was to flow. But when crafting kind of like the structure of the album, I did not sit there and say, "Hey, I want a song about this. I’m going to talk about this. I'm going to say this about Oakland." There was really none of that.

It was really the beats were playing and when I said certain (expletive) like - "Oakland (expletives) don’t die, they move to Sacramento" - I just wrote that to the beat. That was a thought I had had and played around with for a little while, but it was really organic.

It was really kind of the beats just drew me in. The producer, Hiright, he and I had an incredible flow with this album. He made the beat, I'd write to it for a week or two weeks, and come back with a song. Get another beat, write to it for a little bit, come back with this song.

But in terms of like structuring the themes, there really wasn’t much planning, Jim. It’s kind of crazy how it came out. There are reoccurring themes. There's definitely a pretty wide spectrum of things I talked about that still have a strong connection.

Those beats Hiright did - Hiright on the beats. That was a blessing.

Q: Your song titles - like "Oakland Unified" and, as you mentioned, "EBMUD" - reference some well-known East Bay institutions. And then there's the album's name, which, of course, has drawn my interest. I just want to know if this album had come out 15 years ago, would you have called it "Oakland Tribune" instead of "East Bay Times"?

A: That’s hella funny! I thought that I’m like, "Damn, I grew up on the Oakland Tribune." But it doesn’t have the ring of my album name, you know? That’s a long-standing institution, but it just doesn’t have the ring of the East Bay Times.

Q: Did our newspaper really play into your decision to name the album "East Bay Times"?

A: Yeah, the funny part is that when I was going into the album, I had no idea what the name was. I didn’t have ideas, didn’t have a storyboard of it could be (called) this or this or had 50 name ideas.

No, Jim, the album wasn’t named until I said it in one of the songs. And in "Hyphy Kids Got Trauma," I said, "Fast times in these East Bay times."

But, Jim, that was one of the last songs I made on the album. The album was already done. I think I had like six songs and I was like, "Cool. Let's package this up and sell it." Afterwards, I made three more songs. I made "So Amazing," "Hyphy Kids Got Trauma" and "Greenhouse Gas Chamber." That's got when I got to nine tracks.

I still didn't have any album title. But listening to "Hyphy Kids Got Trauma" – which was only made less than a year ago – that's when the album title jumped out at me.

Q: Well, the correlation definitely works - since your album, like a newspaper, is just filled with stories.

A: One of the tying themes is that the album is very journalistic. It's very sociological. I'm definitely looking at the city in a very journalistic way, but also I’m in the stories as well.

I don't know how I got so lucky because I was already looking at the city in such like a journalistic way. It was just a lucky accident, really, getting the name and title – I love it.

Q: Well, we like to think it’s at least partially a tribute to our newspaper.

A: Oh, absolutely, a tribute to it, you know? Before the East Bay Times, I grew up reading the Oakland Tribune.

I wouldn’t read the sports. I wouldn’t read the front page. I would literally only read the local (section) that talked about local politics, local crime, etc.

So, I feel like that if you opened up the East Bay Times – the album and the newspaper – my album is opening up to the local page.

Q: Were you a hyphy kid?

A: Oh, absolutely - 1,000 percent. Definitely a hyphy kid at heart. I still a hyphy kid - even though I am 35. You know, I went to my first House parties in 2004, even before it was a hyphy movement. I was definitely one of those Oakland kids.

Q: Do you think the release of the Hyphy Juice energy drink is what killed the movement?

A: You know what's hella funny? I don’t think that because Hyphy was actually embraced by the culture. I just saw a sticker for it today. They’re still selling it. It's a delicious drink.

Commercialization oftentimes kills movements, but I don’t think it was the juice. Yeah, I don’t know who made the juice or who sold it. But it was definitely endorsed with the culture.

Q: You've gotten a lot of nice press and a good deal of attention since releasing "East Bay Times" back in November. What have these past five or so months been like for you?

A: I’ve released maybe five albums as part of a group. But, Jim, nothing has felt like this.

The amount of praise - that doesn't even do it right there. What's bigger than praise? One of my elders told me, "Phil, this album is so (expletive) good." She was like, "This is Black reparations."

So, I can’t even say praise. The amount of embracement is definitely on a spiritual level. It’s more than just, "Hey, this is good music." It’s, "This music struck me to the core." I’ve had multiple people come to me with tears in their eyes, telling me how the album made them feel.

Q: Oh, that's got to be really satisfying for you.

A: I don’t do this for fame or for clout. My goal isn’t to be famous. If you listen to my music, my goal and my strive is to be a lion in my community. And to see that this album is hitting people in the community is just more than I could have ever asked for.

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This story was originally published April 27, 2026 at 12:29 PM.