Lil Durk is not just an ordinary Chicago rapper. His father Dontay Banks, aka Big Durk, happens to be a very well renowned figure in Chicago – a stamped OG.
A rare photo of Big Durk recently surfaced online.
Chicago videographer Will Gates posted the photo onto his IG account.
His caption read, “#tbt Lil Tone & Big Durk was the definition of real & gangster but they never encouraged me to be anything but great . They taught me the streets and how to conduct business but acted as my big brothers/father figures. #family #eachoneteachone don’t be a product of your environment.”
Big Durk was sentenced to life in prison on drug-related charges. Durk tapped his father to issue a message all to the brothers in the struggle in the opening of his new “300 Days, 300 Nights” mixtape:
“This Durk, better known on the South Side of Chicago and throughout the Midwest as Lil Durk’s father. As it started out, I had a life sentence for the stooge pigeons who told on me. I been doing that time for 22 years now. …But by the grace of Allah, I got that blessing and won the appeal and now I’ll be out in a few years… to be with my boy, to be with my sons and be where I’m supposed to be in life and do the things I’m supposed to do as a father. As always, for those who’s in the struggle, those who in this system, for those who in the state system, keep you head up, keep fighting. Rats, don’t never win over real dudes… so keep your head up soldier. We gon keep on letting this thing continue to flow and we’ll get out and do what we supposed to do as men and hold our own and be the fathers we supposed to be, and be the men of the community we supposed to be.”
Big Durk was sentenced to life in prison after he was convicted in 1994 of distributing crack-c—— throughout South Side Chicago.
Durk opened up on his father’s incarceration during an interview with Power 105’s The Breakfast Club.
“My father been in jail 22 years,” Durk said. “I rock with him. Everyday, talk to him on the phone. I was going to visit him. He had a big name in the streets, so it was like he was here.”
Durk revealed a new Chicago law would allow his father to be released from prison in a few years.
“He had life. They passed that new rule in Chicago… that new law, so he a be home in a couple years, like three,” he said.
Durk said his father was locked up for drugs.
“They ain’t even catch him on drugs. They locked him up cause he didn’t snitch on Larry Hoover.
Durk joked he’d get his pops up-to-date with technology upon his release.
“He used to track phones,” he said. “I gotta get him on point with iPhones, all types of sh*t.”
Durk announced his father’s life sentence was overturned a few months ago via IG.
“Last post was a rush just know pops finna touch down soon #BIGdurk ain’t got life nomo,” he wrote on IG.
Durk shed more light on the circumstances that led to his father’s imprisonment in episode four of Noisey’s “Chiraq” documentary.
“My daddy was one of the big guys,” recalled Durk who was only seven months at the time of his father’s arrest. “I seen a lot of it growing up…like I say, my head was just everywhere. I’m like man ‘I wanna be just like him.’”
“They say he got caught with like eight million dollars and like six bricks,” he added.
Durk wrote on Twitter his father was thrown the book for not snitching.
“They gave my daddy life in jail for not telling #realnigga,” Durk wrote.
A then-25-year-old Banks was labeled the ringleader of a criminal enterprise that included associates Robert Shipp, 21; and 25-year-old Mario Dunlap and Alton Mills, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Banks was a high-ranking member of the Gangster Disciples street gang.
Banks’ suppliers received significantly lower sentences due to their cooperation with prosecutors.
Carneil Simmons, 48, and L.C. Godfrey, 54, plead guilty for their roles in drug distribution and testified against Banks and his cohorts.
They told prosecutors they distributed more than 85 kilos of c—— to Banks from fall 1991 to May 1993, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Durk’s father has long been the central focus in the Coke Boy’s music.
In “52 Bars,” Durk raps, “Son needed his daddy, I still need him right now/He doing life in the Feds need that appeal right now.”
Durk references his father again in “Dis Ain’t What U Want,” rapping, “Daddy doing life, snitches doing months.”
Durk got even more personal on French Montana’s “Coke Boys 4” mixtape where he made several more references to his father.
Durk is suffering from paranoia due to his father’s absence as rhymed in the single “Paranoid.”
Durk hit French’s remix, rapping, “Daddy gone, I was a lost child, n—-/I married the streets, kissed my mama goodbye/She say ’17?,’ the way she thinking, had dreams I’ma die.”
Durk name-drops his father again in “Act Like That,” rapping, “Remember I ain’t have no money, remember I was a youngin’/Remember I told my momma that I was out her thuggin’/Just to get kicks, you see/My daddy caught whips and now he copped a plea.”
