Durk Banks aka Lil Durk is an American hip hop recording artist and singer-songwriter. He is the leader of his own collective, Only the Family.

Durk Banks was born on October 19, 1992, in Chicago, Illinois. He was raised in Englewood, a neighborhood on Chicago's South Side.

In 2011, Banks would start taking music seriously. After plans to sign with Chief Keef and French Montana's labels fell through, he considered rapping as "a full-time career" after the releases of his two singles, "Sneak Dissin'" and "I'ma Hitta", each of which received generally positive feedback. On October 19, 2012, Durk released his third mixtape, Life Ain't No Joke. As of September 22, 2015, the mixtape has been downloaded over 216,000 times on DatPiff. In December 2012, Durk released the track, called "L's Anthem", which was remixed, featuring French Montana, as a re-release.

Due to the popularity of "L's Anthem" and its follow-up single, "Dis Ain't What U Want" in 2013, Durk accepted a joint venture deal with his collective Only the Family and Def Jam Recordings.

After a small number of delays, Durk's fourth mixtape Signed to the Streets was released on October 14, 2013, exclusively on DatPiff. It features two guest appearances from former Glo Gang affiliate Lil Reese, along with production credits from Paris Bueller and Young Chop, among others. Eight music videos were released to promote the mixtape: "Bars Pt. 2", "Oh My God", "100 Rounds", "Dis Ain't What U Want", "Bang Bros", "Traumatized", "Hittaz" and "Times". Signed to the Streets would later be named the eighth best mixtape of 2013 by Rolling Stone. On October 22, 2013, in an interview with XXL, Lil Durk said he was working on his debut album under Def Jam. Also, Durk was named part of the 2014 XXL Freshmen Class.

On July 7, 2014, Durk released his fifth mixtape, the sequel to Signed to the Streets.

On March 25, 2015, Durk announced the title of his debut studio album Remember My Name and revealed its original release date, May 12. On the same day, the album's first single, "Like Me", featuring Jeremih, was released.

However, on April 20, 2015, Durk announced that the May 12 release date of Remember My Name was delayed; he also revealed the official album cover and announced that its release had been pushed back to June 2.

On June 2, 2015, Durk's debut album, Remember My Name, was released as planned. The album peaked at number fourteen on the Billboard 200 with 28,000 equivalent album units; it sold 24,000 copies in its first week, with the remainder of its unit count attributed to streaming activity and track sales.

Later that year, Durk released his sixth mixtape, 300 Days, 300 Nights, on December 15, 2015. The only single released in promotion for the mixtape was "My Beyoncé", which features Detroit rapper Dej Loaf. The single was released on November 20, 2015. A music video for "My Beyoncé" had since been released in early 2016. On June 5, 2017, the single was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for single-equivalent units of over 500,000 copies.

Lil Durk released his second album, Lil Durk 2X, on July 22, 2016. Previously, he released the first single for the album, "She Just Wanna", featuring Ty Dolla $ign, in May. Other follow-up singles for the album include: "Money Walk", featuring Yo Gotti, and "True". The album, unfortunately, failed to meet the same standards as his previous album, Remember My Name, peaking at number twenty-nine on the Billboard 200.

Later that November, Durk released his seventh mixtape, They Forgot. The mixtape features guest appearances from Lil Reese, Meek Mill, Mozzy, OTF Ikey, 21 Savage, Hypno Carlito, Dej Loaf, YFN Lucci, and BJ the Chicago Kid. While the production was handled by C-Sick, ChopSquad DJ, Donis Beats, DP Beats, LeekeLeek, Kid Wonder, London on da Track, TY Made It, and Young Chop. The mixtape is supported by the single "Baller".

On December 7, 2016, Durk's single, "Like Me", from his debut studio album, Remember My Name, was certified gold by the RIAA.

Throughout 2017, Durk released several mixtapes: Love Songs for the Streets in February, Supa Vultures, a collaborative mixtape with Lil Reese, in August, Signed to the Streets 2.5 in October and Bloodas, a collaborative mixtape with Tee Grizzley, in December.

On March 29, 2018, Durk announced his twelfth mixtape to be released the following day by midnight and his first mixtape to be released for digital retail, Just Cause Ya'll Waited. That same time, he also wished Def Jam Recordings the best of luck while revealing that he had "quarantined" his contract with the label. Finally, the following day after he left Def Jam, Durk, now a free agent, released Just Cause Ya'll Waited exclusively on Apple Music and the iTunes Store. Just Cause Ya'll Waited had since been available for stream or download on other platforms. The mixtape has since became Durk's first non-album project to peak on a Billboard chart, charting at numbers fifty-seven on the Billboard 200, twenty-eight on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart and twenty-two on the Rap Albums chart, respectively.

Durk has also announced a collaborative project with 808 Mafia producer DY, Durkio Krazy.

Durk is a member of the Black Disciples, a rival gang of the Gangster Disciples, and has three children in his life, as well as a younger brother, Dontay Banks.

Throughout his childhood, his father, Dontay Banks, Sr., had been serving two life sentences without the possibility of parole, with no disclosed details.

On May 31, 2014, Durk's cousin, rapper McArthur "OTF NuNu" Swindle, was murdered. Then, on March 27, 2015, Uchenna "OTF Chino Dolla" Agina, Durk's friend and manager was also shot dead.

Throughout late 2015 and early 2016, rumors begin to swirl that Durk was involved in a romantic relationship with rapper Dej Loaf, but they had both refuted these claims.

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