He’s known for his flawless, seductive vocals and emerging from a legendary group of music icons, such as Aaliyah, Missy Elliott, Timbaland, and Ginuwine. The Grammy-nominated recording artist also has 10 studio albums under his belt, and quite a few television and film credits. He was born as Durrell Babbs, but his fans address the R&B crooner as Tank.
A general of the genre, Tank has plenty of experience to speak of. So, when he went on N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN’s Drink Champs, he had a plethora of interesting stories to tell. While it’s guaranteed that blogs will pick up the peculiar soundbites, such as the one when Tank describes a basketball game between him and fallen R&B legend R. Kelly in which the “I Wish” singer proceeded to tickle Tank, the 46-year-old vet had something more important to speak on.
More than an hour into the interview, the subject matter morphed into a profound discussion about the state of music. DJ EFN attempted to make the case that there is positive music that represents genres primarily created by Black artists, particularly hip hop. However, Tank disagreed, saying that over 95-98% of the music that is mainstream supports counterproductive ideas that are harmful to its listeners.
“Look at the charts, that’s how we’re identified right?” Tank said. “If they want to know the best about us where do they look? They look at mainstream culture — and what is mainstream culture? It’s violence. It’s drug dealing, it’s drug selling, it’s drug using.”
Tank continued, “Sam Smith gets to sing a great song about, ‘Stay with me,’ that goes straight to power rotation on a mainstream radio station. If I sing that same song, ‘Stay with me,’ [its] limited bandwidth because our violence isn’t the threat. Our love is.”
Per the sudden revitalization of R&B, it’s apparent that conventional concepts of love and the narratives surrounding that have been masqueraded by a merging of hip hop into the R&B world. Some artists, such as H.E.R. and the Bruno Mars and Anderson .Paak duo Silk Sonic, are doing their parts to keep traditional R&B alive, there’s a larger stain that focuses on contention within the community, which Tank attributes to an overall scheme.
“Our families separated, ‘Fine, it’s perfect.’ The man staying with his family and raising his kids, and pouring into his woman — that’s the threat. And that’s what R&B stands for and that’s why R&B takes such a backseat, because we’re not promoting the aesthetic that continues to perpetuate the stereotype.”
To Tank, “the algorithm” supports and condones drugs, abuse of any kind, ratchet behavior, and violent acts.
“What happens now is that with social media and all these other things, you get hypnotized by an algorithm,” Tank elaborated. “And everybody wants to be poppin’. So, in the idea of wanting to be poppin’ you’re going to roll with what’s poppin’. Nobody’s leaders, they’re not leaders anymore. Everybody’s followers.”
While Black and Brown people are the forefront of many of the establishments that promote their art, Tank attributes the gaffe in messaging to those very frontmen not owning the establishments that make the decisions.
“We don’t own conglomerates,” Tank said. “It comes down to ownership. We don’t own radio. We don’t own streaming. We don’t own media. We don’t own none of it.”
Watch the Drink Champs interview at the REVOLT YouTube channel below:
