Last September, Robert “3D” del Naja of British trip-hop group Massive Attack was forced to deny he had a side-hustle painting subversive stencils and opening emo Disneylands.
“We are all Banksy,” Del Naja said to a crowd of fans in Bristol after journalist Craig Williams purportedly outed him as the elusive street artist. Del Naja then claimed to the Daily Mail that Banksy was just a close mate who often checked out some of the band’s gigs. Needless to say this did little to dispel the rumor, and nor has a new interview with drum ‘n’ bass DJ — and Del Naja’s longtime creative mate — Goldie. Chatting to spoken word poet Scroobius Pip on Pip’s Distraction Pieces podcast, Goldie straight-up refers to Banksy as “Robert.”
“Give me a bubble letter and put it on a t-shirt and write ‘Banksy’ on it and we’re sorted… We can sell it now,” Goldie can be heard saying, lamenting that graffiti is misunderstood. He then continues, “No disrespect to Robert, I think he is a brilliant artist. I think he has flipped the world of art over.” You can almost feel the silence as he pauses, twice, before swiftly changing the topic to jazz. Guess someone’s not getting a free stay at The Walled Off Hotel next time he’s DJing in Israeli-occupied West Bank.
There are a couple of related theories floating around about Banksy’s real identity. Williams thought Banksy could be more than one person, though he’s certain he/they are linked to Massive Attack in a major way. Meanwhile, science thinks Banksy is some total random named Robin Gunningham, so at least we can all agree that his real name probably starts with “R.”
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Text Hannah Ongley
Image via Instagram