Bankrol Hayden Talks “29,” Getting Blueface On “Bop Slide” & Desire To Give Back

Bankrol Hayden has released his long-awaited, critically-acclaimed project 29, and fans couldn’t be happier. After three long years of patience, the 19-track project serves as a reminder of Bankrol’s place in the rap game: someone who overcame the odds and never lost sight of the hard work it takes to achieve one’s wildest dreams. 

Bankrol Hayden states, “29 is my divine number. It’s a number that brings the worst and best memories. And a number that follows me, guides me. I had the opportunity to work with some of my close friends on my second mixtape and I’m proud of the different layers fans will get to experience of me. It represents the peaks and pits of my life the last three years and I was fortunate to work with producers, writers who helped me display my duality on this project.”

Boasting an incredibly loyal and dedicated fanbase, Bankrol Hayden is a Modesto, California native who has one hell of a story to tell. Having survived a near fatal car accident at age 16, one that left him on life support for six days, Bankrol truly sees music as an outlet to express himself. His unique vocals stand out no matter the production, and his vulnerability allows fans to listen and relate.

Plus, having accumulated a billion streams to your name is no easy feat — but Bankrol is here for a billion more. He’s currently on the road for his first ever headlining tour, and he can hardly contain his excitement to meet his fans in every city he touches.

AllHipHop spoke with Bankrol Hayden in downtown Los Angeles to discuss his 29 tour (he’s currently on now), the new project, getting Blueface, Ohgeesy, and Maxo Kream on “Bop Slide” himself, linking with Lil Skies, throwing the first pitch at the SF Giants game, goals, and more!

AllHipHop: How are you feeling? It’s been a minute. 

Bankrol Hayden: I’m feeling good. I’m a little nervous right now, ready for tour. 

AllHipHop: You’re nervous?!

Bankrol Hayden: A little bit. Just packing enough clothes, suitcases, all this stuff I need. I feel like once I’m on the road. I’m gonna be like man! I forgot this back home, I need this. They ain’t gon’ have that at Target. That’s been what I’ve been worried about, but just been doing rehearsal every day getting ready. 

AllHipHop: First headlining tour ,I’m sure you dreamed of this growing up.

Bankrol Hayden: Definitely, s### is surreal. F###, we get our own bus. My old friends coming with me. Everyone coming together, it’s gonna be crazy. I never thought I’d have a headlining tour this soon, it’s wild.

AllHipHop: You recently dropped 29, how you feeling?

Bankrol Hayden: I’m feeling good. 29 out now, all platforms! It’s about all the highs and lows of my career. The number 29 is the day of my accident, it’s the day my grandma passed away. It’s an angel number for me. 

AllHipHop: Why’d it take three years? 

Bankrol Hayden: Man, it was really so much stuff changing from team to A&R to management. So many pieces moving that the music got delayed. So many people left my side and came back, that it took that long to really make the album. I had the music in a year or two, but it was so much other details that were slowing it down. 

AllHipHop: How hyped were your fans when you dropped it? Because they’ve been waiting. 

Bankrol Hayden: They were hyped! They like it forreal. The most fan favorite is “2001,” the first song on the album.

AllHipHop: You got a favorite?

Bankrol Hayden: Honestly probably that one. I like “2001,” it’s more of a real side of me. You get to know me on a deeper level, rather than songs like “Cabo” or “Costa Rica.” The songs people mostly know me for. “2001” gave you a deeper, more personal meaning of me.

AllHipHop: I’ve been bumping “Bop Slide.” You making club bangers now?! 

Bankrol Hayden: Yeah, that’s what we was trying to go for on that. We were trying to make a West Coast club record. At first, it was literally just me, then I got Blueface on it. I literally got everyone on it by myself. For Blueface, we’ve always been cool. I tapped in with him. I tapped in with his homie to get it to the finish line. Wack 100 also helped out a lot. Shout out Wack.

For Maxo, we met at Complexcon in Long Beach. Just buying clothes. We chopped it up, I sent him a record. He liked that one. How OHGEESY got on, was due to a producer friend of mine named Diego. He said “pull up, OHGEESY’s cutting it right now. Come through.” I watched it in person.

AllHipHop: Bring us back to when you came up with that hook, that’s a bop in itself.

Bankrol Hayden: Shoot, I was in the producer’s house, we’re sitting on this couch. We were trying to go for something catchy. We literally recorded it in his living room, never re-recorded it. That was the same vocals of mine, s### was crazy. 

Producer credits: Alex Goldblatt (Roddy Ricch), Tom Levesque (Roddy Ricch, YG, Ty Dolla $ign), Callan Wong (Lil Mosey, Lil Tecca) and Diego Ave (Megan Thee Stallion, Wiz Khalifa, Kali, Doechii).

AllHipHop: That’s gonna be a fun one to tour too. 

Bankrol Hayden: Hell yeah. For LA, I’m thinking about doing something real special. I don’t wanna spoil it too much. I’m thinking Arden Jones to do “Can’t Change For You” live, bring out charlieonaafriday. I’m bringing my brother Zzz. out to do “Penthouse.” Maybe OHGEESY, Blueface, if that works on their schedule. I haven’t asked them yet, but shouldn’t be a problem forreal.

AllHipHop: I was just at Babyface Ray’s show at The Novo, he brought out OHGEESY.

Bankrol Hayden: That’s hard. He’s lit! They sleeping on OHGEESY. He got a core, cult fanbase.

AllHipHop: Best memory from that video shoot?

Bankrol Hayden: It was so long. I was so hungry, I was so out of it. It was just snacks, I was eating Doritos all day. I’m like bro, I need some real food. Best memory, they had me on this ladder, 10 feet in the air. Not even strapped on to anything, doing my own stunts for the video. [laughs] That was cool. Other than that, Chrisean being there was funny. It was cool seeing them interact in person, after seeing all the videos on the internet.

AllHipHop: How’d you feel about Chrisean making the song s###? 

Bankrol Hayden: S###, that was hard. When I first got it, wait what? No he didn’t! This is gonna go crazy. I liked it.

AllHipHop: Blueface did the verse on his own and sent it to you?

Bankrol Hayden: At first, it’s crazy. We were in the studio a year ago. That’s how long I’ve had this song, a year ago. I’m like “Bro, you gotta hop on this song.” “Yeah this is a banger Bro,” he was gonna hop on it. We’re literally in the studio, engineer’s playing the beat. He’s writing the verse. He’s like “Bro, you wanna go to the club right now? I’m not even trying to record tonight.” [laughs] I swear, we just go out to the club. I’m like alright yeah, let’s go out. 

We went to somewhere on La Brea, this small spot up top. It was lit. Literally a year later, we finally get him on the song. 

AllHipHop: You didn’t even get him on the song that night?

Bankrol Hayden: Not that night. We went to the club.  Time went by, we didn’t really push the issue on it. But I always knew it was gonna be somebody from the West Coast, someone on them club type of records. 

AllHipHop: Those features I feel like were perfect for that record.

Bankrol Hayden: Forreal man. A&Red by me man! We in here, put it in motion. 

AllHipHop: I know you got Lil Skies on the project too. 

Bankrol Hayden: Lil Skies goes hard on “Deep End,” that was a special one. That one really connected with the fans, everyone related to it. That s### was dope. Skies is the first big artist that ever reached out to me. When I dropped “Costa Rica,” he hit me up. “Keep going bro, keep doing ya thing.” It was cool when we did “Deep End,” it was genuine. It wasn’t just “let’s pay this guy for a feature,” it was some real genuine friendship s###.

AllHipHop: What would 15-year-old Bankrol Hayden say to you now?

Bankrol Hayden: I be thinking about that, it’s so crazy. I’ll probably be like nah, you’re lying. That’s not true.

Man, I always knew I was gon’ be something. I didn’t know what, or how I was gon’ do it. I always was a dream type of kid. Growing up, it was skateboarding. Thinking I’ma go pro skateboarding. Then playing basketball, I’ma go pro playing basketball. I’m hella short, it’s not even realistic. 

I always had the mindset of chasing a dream over a job, a 9 to 5. I’m not knocking the 9 to 5, everybody’s gotta get it the way they get it. I’d probably tell myself, man look how far we came. S###’s crazy, it’s really happening. Not everything’s happening yet, but we’re on our way. 

AllHipHop: Anything else you’re excited about? 

Bankrol Hayden: Tour, meeting fans face to face. VIP, and traveling around these cities. Drop more music, and get to the next chapter of this s### forreal. Start dropping new music.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bankrol Hayden (@bankrolhayden)

AllHipHop: How was it throwing the first pitch at the Giants game? 

Bankrol Hayden: Nah that’s hard. That s### was crazy. I literally f##### up, I threw the pitch and the ball hits the dirt. This was so bad, it bounces off the dirt and hits the camera lady in the head. Hella hard bro. It was on the news in San Francisco: “rapper Bankrol Hayden throws the first pitch and hits her head.” [laughs] She was mad too. It’d be like if you were at home plate filming me throwing it, and it hits you in the head. She was for sure embarrassed, I felt terrible. 

AllHipHop: Did you laugh? 

Bankrol Hayden: I don’t even remember what happened, what I did. I’m like, oh I’m sorry. 

AllHipHop: That’s a lot of eyes on you.

Bankrol Hayden: For sure, I’m always more nervous for s### like that. Even in Atlanta, we recently did courtside at the Hawks game. They put the camera on me, I don’t know why I’d be more nervous in a sports environment. I’ll walk out at Juice WRLD’s show, 20K people I’m not that nervous. But then

sitting at the Hawks game, them putting the spotlight on me, I’m like ugh. Sports be different, it’s a different crowd. That’s probably what it is too, it’s not my typical supporters. They’re on rap music and stuff.

AllHipHop: Giants is dope because that’s the Bay!

Bankrol Hayden: Nah forreal, I’m from Modesto. Man, I played on the Junior Giants baseball team when I was a little kid. Used to go to Giants games, me and my family. 49ers games. It’s complicated because people think Modesto — out here, I have to say the Bay Area. If I say Modesto, people aren’t gonna know where it is. But in the Bay Area, if you were to say “this is The Bay,” never gang. This is not The Bay, you are the Central Valley. [laughs] But out here, you have to describe it as The Bay almost. But technically it’s not.

AllHipHop: Any goals for yourself at this point?

Bankrol Hayden: Own properties. Take care of my family and my kids, generational wealth. I don’t have kids, but my unborn kids. 

AllHipHop: How many kids you want?

Bankrol Hayden: 3 or 4. But I don’t want no kids right now. I got a dog, that’s enough. I got a little puppy, he’s coming on tour with me. A little fluffyFrenchie, Deebo.

AllHipHop: You named him Deebo from Friday?

Bankrol Hayden: That, and the 49ers wide receiver Deebo Samuel. It was both. Ain’t gon’ lie, it was probably Deebo Samuel just because in the moment we were watching football. Also bro, this is Friday too. This is a go. It’s my first dog on my own, so this s### a lot.

AllHipHop: Man, my dog changed my life. 

Bankrol Hayden: I love my dog. You love your dog? It’s crazy how attached you get to it.

AllHipHop: Mine just needs a little bit of training…

Bankrol Hayden: Mine too, it’s terrible. They said if he pees on the tour bus, it’s a $1,000 fine. He’s ruthless, he’ll chew up all the puppy pads. He’s gonna be in jail the whole time. He’s gon be in the cage, we probably won’t let him out. [laughs] It’s a joke.

AllHipHop: Any other goals?

Bankrol Hayden: Whenever I get to the point where money’s not an issue at all, it don’t matter what I do, I want to start foundations and give back to people in need. My characteristic is giving, it’s my personality. Something within that, giving back to people in need or homeless shelters. Creative stuff for kids, stuff to do for people in cities that don’t have stuff to do. Stuff like that is what I want to get into it, and it makes sense. 

AllHipHop: Anything else you wanna let us know?

Bankrol Hayden: Man, get your tour tickets. 29 Tour, come through. We gon’ see ya’ll there.

For more information on Bankrol Hayden, 29 tour tickets, and more visit https://www.bankrol.co/.