New Orleans native Alfred Banks has been an integral part of the local hip-hop scene for a hot minute. A one-time Loyola student, Banks began earning a name for himself in 2009 and has been on the rise ever since. After dropping out of college–and finding himself homeless–Banks poured his time, energy and heart into creating quality raps. The loss of his brother, who suffered from schizophrenia and took his own life in 2014, further tested him, but Banks pulled together some resources from friends and was soon back on his feet. With the release of his upcoming album, The Beautiful, right around the corner (and a new Volkswagen commercial under his belt), it looks like Banks is ready to dominate in 2016.

I caught up with the rising rapper over the phone earlier this month as his The Beautiful Tour was coming to a close. Banks talked with us about the emotional turmoil that he experienced after his brother’s death, the stigma of mental illness in hip-hop, the experience of working on a Volkswagon commercial, his thoughts on the New Orleans hip-hop scene and more.

How has The Beautiful Tour been thus far?

It was great. It was 17 cities and it was really cool to see some of my supporters come out in each city and show love. I brought my man, Dappa. He has local fame here in New Orleans, so I brought him on tour. It was really cool, we had a lot of fun. Some of the cities I’ve already visited so I was going back and reintroducing myself. Overall, The Beautiful Tour was great. We got one more show. I’m back home for a little while and I have one more show in North Carolina next week, but other than that, the tour pretty much is done for the first leg. It was fun.

I’ve been listening to your The Beautiful Prelude EP and it’s very personal. What were you hoping to accomplish by releasing such a short yet intimate project?

Well, the “Prelude” was a couple things. One, it’s the prelude for my album which is called The Beautiful, which is gonna drop sometime this fall. Two, it pays homage to my brother who means a lot to me throughout my life as well as in my music career. Early on in my life, in the late 90s, he was about to get signed to No Limit and that got me interested in music in the first place. When he developed schizophrenia and passed away, it hit home, really deep. I just want to pay homage to him. Also, I want to bring awareness to mental illness because, in the African American community, it’s something that’s a little taboo. In hip-hop in general it’s taboo to talk about it. There’s the issue with Troy Ave and Joey Bada$$. One of Joey Bada$$’s friends [Capital Steez] committed suicide because he was going through something and Troy Ave made fun of it. I just don’t think that was appropriate, so I want to bring more attention to it [mental illness] and let people know there are people who suffer from this. I want to talk about it in hip-hop and let people know it’s a real issue.

I know you already said a bit about what your album is going to deal with, but is there anything else that we can expect from it?

So, the “Prelude” is the day I found out my brother passed away. The intro is the phone call between me and my mom and then the second song is me coming to grips with it. The last song on the EP is me getting ready for his funeral, so the intro to the album is his funeral and it goes right into the story. We recreate his funeral on the record and then it’s real epic, it’s real big, it’s real emotional. I actually had to leave the [funeral] service early because I had to go to a show that night. The car ride from the funeral to the show was extremely emotional and that’s what my album’s about. Fictionally, because I don’t have mental illness, but in the album, I develop schizophrenia. So the album talks about mental illness, my brother’s struggle with it and my view on it. I kind of take on the problems that my brother suffered with. But at the same time, the album isn’t as slow as the EP is. We really wanted to go for more of an epic sound [on the EP] and not necessarily a more upbeat record. But the album has a nice blend of slower, bigger, epic songs with the more upbeat. It has really high points. I’m very excited. I have features from my man Megaran, who’s a Capcom-sponsored rapper, and my man Mickey Factz, who’s a former XXL Freshman. So the album has bright points, real happy energy, but then it has the stuff that people heard on “The Beautiful Prelude.” It’s a big mixture of that. I’m very excited. It took my 2 years to make and we’re finally coming out with it this fall, so I’m excited to see what the people think.

That’s really exciting. I also saw your Volkswagen and Beats by Dre commercial. How did you link up with the Volkswagen guys for that?

There’s a guy in New Orleans named Jermaine Quiz. He showed us love and those guys hit us up. They hit him up, and he hit us up. They were interested in a song that we had called “Homecoming.” From there we just talked biz and they loved the record. They wanted to use it as a way to promote their new car out in Europe, which is the Volkswagen Polo. It’s the Beats by Dre edition. That song is really a way to promote the record. It’s high energy and that’s what the people want. They [Volkswagon] want hip young guys and gals riding in that car. Shouts to Volkswagen and shouts out to Blut, which is a company out of Germany who licensed the record. Shouts to my man Jermaine Quiz for initiating the process. So that’s how we got it going. Blut has great professionals and I love working with those guys. Shouts to my manager as well for managing the whole situation. But they reached out to us, we got everything together, and they flew us out to Spain. It was a great time. It was the first time I was outside the country, so that was really cool. We filmed and it was very fun. My first time seeing the commercial was the first time it dropped. It was really cool to see that product.

You talk about New Orleans a lot in your music and interviews. What do you hope that non-native listeners will take away from your music about the city?

That there’s another side to it. For example, when I was in Tampa on my tour, a guy came up to me after my set was over. I talked to my fans and after I was hanging out by myself and this guy ran up on me and was like, “Yo, I can’t front man, when I saw you, the way you looked, with your dreads and where you’re from, I thought you was gonna sound like Ace Hood or something bro, I thought you was gonna be super materialistic and mad whack. But then when you opened your mouth I was like, ‘Damn, I can’t believe this dude’s from New Orleans.’” So I kind of want to show that.

The hip-hop scene here isn’t really sought after. The people who look for it only look for a certain thing. I want to show that, given my background, where I come from and the struggles that I’ve had to get where I’m at now, I bring another side to the table.  A more hip-hop side. I’m a guy who can kick mad bars and also give you good music, and just my work ethic, perseverance, that grind, that’s what I want people to take away. And also to have more thought provoking music. Something that can make people go “hmm” more than just “ahh.” I want people that aren’t from New Orleans to hear my music and go, “Yo, that kid is something special and I didn’t know that New Orleans could produce something like that.” That’s really my goal overall and just to spread some good energy everywhere.

Building on that, how do you feel about the current hip-hop scene in New Orleans?

I love it so much. Even though there’s not really a lot of sides to it, the people who are doing their thing are really doing their thing. 3D Na’Tee, she’s getting to it. My man Dee-1, he’s getting to it. Then you got your underground guys like Daniel Heartless. There’s this young lady named EZ Tha God, she’s doing her thing right now. I think the scene right now is really energetic. People are working and grinding. My man Slangston Hughes is doing his thing real heavy, and my man Truth Universal, he’s the OG of hip-hop here. I love the scene here. It’s sprouting and coming out. Even guys on the other side of things, like my man Young Greatness, those guys are working real hard. My man Pell as well. Me and him actually did a record together that’s doing pretty well. All those guys are helping, with their own side of things, to bring New Orleans to the forefront. I’m excited to see what the next five to 10 years look like for New Orleans hip-hop. It’s going to be a fun time.

Your movement, Underdog Central, has become pretty big in New Orleans. What’s next for it?

Underdog Central is more like a life mantra I live by. Underdog Central is the place that the overlooked go to hone their skills and come back to be admired. I just want everyone, when they think Underdog Central, to think coming from the ground. Literally coming from the bottom. I hate to sound so generic, but coming from the bottom and really making your way through the whole thing. So I think what’s next for us is touring, touring, more touring and finally putting out this album that I’ve been working on. Then touring, and just putting New Orleans on the map even more and expanding. I’m able to tour the country very often at this point, so I’m just spreading the Underdog Central word and making sure all my people who like fly kicks–like to collect shoes–and who are underdogs in their life know they aren’t alone. They got somebody that they can rock with and vibe with.

One last question. What have you been listening to lately?

That’s a pretty hard question. I don’t listen to a lot, but I’ve been listening to Pharrell’s G I R L album. I think it came out in 2014 and that’s really good. Jay-Z’s “American Gangster,” that’s a really good album. And Mickey Factz, he put out a project called “Y-3” that I’m actually on. I don’t listen to my song, but that project is really good. My man, Charles Hamilton, just put out a project called “The Black Box.” I’ve been listening to that real heavy. My man Marcel P. Black, he’s a guy that’s from Baton Rouge, I’ve been listening to his project. It’s called “Black Collar.” I’ve been listening to that real heavy. I try to support more underground guys, with the exception of Jay-Z and Pharrell. I try to peep music from guys who aren’t necessarily the biggest name in the world but they still put out great products. So at this point, I listen to a lot of MF Doom, I listen to a lot of Mickey Factz, I listen to a lot of Charles Hamilton. But for the most part, I listen to a lot of underground guys like Truth Universal and Marcel P. Black. Those are my guys.