by Dan O

No one is meaner and more thoughtfully capable of steadily handling the lyrical scalpel to dissect every aspect of an enemy. No one laughs and cries harder. No one masterminds album themes and meaning better in 2025.

2025 is not the year Teller Bank$ found his voice rapping. That happened a long time ago. 2025 is the year Teller Bank$ hit his peak in all the supporting areas for his craft. Ed Glorious and Teller released their 5th album together The Wolf and The Walrus to cap off this MVP season. Teller said the first time he heard Ed’s beats for the first collaboration The Grotesque & Beautiful he asked Ed if he was ok…the beats had a lot of pain in them and that pain came from somewhere. They talked over time and realized they had a lot of shared ground, similar scars, and they kept making music. That’s why The Wolf and The Walrus is their best, that common space built a focal point for two very serious creative minds. They just get better and better at the craft and deeper and deeper into that focal point. Planting that seed is important, when you meet someone special and connect…knowing the value of that is a skill. A lot of people walk away from their greatest collaborators. Another branch of the properly utilized resources tree is Wino Willy. Black Man! Is one of my favorite Teller projects ever and it wouldn’t have come out that way it is  if Teller hadn’t stepped back and let Wino Willy handle everything but the rapping. This is the first time ever for TB$ to not comb over the mix and put his own polish on it. Letting go of that is a major step and one that allows for full lyrical focus. Now, let’s talk about Drug$$$. A cabal of brilliant producers (Philth Specter, Killer Kane, qnoname, ayashi[!]) got together and created a beatpack together, songs so full and unorthodox they sound like nothing on the planet. Teller’s 2025 talent was seizing the opportunity, letting it spark him completely. He sent them so many songs back they immediately booked another session and the album was in full swing. Do you know how many artists meant to jump on beats and just never get to it? He felt it and let that feeling take over. The result is an album in Drug$$$ that captured the imagination of indie rap heads that seek out inspiration from innovation. 

These albums all have a different story. Teller did a fantastic job of telling each story. We did a written interview for The Wolf and The Walrus. The cabal and Teller did The Rap Music Plug Podcast and Reel Notes to talk Drug$$$. They sold the story of this collaboration, crediting every producer as a feature on streaming. McKinley Dixon let Teller HULK SMASH on their On The Radar performance. As a true believer this is the first year I didn’t feel like I needed to push for people to listen. I never sat back and grumbled that he was underrated. He was adding ears every day and building relationships that will help in the future. 

When you present the levels of craft that Teller Bank$ does you have to teach the audience what they are listening to. They might only hear the vocal effects, the fly braggadocio, and the great hook. They might catch the punch lines and the tough talk. They might not pick up on the story. Every single one of the CRITICAL Teller albums is a story(aside from the 3 top albums, he also put out leftside which is a collection of songs but doesn’t appear to have an arc. Teller makes a ton of music so sometimes he just purges gems in a less curated way than his focused releases). 

In 2025 he gave it all to us, parables and politics, mental health and vengeance. People are starting to understand what I’ve been shouting for a while. Teller is so much more than you thought. He is the absolute height of emotionally charged and delivering you the moment he resides in. Feeding his brain everything and trusting his emotional sparks to empty trains of thought onto tracks. No one is as WITH YOU on a song as Teller. No one is meaner and more thoughtfully capable of steadily handling the lyrical scalpel to dissect every aspect of an enemy. No one laughs and cries harder. No one masterminds album themes and meaning better in 2025. I just kept telling everyone years ago that the biggest misconception you can have about Teller Bank$ is that he has some sort of creative ceiling. Inside him is all he will ever need to put on record. His greatest challenge has been managing the delivery of that. If he figured it out in 2025, 2026 is hard to even imagine.