Tank and the Bangas were featured on the Late Show With Stephen Colbert on Friday as part of the Late Show Me Music series.
The group prerecorded an in-studio performance of the song “Black Folk”, an ode to Black people and culture from their latest album, Red Balloon, which is available now via Verve Forecast. The band’s core lineup was augmented by additional instrumentalists, a background vocalist, and two interpretive dancers, one on either side of the group’s lead singer, Tarriona Ball a.k.a. Tank.
The song pays homage to Black people and culture, with lyrics that characterize what it means to be black with references to an array of black icons: “Black sound like four-hundred years, smell like Oprah,” Tank sings. “Impactful like Martin, look like Cicely Tyson / Sing like Nina, got a booty like Serena (sing like Nina) / Feel like broken homes and Section 8 / Black smell like crack and collard greens / Sounds motivational, feels like church / Look like big Sunday hats and ribbons.”
Tank and the Bangas have earned widespread acclaim since winning NPR’s Tiny Desk Contest in 2017. They were nominated for the Grammy for Best New Artist in 2020 and released their third studio album, Red Balloon, in May.
The band is currently on tour with Trombone Shorty‘s Voodoo Threauxdown Tour featuring Big Freedia, Cyril Neville the Uptown Ruler, The Soul Rebels, and George Porter Jr. and Dumpstaphunk playing the music of The Meters. Click here to view a list of the band’s upcoming tour dates and purchase tickets.
Tank and the Bangas – “Black Folk”