ON A SHIVERY, star-filled night in May, Durk Banks is surrounded by friends, family, and what feels like the entire city of Chicago as he prepares to take the stage for a soldout show at his hometown’s United Center. It’s the final night on his 7220 tour, and it feels like a moment of hard-won victory for Chicago hip-hop and the much-criticised drill scene. “To be able to perform in Chicago and sell it out… that feeling was like something you can’t even explain, for real,” says the 30-year-old artist, better known as Lil Durk. “We never imagined that happening.”
The past two years have been a triumphant time for Durk, from his feature on Drake’s 2020 smash ‘Laugh Now Cry Later’ to his own recent album, 7220, and the numerous gold and platinum records it has generated. But that time has also been stained by tragedy and controversy. Durk lost his older brother, Dontay “D-Thang” Banks Jr., to gun violence in 2021, less than a year after losing his protégé King Von the same way. And in Atlanta, where he resides, Durk is facing felony charges from an alleged shooting in 2019. “I’ve been through a lot,” he says. (He and his team declined to speak further on the case.)
This story is from the February/March 2023 edition of Rolling Stone UK.
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This story is from the February/March 2023 edition of Rolling Stone UK.
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