Massive Attack’s Founder Admits Nothing: “Rumors of Me Being Banksy Are Greatly Exaggerated”

This sign appeared on the street outside a Massive Attack concert in their home-town of Bristol on Saturday night.

Massive Attack performed a show in its home town of Bristol on Saturday, September 3 and commented on the rumors. Founder Robert “3D” Del Naja said,

“Rumors of me being Banksy [are] greatly exaggerated, we are all Banksy!“

What is also entirely plausible that if Banksy is NOT 3D –that the two ARE friends– that the street artist would have been back in Bristol for the band’s first home-town gig in 11 years.

However, investigative journalist, Craig Williams, has mapped out Massive Attack’s tour dates and destinations and cross-referenced them with the places where Banksy works have appeared. They pretty much line up.

Reported by the Daily Telegraph, show Williams found out,

• In 1988, Massive Attack formed in Bristol; the first recorded Banksy artwork appeared there two years later.

• April of 2003, a month after Massive Attack played in Melbourne, Banksy’s work appeared there

• On September 23 of 2004, shortly after the Banksy mural Madonna Con La Pistola appeared on the side of a church in Naples, Del Naja attended a soccer match there.

• October of 2006, Banksy’s Barely Legal exhibition opened in LA, a week after the band played at the Hollywood Bowl.

• In 2008, the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Banksy created 14 stencil-works across New Orleans. Del Naja co-wrote the soundtrack to the Katrina-focused documentary Trouble the Water that same year

• May 1, 2010, 6 Banksy murals showed up in San Francisco; Massive Attack performed there on April 25 and 27, as part of a world tour

• May 7, 2010, the band performed in Toronto; a Banksy worked popped up there on May 14

• In 2013, when Massive Attack undertook a residency from September 28 to October 4 at the Park Avenue Armory in New York, Banksy began a month-long New York residency of his own, installing a whole series of works throughout the city.

The evidence is far from conclusive but Del Naja does get PRETTY close to Banksy. He has a history of graffiti art as part of the collective The Wild Bunch, and is supposedly “friends” with the artist. He even appeared in the 2010 film that was directed by Banksy, Exit From the Gift Shop.

3D’s political leanings are also similar to Banksy’s. Although no movements for the band have coincided directly with the appearance of the nine artworks to have appeared on the Palestinian Wall, Massive Attack have been known to openly support and work with the HOPING Foundation (Hope and Optimism for Palestinians in the Next Generation), and have boycotted tour dates within Israel.

Wonder if we’ll ever know who Banksy really is? Anyway, you can check out Massive Attack’s latest video featuring Cate Blanchette.