Erica Banks

Although she began releasing singles in 2018, hip-hop artist Erica Banks earned her first Top 40 hit with "Buss It," a dirty rap that went platinum after its 2020 release. She was born in DeSoto, Texas, on October 5, 1998. A talented lyricist at a young age, she began winning local poetry contests at 12 years old and eventually enrolled at Texas A&M University–Commerce as a nursing student. She dropped out during her second year in order to pursue music instead. "Talk My Shit," her debut single, was released independently in 2018, followed several months later by "Thousand." Three self-released mixtapes — Art of the Hustle, Pressure, and Cocky on Purpose — all arrived in 2019, swelling Banks fanbase and attracting attention from several independent record labels. She signed with 1501 Certified Entertainment, the same Houston-based label that released Megan Thee Stallion's earliest singles, and made her label debut with her fourth mixtape, the self-titled Erica Banks, in 2020. Erica Banks featured the single "Buss It," which debuted at Number 38 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Airplay chart and eventually climbed to Number 36. The song later spawned a major TikTok trend in early 2021, which introduced "Buss It" to a wider audience. This viral popularity reignited the song's chart success, and "Buss It" peaked at Number 47 on the Billboard Hot 100. Banks scored another hit in 2021 with "Toot That," which climbed to Number 16 on the Mainstream R&B/Hip-Hop chart, then returned to the Top 40 in 2022 with "Poppin' Them Tags."