From Underdog To Lone Wolf At Large

Alfred Banks at the forefront.

- Raphael Helfand

Everyone loves an underdog. In hip-hop, especially, dark horse status is synonymous with credibility. It’s no surprise, then, that local rapper Alfred Banks has made it his personal brand. “Underdog Central is a place where the overlooked go to hone their skills to come back [as] the admired,” Banks told OffBeat, laying out his movement’s mission statement. “It’s less of a label, more of a life mantra.”

Banks has experienced his fair share of adversity. He was forced to drop out of Loyola when he and his mother were evicted, and later lost his brother Orlandas to suicide, but he never let his circumstances define him. He stayed focused on his craft, even as his world crumbled around him. He started rapping under the moniker Lyriqs da Lyraciss, putting full faith in his bars, but soon learned lyrical skill alone wouldn’t cut it. “When I first came out, I was rough around the edges,” he said. “There was a lot that needed refinement, so I went to my proverbial bat cave and came back out as Alfred Banks.”

He’s come a long way since then. His 2017 LP