“People call you weird when you do it first and then they run up behind you and do it.”

“When I made my first song I was at a skatepark,” he shares. “This dude came [up to me], he had a studio up and said, ‘You look like you rap.’ It was so weird how God work. I didn’t look like no rapper. But he said, ‘I got a studio in my house and if you come back tomorrow we can record.’ I went back home and wrote two songs. I rapped to the instrumental from The Underachievers and made my own version.”

Born in St. Louis but raised in the south side of Atlanta, Bans grew up listening to Chief Keef, Lil Wayne and Tyler, the Creator. By the time he was in middle school, Bans put out his first record and adopted the rap moniker, Ban Boy, quickly gaining clout and building a following of fellow sixth graders. Bans is reluctant to share the name of his freshman record, preferring it stays buried in dark corners of the internet. “You can find it on the internet if you really know how to find it but I’m not going to share the name, it’s trash to me,” Bans says with a smile, eyes peeking from behind his dreads.

“Music isn’t all about lyrics, it’s the sounds. I don’t know how to describe it, I’m just doing me, I’m just living it.”

By the time Bans was a freshman at Langston Hughes High School, his schoolyard career was in full bloom and the aspiring rapper began to take the trade seriously. Thanks to a piano class, which mixed up students of all years, Bans’ fashion sense caught the attention of some seniors and through a mutual love for Jeremy Scott sneakers, the melodic rhyme-slinger found himself in a crew of upperclassmen.

To support their rap aspirations, the crew sold sneakers and funded a makeshift studio. In 2014, with a mic and some soundproof padding, 14-year-old Bans recorded “4Tspoon” with Playboi Carti. At the time, due to their limited following, the song received few plays. The rap prodigy later linked with UnoTheActivist, Carti’s cousin, to record “Finesse.”

Yung Bans’ life took a turn when he was arrested in February 2015 at age 15 and faced felony charges of murder and burglary, which he vehemently denies. He spent four months in a youth detention center and was placed under house arrest in March 2016. The arrest, though, didn’t stop Coleman’s come-up. Almost two years after its initial release, Bans re-released “4Tspoon” and this time, the song became a SoundCloud hit with several million plays.

Around this time, Bans also began working with MexikoDro of Beat Pluggz and released a handful of singles: “Its Snowing,” “Free” and “YEA!.” By the time Coleman was released from house arrest in May 2017, the rap prodigy had gained widespread recognition.