Over 6,000 acts entered NPR’s 2017 Tiny Desk Contest, but when the 10 judges convened for a vote they landed on a unanimous winner: New Orleans’ own Tank and the Bangas. Led by the infectiously positive Tarriona “Tank” Ball, the genre-defying group blends clever spoken wordplay with laidback grooves and beautiful melodies to create a progressive sound that doesn’t even have a name yet (“neo-neo-soul” just doesn’t have a ring to it).

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