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“Stupid.” That was the one-word response from Jerrone Strickland’s mother when he told her he had spurned a full scholarship to New York University to pursue a career in the entertainment industry. At 18, Strickland was a standout on Fredrick Douglass High School’s baseball team and seemed to have a promising athletic career ahead of him.

“You know how you do something for so long you get tired of it once you know you’re good at it?” he asks. “I wanted to try something new and she was like, ‘You’re stupid as hell!’ ”

After a stint working in the promotions department of So So Def Recordings, Strickland ended up at V103, where today he’s known to listeners and throngs of females fans as Lil’ Bankhead. Even though he eventually earned his degree, the 25-year-old radio personality asserts that his street credibility is catapulting him into the spotlight.

“I look at it like this, if the ‘hood’s got your back, everybody’s got your back,” he says. “You can’t forget about the little people. I can easily go [to] the big people, but I love the ‘hood — that’s where I came from, so I’m going to support them.” The self-proclaimed “Little Greg Street,” Bankhead is giving back, via his new mixtape featuring the who’s who in Southern hip-hop, with proceeds going to civic and community organizations in his Bankhead neighborhood. “I want people to know that I’ve got their back, regardless,” he says. “If I blow up today and be like Ludacris, I still got y’alls’ back, so don’t think that I’m Hollywood. You feel me?” marissa mitchell

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