Copy Cats, or Scaredy Cats?

6.19.20

Erica Banks Erica Banks Released 6.19.20

Erica Banks is the latest female signee to 1501 Certified Entertainment. 1501 is owned by retired MLB player, Carl Crawford, whom is from Houston, Texas himself. Crawford has just a handful of artists under his belt, mostly all coming from the Houston or Southern area. His most widely known talent, Megan Thee Stallion.

Megan Thee Stallion has been the hottest female in hip-hop for the past year and a half. Things got rocky with her label when she took them to court, claiming they were holding her back from releasing her mixtape, Suga. After winning the battle, Megan dropped her mixtape. In my opinion, I think the label was holding it back for a reason, but if she is happy with how it sounded, that is all that matters.

Many pin the new signee to be revenge, or even a replacement notion to the complications in the relationship between Megan and her label. Calling Carl Crawford a copy cat, or implying that he hired Megan’s copy cat to pay the bills for the lawsuit, to me is just a subpar reach. They’re both females from Texas, on a label that seemingly strives to work with artists from this area. So of course they’re both going to have a southern accent. Maybe the world still is not ready for so many females to succeed in hip-hop, because right now, they are two very different artists.

Erica Banks recently went viral with her Freestyle D-Town Bitch I’m Heavy. The set up is funny with the Megan comparison, as she is doing it from the inside of her car, just like Megan did when she went viral for her freestyle at the AMAs. To me, the difference is Erica sounds way better as a rapper. Megan’s bars in my mind were probably written, because this is when she announced her breakup with Moneybagg Yo to the public, and the beat was way too slow for her rhyme flow. It was not bad, but I was not loving it so much. This was also the same flow that Meg used for her Freshman Cypher. Just super fast and aggressive, which doesn’t really match up to her music when she records. Erica did use a classic beat that everyone has freestyled over before, but I believed her when she says with it.

It’ll be interesting to me to see what happens with Erica Banks and her career. I do not think that Megan has anything to worry about what-so-ever, and once her contract is over, she’ll be out of there anyways. However, in order for Erica to give her a run for her money, she is going to have to make music for the radio, for everyone to be put on to. Currently, her vibe feels like she puts out some videos that go viral on the Internet and maybe get played at the local bars or underground spots. If you want to be the next thing, you need to make music for everyone and everything, and that will require Erica to switch up her style a little bit.

Today, June 19th, Erica released her debut project with 1501, self-titled Erica Banks. There are few beats on there that we’ve heard before, but she did her thing. I might put this tape above Suga. I thinks he had a lot to prove with this one. While it likely will not get radio plays, it is catching the attention of the industry.

Since being called Megan Thee Stallion’s copy cat, Erica Banks did tweet in response to the claims. She wrote:

Only ppl from Texas understand that we all have the same “accent” lol

So Erica clearly thinks it is a stretch as well, but does not seem too worried about it. There has been a lot of positive sentiment around her latest project, and it appears Erica is looking to drop off a few music videos soon.

This debate is hard for me, because I would love to see Erica blow up making the type of music she is now. However, this type of content has been done before many times and it never seems to stick around for long. I am not sure any female artist has really stuck around with her same gritty and aggressive style and flow since Missy. Cardi B would the closest thing, but she has her fair share of pop songs and sing-along songs that were surprising features for me. At the same time, if you want to stick, you have to be able to make albums and show versatility. So we’ll have to see where 1501 can take Erica. I am excited to see her grow throughout her journey as a newly signed artist.

Verdict: Scaredy cats - the world is simply not ready for the female take over.