Bandokay Talks Tottenham’s Early Days, Personal Growth and his Upcoming Debut Solo Mixtape M.A.R.K

Despite being only 22, Bandokay is an established figure of the UK drill scene and will forever be celebrated for his intense, urgent approach to rap; as well as being one of a select few artists that managed to package the early sounds of UK drill in its purest form to be enjoyed by the masses. Coming into prominence as part of the OFB (Original Farm Boys) Collective, over the years Bando has grown-up within a group that has been shaped by the legacy of the Broadwater Farm Estate in Tottenham, North London. OFB have been one of the main reasons for the widening of the landscape of drill both in the UK and on a global scale, with each group member's characteristic flow and personality having contributed to the reshaping of a sound that is well-loved worldwide today.

Now, as one of the members of OFB that continues to operate at the forefront of the evolution of that sound, he’s on the brink of a new chapter in his musical legacy. We got the chance to speak to Bando on the brink of taking that next step in his career, during the run-up to the release of his new single ‘M.A.R.K’, a song which shares a title with the forthcoming tape, as well as all the sentiments of the forthcoming body of work. It’s no doubt that M.A.R.K will be a mixtape that brings attention to the growth of Bando since we were first introduced to him, so we chopped it up with the rising rap star about his origins, his perspectives on his own personal growth and what’s to come.

On the tape, both artistically and personally, we see him grow into himself in real-time. We hear him engaging with different beats, experimenting with samples and tailoring his flow expertly as he vividly relives his past. Bando submerges us in his words, taking us back to feel his experiences, but by the end of the tape, he’s thoughtful as he comes to learn who he is owed to what he’s gone through. ‘Memories’, the first single to be released from M.A.R.K,“wasn’t officially a part of the tapes rollout” Bando tells me when we sit down for a chat over zoom, but it brought a more mature Bando to our attention. Rapping over the beat he seems surer, more confident and intentional in the way he engages with the instrumental. As we discuss the creative process behind making not only “Memories” but the whole tape he holds on to the theme of maturity saying, “I hope that people will see the growth of my music, and that it’s not only drill that I can do”.

With Bando having signed as a solo artist to Polydor via Tiffany Calver’s No Requests label imprint with the major back in 2021, he believes it's time now to express himself through his own tape. Of course, it’s characteristic of any project coming from an OFB member to have cameos from the collective, so as we move through the tape we see appearances from Headie One, Abra Cadabra, Double Lz, Kush, Akz and more. However, as he steps out on his own for the first time, the North Londoner is adamant that he “wants people to see what he can do”, sharing that he feels the best way to express his ever-growing ability is to “find a space of his own”. This is reflected in the impactful title of the mixtape “M.A.R.K” which has a dual meaning. Principally, it’s named in honour of his late father Mark Duggan who tragically passed away in 2011 at the hands of police, but it’s also a nod to the environment that shaped him. On the meaning behind the name, he explains “Mark’s my dad’s name, and I was made around real killers, so I just put the two together”.

There’s a clear thematic duality on the upcoming tape, having had the chance to listen to it through before the interview, I was surprised to find that we hear two different versions of the artist. Opening the tape with 'M.A.R.K' the single, we’re given a sonic snapshot of the whole body of work, as Bando takes a more subdued approach to barring over a hybridized drill beat which nods as much to the current drill sound as it does classic hip-hop. Touching on topics from money and legacy, right through to romance and revenge, on 'M.A.R.K' the single Bando powerfully states his intentions for the tape we’re about to dive into.Then, in the tapes first section, we hear Bando with his usual fast tempo, intense and aggressively delivering bar after bar over traditional drill beats that atmospherically transport the listener into his reality on songs like “Heart On My Sleeve” and “Michael Myers”. Towards the end of the project, there is a gradual lean into introspection as he engages with the complex relationship he has with the place he has associated with home on ‘Hometown’. He takes a self-critical look at himself whilst fully embracing his identity just before he brings the tape to a close on the soul sampled ‘Who I Am (aka Montana)’.

Wanting to gain further insight into where he forged his cutting-edge drill sensibilities, our conversation turns to what it was like growing up on an estate with such an immensely rich musical legacy as Broadwater Farm. “It was calm, you know.”, Bando said as he began to speak about growing up in Tottenham. “We had fun, running around to youth clubs, making music in Tottenham.” Speaking about the early stages of OFB, he paints the picture further as he tells me, “I was just enjoying myself.” It was on the estate that a young Bando first started going to the studio at the age of 15. “In the early days, it was just me, Double Lz and SJ just rapping on the block and messing about. Then, one of my bredrins had a studio at the top of my estate and we started to go there and do two-two tunes”. It was that access to vital community music hubs that laid the base for Bando’s musical endeavours as he tells us of the time that he started to get noticed for his proficiencies with rap. “All the people in my estate started taking my music in and people started to pay for proper studio sessions, and yeah…we [Bando, Double Lz and SJ] started making bare tunes and releasing a couple videos.”

It was around the time when the single ‘Ambush' dropped, the possibility of making a career in music started to become realistic to the North London rapper. “After we dropped ‘Ambush’ we started getting loads of offers from different labels” Bando explains, “because obviously, at first, I was just thinking that we were just dropping music and we weren’t really going to be seeing money like that. But when the labels started coming through and when we first signed our first deal it was just an eye opener for me that it was really happening”. Continuing our discussion about the significance of OFB’s influence on drill, we soon end up speaking about LD, a member of the 67 drill group who are widely considered another founding group in the scene.

From growing up listening to LD and 67, to Bando eventually having LD appear on the track ‘Too Many Lies’ on his debut is an immense fall-circle moment. When I ask about how that collaboration came together, he tells me that they connected through mutual friends. “I met LD at a shoot that he did with Headie and Monkey a couple of years ago and since then me and him have just kept in contact”. It’s no surprise that the two rappers established a strong camaraderie over the years, given that they have both always dominated at the forefront of the formerly burgeoning and now massively global scene. Our discussion does take me back to how the original drill records were fashioned, you’d rarely hear a solo drill rapper on a UK drill record, its foundations have always been in collaboration, with songs coming from crews and opposed to individuals. Thus, it’s a testament to Bando’s openness as a creative that he was able to form connections with other rappers from other crews, given that in the early days of drill the function on the tracks would often be to diss other opps. OFB and 67 are two crews that share a legacy of turning drill from its inherent battle rap origins, towards a wider audience by creating hooks that resonated with the commercial ear.

Going on to explain the significance of his collaborations further, Bando shares “I used to just listen to drill from like 13 to 16, I would just listen to bare drill. I’d mainly listen to Headie, 67, K-Trap and M-Dot.” UK drill, since the emergence of Bando and OFB, and all the artists mentioned above, has gone through a transitional period from being a deeply niche underground subculture to being widely commercially accepted. I wonder since Bando has seen the landscape of drill change massively over the course of his career, what his thoughts are on the current state of the scene. “I like the fact that drill has gone commercial for certain reasons” he answers reflectively when I ask, “ but I did like to drill how it was when I first started if that makes sense” he states. “Everyone is doing drill now and it just seems like everyone is using the same beats talking about the same thing and some people’s drill isn’t really drill”. Naturally, his answer ultimately reflects the body of work that he’s giving us with ‘M.A.R.K’. The tape eloquently merges the drill sounds of old and new, as he delivers a poignant personal reflection that speaks as much to his audience as it does to his growing versatility and artistic proficiencies.

As our chat comes to a close and we look towards the future, Bando tells me that his hopes for the release of M.A.R.K are that it shows his fans that he is not only capable but “open to experimenting with different sounds''. Firm in the understanding that he’s a product of the evolution of drill music on a global scale, now he has his sights set on expanding his sound into new sonic territories. One thing’s for certain, Bando has proven through both his solo and collaborative projects that he has one of the most distinct and expressive voices in the scene currently, and M.A.R.K is a statement of his willingness to keep pushing boundaries.

“Pre-order Bandokay’s M.A.R.K mixtape here”