BandGang Biography: Age, Members, Net Worth, Songs, Albums, Family, Height

BandGang is a Detroit-based American rap collective formed in 2008, comprising six emcees: BandGang Lonnie Bands, BandGang Masoe, TheRealBiggs, BandGang Paid Will, BandGang AJ (also known as Jizzle P), and Javar Escobar.

Rooted in the uptempo, street-honest sound that would come to define the Detroit rap scene throughout the 2010s, the group broke onto the national radar with their 2013 anthem BandGang or No Gang and went on to earn the nickname “YouTube Kings” for racking up millions of views long before streaming platforms dominated the conversation.

Described by XXL as “on fire in Detroit,” BandGang became one of the most important crews in the early evolution of the Detroit sound, blending minimal, driving production with gritty lyricism, off-kilter flows, and raw storytelling rooted in lived street experience.

American rap collective
BandGang
Wiki Facts & About Data
Members’ Names:	BandGang Lonnie Bands, BandGang Masoe, TheRealBiggs, BandGang Paid Will, BandGang AJ, Javar Escobar
Stage Name:	BandGang
Founded:	2008
Place of Birth:	Detroit, United States
Origin:	United States
Occupation:	Rappers • Songwriters
Net Worth:	$5 million (USD)

Early Life & Members

BandGang Lonnie Bands

• Early Life: Born and raised on the west side of Detroit, he was just 13 years old when he co-founded BandGang alongside Javar, Biggs, and Paid Will in 2008. By the time the crew was in high school, they had already begun gaining regional traction through self-released tracks and music videos, with their viral video for BandGang or No Gang serving as the moment the outside world started paying attention.
• Real Name: Lonnie
• Date of Birth: July 25, 1995
• Age: 30 years old
• Place of Birth: Detroit, Michigan, USA
• Ethnicity: African-American
• Religion: No documented information available.
• Parents: Mr. and Mrs. Bands (names not publicly disclosed)
• Siblings: No siblings publicly documented.
• Education: Attended high school in Detroit. No further education details are publicly available.

BandGang Masoe

• Early Life: Born Richard Riggans in Detroit, he was among the original members when BandGang took shape in 2008. He built a reputation within the collective for his fiery delivery and kinetic energy, and later expanded into a successful solo career, releasing his Grind Season 4 mixtape in 2016 to considerable underground acclaim. He is also known by the nickname “Maserati Rick,” a moniker given to him by a close friend.
• Real Name: Richard Riggans
• Date of Birth: August 24, 1993
• Age: 32 years old
• Place of Birth: Detroit, Michigan, USA
• Ethnicity: African-American
• Religion: No documented information available.
• Parents: Mr. and Mrs. Riggans (names not publicly disclosed)
• Siblings: No siblings publicly documented.
• Education: No education details are publicly available.

TheRealBiggs

• Early Life: A Detroit native and one of the four original co-founders of BandGang, Biggs was present from the very beginning when the crew formed in 2008. He released his solo mixtape Grind Season 2 in 2014 under the name Bandgang Tr4620 and was a featured voice on the group’s 26-track collaborative project The Family. The group also released a collective project titled Biggs Campaign in 2015 as a platform for his solo material.
• Real Name: Not publicly disclosed.
• Date of Birth: February 28, 1997
• Age: 29 years old
• Place of Birth: Detroit, Michigan, USA
• Ethnicity: African-American
• Religion: No documented information available.
• Parents: Mr. and Mrs. Biggs (names not publicly disclosed)
• Siblings: No siblings publicly documented.
• Education: No education details are publicly available.

BandGang Paid Will

• Early Life: Born Devon Wills in Detroit in 1993, Paid Will was one of the four original co-founders of BandGang and one of the most beloved figures in the city’s underground rap community. He was a consistent presence on the group’s projects from their earliest recordings and released several solo efforts, including his mixtapes Br6nx Baby (2017), Lost Files (2019), and Applying Pressure (2020). His final social media post, shared on Thanksgiving Day 2020, was a lyrical flex about financial resilience that became a memorial wall within days.
• Real Name: Devon Wills
• Date of Birth: 1993
• Age: 27 years old
• Died: 2020
• Place of Birth: Detroit, Michigan, USA
• Ethnicity: African-American
• Religion: No documented information available.
• Parents: Mr. and Mrs. Wills (names not publicly disclosed)
• Siblings: No siblings publicly documented.
• Education: No education details are publicly available.
• Death: BandGang Paid Will passed away in early December 2020 at the age of 27. Multiple outlets, including SayCheeseTV, reported he was fatally shot in Detroit. His death came just months after the killing of fellow BandGang member BandGang AJ, making 2020 a devastating year for the collective.

BandGang AJ (Jizzle P)

• Early Life: BandGang AJ, widely known as Jizzle P, was one of the six core members of BandGang and a fixture on the group’s early projects. Though less prolific as a solo artist compared to some of his bandmates, he was deeply embedded in the fabric of the collective and held in high regard across Detroit’s hip-hop community.
• Real Name: Not publicly disclosed.
• Date of Birth: Not publicly documented.
• Place of Birth: Detroit, Michigan, USA
• Ethnicity: African-American
• Religion: No documented information available.
• Parents: Not publicly disclosed.
• Siblings: No siblings publicly documented.
• Education: No education details are publicly available.
• Death: BandGang AJ was shot and killed in September 2020 in his mother’s driveway on Detroit’s west side. His death preceded that of BandGang Paid Will by less than three months, leaving the remaining members of the collective to navigate back-to-back grief within a single year.

Javar Escobar

• Early Life: One of the four original co-founders of BandGang, Javar Escobar was present at the very genesis of the crew in 2008 and contributed to the collective’s foundational years on the Detroit rap underground. He has largely maintained a lower public profile compared to bandmates like Lonnie Bands and Masoe, but his role in shaping the group’s early identity is well-established.
• Real Name: Not publicly disclosed.
• Date of Birth: Not publicly documented.
• Age: Approximately 29
• Place of Birth: Detroit, Michigan, USA
• Ethnicity: African-American
• Religion: No documented information available.
• Parents: Mr. and Mrs. Escobar (names not publicly disclosed)
• Siblings: No siblings publicly documented.
• Education: No education details are publicly available.

Career

BandGang was formed in 2008 on the west side of Detroit when four teenagers, Lonnie Bands, Javar, Biggs, and Paid Will, decided to start recording together. The group would eventually expand to six members with the addition of BandGang Masoe and BandGang AJ. In those early years, the collective operated entirely on self-reliance, recording and releasing tracks, videos, and mixtapes independently, building a street-level following through raw authenticity and sheer volume of output.

The crew’s first major moment of widespread attention came in late 2013 with the release of BandGang or No Gang, a street anthem that spread virally and established the group’s signature aesthetic: clean True Religion fits, matching Cartier Buffs, and raps delivered just slightly ahead of the beat, a flow pattern that would become a defining element of the Detroit sound. The track caught the attention of WorldStarHipHop, which amplified their reach considerably and helped them build a national following from what had been a fiercely regional fanbase.

The year 2014 was the most productive of their collective career. The group dropped an extraordinary volume of material in a compressed window, releasing The Family, a sprawling 26-track collaborative album, alongside solo and sub-group projects including White Buff Boyz and Grind Season 2. Their hustle during this period was relentless. Songs like Slippin’, Flip Work, Out My Business, On a Safe, and Outro accumulated millions of YouTube views, earning the group their “YouTube Kings” nickname and confirming their status as one of the underground’s most productive crews.

2015 continued the momentum. The group dropped Young Kings, WDW, Biggs Campaign, and Untouchable, while individual members began balancing their collective output with solo pursuits. BandGang Masoe emerged as a standout solo voice, while Lonnie Bands began distinguishing himself as the group’s most versatile and commercially compelling member.

The 2016 single Straight to It, a collaboration with fellow Detroiter Tee Grizzley, marked BandGang’s most high-profile outside collaboration to date and introduced the group to a wider audience beyond their core underground following. That same year, Lonnie Bands released his debut solo EP, Talk That Sht*, which earned praise for its stripped-back storytelling and sharp lyricism.

In 2017, the group released The Appetizer, a collaborative EP with Trauma Tone, and followed it in 2018 with their most ambitious collective project, In Too Deep, a 30-track full-length distributed through EMPIRE and premiered by The FADER. The album, which featured appearances from SOB x RBE, Mozzy, Philthy Rich, and Drego, among others, showcased the full range of the group’s collective talent and was described by critics as the culmination of years of underground grinding.

The late 2010s saw Lonnie Bands emerge as the group’s undisputed focal point. His 2019 album KOD, a 21-track project told from the perspective of a sedated protagonist moving through days of drug dealing, pimping, and scamming, received a 7.7 out of 10 from Pitchfork and cemented his reputation as one of Detroit’s most distinctive voices. Rather than flexing on conventional markers of success, KOD bragged about credit card scams and financial maneuvering, separating Lonnie from his peers and earning him a cult following far beyond Detroit.

2020 became the darkest chapter in BandGang’s history. In September, BandGang AJ (Jizzle P) was shot and killed in his mother’s driveway on Detroit’s west side. Less than two months later, in December, co-founding member BandGang Paid Will was fatally shot in Detroit at the age of 27. The dual losses, combined with the death of Lonnie Bands’ best friend Lenny Skinny and the death of one of Lonnie’s newborn sons, left the group’s most prominent member in a prolonged creative slump.

In May 2021, Lonnie Bands survived a near-fatal shooting in Las Vegas, where he was shot in the head, hand, mouth, and wrist. He discharged himself from the hospital after just 48 hours, and credited a conversation with his daughter, who asked why he had stopped making music, as the turning point that pulled him back to the studio. The result was his album H2K, which marked a powerful return. His track Homicide has since accumulated over 18 million streams on Spotify, representing his most-streamed individual record.

Lonnie Bands has continued to release material at a steady pace through the early 2020s, including Scorpion Eyes (2022), Creatures in Paris (2022), We Brought Detroit to LA (2023, a collaboration with Cypress Moreno), and Creature Thoughts Chapter 1 (2024). BandGang Masoe and the surviving members have also continued releasing material, with the BandGang name carrying enduring weight in the Detroit rap ecosystem despite the losses of 2020.

Discography

Albums

• The Family (2014)
• In Too Deep (2018)

Mixtapes

• Win, Vol. 3 (2013)
• Grind Season 2 (2014)
• White Buff Boyz (2015)
• Young Kings (2015)
• Biggs Campaign (2015)
• WDW (2015)
• WDW 2 (2016)
• The Appetizer with Trauma Tone (2017)

Social Media

• Wikipedia: BandGang
• Instagram: BandGang Lonnie Bands (@bglonnie4620)
• X: BandGang Masoe (@TTO_MASOE)
• YouTube: BandGang
• Spotify: BandGang

Personal Life

BandGang Lonnie Bands

• Marriages: Not publicly documented.
• Children: Lonnie Bands is a father. He has publicly referenced his daughter, whose question about why he had stopped recording reignited his motivation to return to music following the tragedies of 2020. He also lost a newborn son in 2020.
• Height: Not publicly documented.
• Dating History: Lonnie Bands has kept his personal relationships private throughout his career, sharing no confirmed information about past or current partners.

BandGang Masoe

• Marriages: Not publicly documented.
• Children: Masoe has referenced his son in public statements, including a social media post in which he said his Christmas wish was to give his son as many toys as possible.
• Height: Not publicly documented.
• Dating History: No confirmed relationships documented. He has stated publicly that he once dreamed of being in two relationships simultaneously, but no partners have ever been confirmed or named.

TheRealBiggs

• Marriages: Not publicly documented.
• Children: No children publicly documented.
• Height: Not publicly documented.
• Dating History: No confirmed relationships documented. Biggs has maintained a low profile on personal matters throughout his career.

BandGang Paid Will

• Marriages: Not married at the time of his death.
• Children: No children publicly documented.
• Height: Not publicly documented.
• Dating History: No confirmed relationships were documented during his lifetime. His final Instagram post, shared on Thanksgiving Day 2020, focused entirely on his finances and served as an inadvertent farewell to his followers.

BandGang AJ (Jizzle P)

• Marriages: Not married at the time of his death.
• Children: No children publicly documented.
• Height: Not publicly documented.
• Dating History: No confirmed relationships documented.

Javar Escobar

• Marriages: Not publicly documented.
• Children: No children publicly documented.
• Height: Not publicly documented.
• Dating History: No confirmed relationships documented. Javar has maintained a notably private public profile, with very little personal information available beyond his role as a co-founding member of the group.

Net Worth

BandGang Lonnie Bands is the group’s wealthiest and most commercially successful member, with an estimated net worth of approximately $5 million, accumulated through album sales, streaming revenue, merchandise, and touring. His album KOD received critical acclaim from Pitchfork, and his track Homicide crossing 18 million Spotify streams represents a significant milestone for an artist rooted primarily in the underground.

BandGang Masoe, whose net worth has not been independently verified, is signed to TF Entertainment and TheFamilyEnt and has maintained an active release schedule, suggesting a steady income from music. The remaining members, TheRealBiggs and Javar Escobar, have lower public profiles and no verified net worth figures are available.

As a collective unit, BandGang is estimated to have accumulated over $5 million in combined earnings across their career, factoring in individual solo output alongside group projects distributed through EMPIRE and independent labels.