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Ant Banks has a career spanning five decades garnering Gold and Platinum success working with artists including Too Short, Ice Cube, E-40, Mack 10, Snoop Dogg, Spice 1, and others.

By the mid-80’s Ant Banks had already begun flooding the streets of Oakland, CA with a slew of independent projects and birthing what became known as the “Oaktown Funk”, with friend and Oakland rap sensation MC Ant in 1985. The two recorded numerous 4-track cassette classics like “Dance Floor”, “Feel the Bass” and “M.C. Ant & Ant Banks” along with several others. In 1988, Ant Banks and MC Ant released their first album entitled M.C. Ant The Great, with joint collaborative efforts by DJ Terry T. Distributing the tapes at their high school, out of the trunk of their cars, the album went on to sell more than 60,000 units independently.

In the late 80s Ant Banks connected with M.C. Pooh, a/k/a Pooh-Man, to record Life of A Criminal, which contained the underground smash “Fuckin’ With Dank”.  With the surge in popularity, Pooh-Man’s record accounted for upwards of 200,000 units sold, independently. Not long after, the news began to spread of the remarkable feats Banks and Pooh were doing, and both were soon scooped up by Too Short to join his Dangerous Music imprint on Jive Records.  Ant Banks produced his first major-label record, which also netted him his first Platinum-certified record, when the soundtrack to the movie Juice was released in December of 1991, and Pooh-Man’s “Sex, Money, & Murder” was featured. The record would also be the lead single to Pooh-Man’s Funky As I Wanna Be album, which was released in March of 1992.

Following upon the success with Pooh-Man, Ant Banks produced for Spice 1 (whom he had begun working with in early 1991 on Spice 1’s 187 Proof EP), and put together another successful project, the Hayward, California artist's self-titled debut Spice 1, with Banks' now signature production, selling more than 500,000 units and going Gold. With the lead single “In My Neighborhood” kicking off the album, the incredible success was beginning to turn Ant Banks into a prominent figure, in not just the Bay Area hip-hop scene, but throughout the industry.

The overwhelming success Ant Banks was having convinced Too Short to collaborate with him in utilizing Banks’ production prowess to revamp his own sound. More career-defining success soon followed with Ant Banks’ fingerprints all over the platinum-selling Shorty The Pimp album released in July of 1992. Having already been released on the Juice soundtrack, “So You Want To Be A Gangster” was a fantastic introduction to hearing Too Short spit over an Ant Banks-produced beat. Inspired by Grover Washington, Jr.‘s “Black Frost”, the song is a fresh reminder that Too Short does talk about more serious topics than just X-rated escapades.

Ant Banks made his second appearance on a platinum-selling soundtrack when his solo record “Packin’ A Gun” was featured on the Menace II Society soundtrack, a project which also featured music from Too Short, Spice 1, DJ Quik, MC Eiht, and others. “Packin’ A Gun” sampled Eazy-E of N.W.A, and the soundtrack reached #1 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart in May of 1993. During this same year Ant Banks released his solo debut, Sittin’ On Something Phat, a project full of non-stop banging funk and guest features from Spice 1, Too Short, Pooh-Man, and Goldy.

Continuing to elevate his production capabilities, “The Big Badass” was beginning to get himself recognized for his uncanny ability to churn out dope music at a feverish pace. Settling into a comfort zone with Too Short, Banks worked on Get In Where You Fit In, mixing and producing the platinum-selling album in 1993. Collaborating with fellow producers Shorty B and Pee-Wee ( all collectively known as The Dangerous Crew production team), the record spawned classic songs including “I’m A Player” and “Money In The Ghetto”.  Ant Banks produced “All My Bitches Are Gone”, “Oakland Style”, “Way Too Real” and others.

The Big Badass, the second album from Ant Banks, dropped in mid-1994, showcased his extraordinary ability to flip classic P-Funk samples into deep, oozing bass lines of galactic West Coast funk. It’s here that Ant Banks truly began to put on full display his production style of heavy funk, slow-rolling bass, and sparkly keyboard riffs. “The Loot”, “Parlayin’”, “Pimp Style Gangstas”, and “Straight Hustlin’” capture his invaluable ability to not only feel a great groove but to manifest it into a syrupy, head-nodding opus with an inexplicable sonic quality.

Collaborating with Spice 1 on 1994’s Amerikkka’s Nightmare, Ant Banks seized the opportunity to raise the bar with “Face Of A Desperate Man”. Taking “The Memory” by Roy Ayers and turning it into one of the illest tracks Spice 1 ever released.  Ant Banks put himself on par with his peers and convincingly entered any discussion debating who is the dopest producer in hip-hop. Contributing 4 tracks to Spice 1’s ’94 opus, Ant Banks again earned himself a Gold plaque.

After spending much of the 90s producing for Too Short and Spice 1, respectively, and having accumulated seven platinum plaques and three gold plaques, Ant Banks began branching out and working with other artists. In 1996 Vallejo rapper E-40, who had already released two albums, was still a rising star in the Bay Area. When he and Ant Banks connected for 40 Water’s Hall Of Game album, the two hit it big with the album's lead single, “Rapper’s Ball”, which also featured Too Short, and K-Ci & Jo-Jo of Jodeci. The music video for “Rapper’s Ball” featured cameo appearances by 2Pac, Ice-T, and Mack 10. Released in October of 1996, Hall of Game went gold in 3 months. E-40 and Ant Banks would connect for another Gold record with 1998’s The Element of Surprise, adding “From The Ground Up” to their burgeoning hits list as they would continue to collaborate on numerous songs.

By 1997 Ant Banks was no longer just a “Bay Area” producer, as his style of production began to form creative collaborations with several of the industry’s biggest names. Now with Priority Records, he recruited some of the West Coast’s preeminent artists to assist him on the Big Thangs compilation he was assembling. The results of his recruiting efforts included Ice Cube, 2Pac, King T, WC, Dr. Dre, Coolio, Mack-10, and Ice-T. The strategy paid off as the project peaked at number 4 on the Billboard Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums, number 20 on the Billboard 200, and sold over 300,000 units with no video & very little radio play.

The title track “Big Thangs” features Ice Cube and Too Short in only their second collaboration at that time, while turning Kool & the Gang‘s “Summer Madness” into a player party anthem. “West Riden’”, “4 Tha Hustlaz”, and “Can’t Stop” are just a small sampling from the project highlighting the pristine brilliance of Ant Banks when he’s behind the boards.

In April 1999 Ant Banks released the T.W.D.Y. (The Whole Dam Yey) Derty Werk project and created a hit record with the lead single “Player’s Holiday”, which reached #41 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums. The T.W.D.Y. group consisted of Ant Banks, Rappin’ 4-Tay, and Captain Save’Em, and the album featured several of the Bay Area’s finest like Spice-1, Too Short, E-40, Mac Mall, B-Legit, Keak the Sneak and others. A little over a year later, Ant Banks followed with the second T.W.D.Y. album entitled Lead The Way, where Oakland emcee Dolla Will replaced Rappin’ 4-tay.  Ant Banks collaborated with a mind-blowing roster of guest features including Vidal Prevost,  E-A-Ski, Kokane, Kurupt, MC Eiht, Butch Cassidy, Yukmouth, Ice-T, Too Short, King T, Dru Down, and Cold 187um among others.  T.W.D.Y showcased both Ant Banks’ distinctive flow, as well as his ear for thick, funky grooves, and his penchant for making his tracks resonate with deep bass and party rhythms, as evidenced on songs like “Lead The Way”, “Cali 4 Ni Yey”, “In the Ghetto”,  and “Shut Up” to name a few.

In 2014, Ant Banks re-connected with Pooh-Man and produced the majority of Pooh’s latest release, Kaos Theory. Doing what he’s done best in using his meticulous production ingenuity and mixing brilliance, Ant Banks re-established his relevancy and his position as one of the most prolific producers in the industry with songs like “Get Me Started”, “Mesmerized”, and “All My Life”.

After a lengthy hiatus from the music industry, Ant Banks started resurfacing with new productions in 2020.  With the civil unrest unfolding throughout the country in the wake of the George Floyd murder, Breonna Taylor killing, and other events, Ant Banks produced " BLM? Aka Don't Shoot " for Candyman (of "Knockin' Boots").  Also during this year, Too Short & E-40 released their Ain’t Gone Do It / Terms & Conditions double album which featured the Ant Banks-produced "Triple Gold Sox".  

Most recently, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Too Short, and E-40 formed the West Coast supergroup Mount Westmore and released two projects.  The first was the blockchain-released Bad MF's album via Gala Music, with Banks producing "I Quit" (co-produced with Big Zeke, as part of their newly-formed production team 80Seven Productions). and "Ghetto Gutter" (co-produced with Droop-E).  The supergroup's second release, Snoop Cube 40 $hort, dropped in December 2022, and featured two Ant Banks productions two on the project: "Ghetto Gutter"  and "How Many" (another 80Seven co-production with Big Zeke).   Other productions soon followed as Ant Banks produced "Anotha Hoe Bites the Dust" for Kokane and Suga Free's SugaKane album, and "Shower Shooze" for J-Dee of Da Lench Mob's  The Pay Back Project.

Ant Banks productions have been part of selling over 27,000,000 units and counting, and to this day there are only a small portion of producers who can boast that kind of track record.

Article by Chad Kiser