Four Inane Questions with local rapper Lopan Banks

Photo Courtesy of Lopan Banks

Lopan Banks, AKA David Fairbanks, has your standard garden-variety rapper trajectory. In 2009, he helped found KC’s premiere party band Lost Wax, started law school at UMKC, and began writing original material. Fifteen years later, he’s now the owner of a law firm and is poised to debut his debut mixtape Pretty Good Rapper on July 24. “My life has been fairly dichotomous—no doubt,” he tells says.

If Banks seems familiar, it’s because the musician was an original member and frontman of the band Pomeroy—a hip-hop /rock group that released multiple albums and toured extensively throughout the country between 1999 and 2009. “I skipped my own college graduation to play Pomeroy’s first big out-of-town theater show in Denver,” he says. 

“Pretty Good Rapper is an earworm,” he tells us. “A high-energy sonic homage to an era in hip-hop which slides deftly through the intersection of boom bap and mainstream, while packing in loads of skillfully executed bars,” he says. 

Banks’ album release party is happening July 26 at The Truman in Kansas City. The Topeka native will perform along with special guests Pomeroy and members of Lost Wax. 

We caught up with the performer before the unleashing of his new material to zing him with our quick questionnaire. 

Photo Courtesy of Lopan Banks

The Pitch: What’s your favorite knock-knock joke? Keep it clean.

Lopan Banks: My favorite knock-knock joke isn’t a clean one, but I’ll do my best to clean it up. It’s the joke Tom Hanks’ character tells in the movie, Catch Me if You Can, while driving two other FBI agents around in a car. His fellow agents had just complained to him that he’s too serious all the time and doesn’t have any fun. 

So, he asks them if they would like to hear him tell a joke. Then, he tells the shortest and situationally funniest knock-knock joke of all time.

“Knock-knock?” “Who’s there?” “Go fuck yourselves.”

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever given?

It’s also the best piece of advice I’ve ever received: “Just keep it alive.”

Photo Courtesy of Lopan Banks

I gave this advice recently to some friends who just had their first baby. My father gave me this advice after my wife and I had our first. Why? Because, After all the pomp and circumstance at the hospital having the baby, all of a sudden we found ourselves home alone with our new baby. I was a wreck, so unprepared. 

I called my father and asked him, ‘What the hell am I supposed to do!?’ He chuckled and said, ‘Look, keep it simple for now. Just keep him alive and the rest you’ll figure out as it comes.’ That incredibly simple, obvious, and funny answer was so deeply calming to me.

Do you rap in your sleep? Or dream-rap? ‘Fess up!

Sure, I do. Sometimes I have the at-school-in-my-underwear-dream where I’m playing a show or I’ve entered an emcee battle and I’m failing miserably because the words just won’t come out. Sometimes, it’s me coming up with new bars in my dreams that are absolutely fire, and then five seconds after waking up I can’t remember what I said.

I do remember one dream I had where I was on trial and I rapped my closing argument. I don’t think I made it far enough into the dream to get the verdict, but I do remember thinking the closing was pretty dope.

What’s the most impressive piece of artwork ever created in the history of art?

It’s my favorite painting in the world and it hangs on the wall in my studio. It’s a piece I commissioned from a local artist and a good friend of mine. It’s a giant canvas piece depicting three of my favorite artists, Q-Tip, MCA, and Lauryn Hill, all rapping together on stage in a dimly lit nightclub. It’s my Mt. Rushmore in a painting.

I love this piece for what it is—a shoutout to three multi-layered, eclectic, and musically important artists, all of whom have worked their way into the fabric of my own artistic style. For me, they touch all the bases and so does the painting. It’s also a one-of-one original that only I have.

Bonus 5th Question: What non-rapping singer could you easily teach to successfully rap and then duet? 

Zack Morris, but only if all members of Zack Attack are included.