Even if the New York Knicks, currently down 3-1 to the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals, don’t meet their championship goals, their run has been a monumental moment for New York sports (ask New York City Mayor Eric Adams and his street signs). And TNT’s coverage of the series has matched the hysteria with a soundtrack chock-full of classic New York rap.
Rapper Big Pooh spoke for many viewers when he posted on X, “whoever doing the music bumpers for TNT tonight…SALUTE.” That would be Erron Banks, a five-time Emmy-winning producer of NBA on TNT telecasts for five years. He tells Rolling Stone that his role as a producer entails augmenting the game with storytelling, including figuring out the right music. During the Knicks-Pacers series, he’s played New York rap standards like Dipset’s “I’m Ready,” MOP’s “Ante Up,” and Ja Rule’s “New York” heading into commercial breaks.
Banks thought of scoring bumpers, or the 10-to-15-second clips that precede shows going to break, when he was an associate director at Turner Sports. He immediately had a vision of bumper songs based on the city the game is in and pop culture happenings. He’s gone viral several times with his song choices: Last year, he played “Not Like Us” during a Nuggets-Timberwolves game. He’s also eulogized artists like Nipsey Hussle and DMX by playing their music after their passing.
An LA native, Banks is a lifelong hip-hop fan who was first exposed to the genre by his mother. “She still says to this day, ‘I couldn’t believe that you knew some of the words to “I Get Around” at age four,’” he jokes. “She was like, ‘I did not like that.’ But I’ve got to give her kudos.” Banks played football at Towson University in Maryland, where he says music also played a major role in his training and pregame regimen.
Banks graduated from Towson in 2012 with a BA in Communications and Media Studies and started his current path. For him, hip-hop is his version of Rock and Roll, and he wants to celebrate the genre through his work. “I want you to be at home, and you watch this game, you’re like, ‘They went to break with Mobb Deep? That shit is dope.’ It really ain’t about the recognition for me. This shit is about the culture and I’ve always loved it.”
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Song selection is one of Banks’ last game prep tasks, and he usually picks 10-12 songs to choose from. Sometimes the playlist comes from his listening sessions, but he also has no problem asking friends and others for their opinion (he asked me to suggest a song for tonight’s game; I proposed New York phenom Cash Cobain). During the game, he goes by feel and tells Senior Audio Supervisor David Grundtvig when to play which songs.
He says that his ultimate goal is to handle music production for the NBA Finals, where he can fulfill his desire to entertain viewers on the biggest basketball stage. “I want you, when you turn your TV off, to say, ‘Man, what a game last night. They had the music on. It was competitive,’” he says. “That’s what it’s all about. It’s for the people. I think people have a love for hip-hop, but I just love it so much. I really do.”
How long have you been in music supervision? Is that the proper term?
I’m a producer at Turner. [I’ve] produced NBA games [for] five and a half years. I just love music. I love hip hop. I love it so much. And I try to know the history of it too. I respect the history of hip hop.
What was the initial adjustment like in the position?
My original position was associate director before doing NBA games. And I came to our game director, I said, “Hey, it’d be great if we went to break with music. You could tie it in with cities, you could tie it in with players, you could tie it in with what’s going on right now.” And he was like, “Sure.” He was like, “Let’s stay away from the artists who aren’t alive.” He said, “We can fly under this thing called an ephemeral clause.”
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And what the ephemeral clause is, you play a track one time, it’s a one-time use. What artists get paid for is a track re-airing. So when you see movies and they have a popular track in there, they make the money off the song re-airing. When our game re-airs, what I do is I send back, “Hey, this is when popular music aired. Put the theme over it.” So if you re-watch the game on League Pass, you won’t see the popular music. You only see it for the live games.
So, for the five years that you’ve had this role, every single song has been chosen just once?
I choose it once throughout that season. [The] next NBA season, I’ll reuse something, because it’s some stuff that don’t get old. Like playing “Ante Up” the other day, I’m in New York, and I want to play that.
From game to game, what is your process for procuring the songs that you want to play?
Well, what I usually do is, I spend so much time in the airport, I’m already studying for my game, I got to get ready for the trends and things in my game. So music is my last thing. When I’m walking through the airport, that’s when I’m rolling through music. It’s the perfect time. I’m waiting for my flight, I’m in Sky Club, and I’m just going through tracks. I’ll just use this example: If the Knicks lose, or I see that they’re down by a little bit, I’m probably going to play “Cold Summer” by Fabolous, because that means their season’s going to be done. So it’s little things like that. I [wanted] to play some Coco [Jones] because she dates Donovan Mitchell, but they were getting embarrassed [at the] time. It’s when I’m in the airport, sometimes when I’m in my room, I’ll probably finalize my list down to maybe 10 to 12 songs,
I’ll try to stay positive too. I also got to think, like, “Hey, if the Knicks are doing well…” I was re-listening to I Am, by Nas. I was like, “Oh, I need to re-listen to this album,” just to go down memory lane, because I can’t remember every song in the world. I was really listening to Nas. I was going through a couple of Busta Rhymes’ albums. I didn’t play any female New York rap artists, so I was like, I need to do that as well. I didn’t touch that, and that was my fault.
So early on, you realized that you wanted the city that you were in to play a role in who you selected?
Yep. Or what was popular at the time. I had the Timberwolves-Nuggets [last year], the Kendrick-Drake beef was on, so I had to play [their diss songs]. It was what the culture was listening to, so I had to play it. I played both songs because I didn’t want to make like we was picking sides. But it was more just what’s happening right now. Like, Key Glock is popular right now, so when I was in Indiana for game three, I played some Key Glock. I’m like, “This album is actually pretty good.” I ran through his album three times.
I skipped over this part, but when this all started out, it was just me getting music from Apple Music and cutting it on my own, using the software Audacity. I was doing that, and then Kristy Gibson, a senior VP of creative sync with Atlantic Records, heard me use a little Uzi Vert song. I thought I was in trouble. I was like, “Hey, we only used 20 seconds of this track.” She was like, “No, no, no, I’m fine with that.” She’s like, “I want to work with you.” I was like, “Oh, okay, cool.” So she got me on their distro list.
And what’s great about them is they sometimes send you unreleased tracks, so sometimes I may play something that’s unreleased if they’re okay with it. Or sometimes if an album is coming out that Friday, they’ll send it out Wednesday and say, “Hey, you can play this for your next game.” But she’s been very helpful. And then I ran into another person, her name is Allie Krummann. She’s a senior director of Creative Sync for Universal Music. So those two record labels, I’ve been working with them on using popular music.
Can you think of moments when your song choices went viral?
The Clippers were playing in Houston and the Clippers were whipping the Rockets’ ass. And that day before I was like, “You know what? If the Rockets are up, I’m going to play Lil’ Flip, Game Over.” Well, the Clippers were winning, I was like, “I can still play it,” and I played it. I didn’t realize it was going to get that much traction. My buddy was like, “Hey, have you checked out X, Twitter, or whatever?” I was like, “Nah, what’s up?” He recorded a scroll. He said, “This is what people are saying about what you playing.” So it was that, and then obviously playing Kendrick, that got the most. And then it’s recently what you said with the New York stuff. It’s like, we’re in New York, we’re over in LA. It’s tough to find those small cities like Indiana. I played some Freddie Gibbs the other day, which people loved.
But I will say, too, Ali and Kristy have been helpful. I don’t want to make this all about me. It’s a group effort. I’m just cutting the tracks and thinking of the tracks. But I still have to have an audio person push the song. My A1 who’s onsite, his name is David Grundtvig. When we’re going to break, a dunk can happen, I’m telling him, “All right, hit track eight to break.” But it’s all happening so quickly. When plays happen and the timeouts happen, now it’s like, “Hey, we got to go to a replay.” So Jalen Brunson just had a deep three-pointer. I’m calling out the replays, and I’m also hitting my audio guy like, “Hey, hit track five to break.” I have the tracks in front of me.
Is there an approval process with TNT or the NBA in terms of what you can play?
I have total control over what I want to play. What’s funny is that nobody really cared. It was like, the first two years, and I was like, “All right, cool.” And then when it started to get more traction people were like, “Oh, well, how about you play this pop song?”
The toughest part, I would say, is that there are positives and negatives. Some artists have come after us. Curren$y came after me one time. And it’s not even the artist, it’s their circle. It’s like, “Hey, did you use this track?” And we’re like, “Yeah, we used it under Ephemeral Use.” The only thing is when you’re using music, you cannot edit it, you just have to push the song.
What did they say?
Andrea White, who’s our music clearance, she’s like, “Erron, I know you use [songs based] off Ephemeral Use.” Which she’s fine with as long as there ain’t nobody cursing and staying away from dead artists. But they just reached out and said, “Hey, when was this track used?” She’s like, “I just have to get them a clip so they know that you didn’t edit it.” Most artists love it. Snoop’s never come after us. Jay-Z never came after us. I played Beyoncé. She’s never come after us. And those are just examples.
How wide is the pool of music that you choose from? Is it strictly licensed music from studio albums, or can you pick from mixtapes or freestyles?
I pick from mixtapes, too. Two years ago, I picked from one of [Rick Ross’] popular mixtapes. I thought I played some Soul Tape the other night. I don’t know if I hit it, the track with him and Jadakiss called “The Hope.” But I try to balance hitting the mixtapes. Our era was a big mixtape era with the Dedications and all that. I know they’re dropping albums every Friday now, but that mixtape era was crazy. I’m originally from LA, so I’m a huge Dom Kennedy fan. But I try to balance it out. Even the other day, I played some Ed Sheeran. I’m like, I need to broaden my horizons as well.
How much of a music discovery aspect is there to what you do?
I do some research. I also ask some of the locals, “What y’all listen to out here?” I’ll have a conversation with somebody in New York. They’re people, they’re going to talk, and we’re there covering sports. So they’re very friendly. I have no shame in asking friends, too. “Hey, man, what you want to hear?” I’ll ask y’all, “What y’all want to hear tomorrow? What’s something that I didn’t play that y’all want hear?” Because, it ain’t about me, it’s about the viewer. I want you to be at home, and you watch this game, you’re like, “They went to break with Mobb Deep? That shit is dope.”
I know articles will get [me] recognition, but it really ain’t about the recognition for me. This shit is about the culture and I’ve always loved it. I feel people of other color love rock and roll, and I feel like hip hop is my rock and roll. This is my thing. People always talk about eighties rock and roll. I’m like, “Well, shit, eighties, nineties hip hop, 2000s hip hop, crazy run.” Which is like, people were trying to shit on hip-hop because of the whole Tupac and Biggie thing, but crazy run from a plethora of artists. I don’t try to judge hip hop today’s world, but I feel like a lot of people kind of sound the same.
How often do you take suggestions from Shaq, Kenny, or Chuck?
I’m primarily on the game side, so I don’t get much suggestions from them. I don’t really get much suggestions from the talent. They just let me do my thing. Reggie’s always been like, “Do your thing.” Jamal Crawford was the one who was always like, “You got to play some more Hov,” because he has a relationship with Hov. When I did in-studio, the night that Nipsey Hussle passed away, I was like, “We should just play his music now.” I was rolling the dice on that. I could have got us in trouble. That night we played his music and I was like, “Hey, it’s just us showing love.” And people were actually cool with it. I was like, “It ain’t us disrespecting him, it’s just more giving his flowers. He just was murdered. We not trying to…” And they were cool. So they let us use the “Grinding All My Life” track that whole night. I just played it repeatedly. But as far as suggestions, I take them if anybody has any. Like if you got one tomorrow Andre, feel free to let me know and I’ll play it.
Let me think on that. Can you discuss the overall legacy of the NBA on TNT embracing hip-hop?
I think [for] one, the NBA in general has embraced hip hop, so with us having that relationship for so long, we have embraced hip hop. Basketball players want to be rappers. A guy like Shaq was a rapper. They’ve embraced it very well. They don’t disrespect it. I feel like now, I don’t know if you noticed, other sports…College football was not using this much hip hop. I feel like with the NBA embracing it, it made other sports properties embrace it.
Think about this: The NFL is using all this hip-hop, but they was killing Kaepernick. Artists are at the All-Star games. They’re at the NBA games. Athletes are embracing it, and we work on this platform, so why don’t we embrace it? Shit, MLB just posted two weeks ago, [using] Key Glock for one of their teasers. MLB. Like, come on, now.
Do you envision handling music production for any other major events? Would you like to one day?
Yes, I would love to. It would be amazing if I could oversee music production on a Super Bowl, a Final Four, any of the biggest events. Even the Olympics, you can get international. I feel like this is going to sound corny, but the sky is the limit. I should be trying to reach for more. I tell people all the time, “I would love to produce an NBA Finals. That is my goal.”
What are some of your other roles as a producer of the telecast?
When you’re producing an NBA game, it’s more telling stories, right? If I have to use an example, it’s doing my research, knowing what stats are coming in. But also, when you get there on game day, just knowing the storylines. And then when the game gets going, it’s knowing how am I telling a story.
If a person gets hurt in the first quarter, “Hey, let’s put together a replay package of how this person got hurt.” Or, if somebody’s having a really good game, we need to tell the story of why they’re having a good game. So, producing is more of telling stories. I feel like when I’m telling stories, it’s as if you’re watching the game at a bar. You should be able to comprehend what I’m showing at the bar.
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Like, “Jalen Brunson and Tyrese Haliburton had a really good first quarter. Let’s come back and show a replay package of them scoring buckets,” back and forth. So, the producer is the leader. You dictate where we are going. That’s what a director’s responsibility is. They’re listening to me when I’m saying, “Hey, we’re about to go to these two replays here,” and I’m calling the machines out. Or I’m also communicating with my production assistants, “Hey, do y’all have that graphic on LeBron James? This is his 38th 30-point triple-double. It’s mixing all of those things together. But also, you’ve got to remain calm in that chair, because everybody’s following you. You are the leader.
I saw that you played football at Towson. Can you speak to what role music played in your football career?
Oh, huge. All the locker rooms had a big-ass loud system. We always played music on there. We would choose some of the songs for game days. The seniors always got first pick, when you were there. So, when we got to our senior year, it’s like, all right, you all get to pick two or three songs to play on game day. But I also have my headphones as well, too. [And] as far as training, it plays a huge just motivation when I’m in the gym. And I like it loud. I like it loud, because it’s just that drive, that hunger. I play a lot of Jeezy when I’m working out. I ain’t never lived Young Jeezy’s life, but I play a lot of it when I’m working out, because it just gets me going.
