Bando, or Bandon’t?

Accusations came into light tonight as Bando (known legally as William Baker) released the trailer for his upcoming album, along with the sneak peak of the Bando Fest lineup. Among the inspiring statements (in the trailer, mind you) of Bando staying true to himself throughout the controversy, there was one point that was highlighted– and Twitter was quick to catch on.

The headline stated “Bando and Aiko Ronin Record vs. Kokoro Controversy Continues”. We assume he meant to add an S onto Record, but the real piece here was the narration of the news anchor stating ‘Rocker Bando spills Aiko secrets on Twitter’.

Bando has been accused of using Aiko’s and Kokoro’s name to advertise his festival and gain clout. The Winkler (another of our amazing Los Santos artists) did not hold back when addressing Baker, and it wasn’t long before Aiko herself chimed in.

“Imagine telling everyone you lost your memory to ask for support for Bando Fest, then suddenly remembering everything that happened and using my name + KOKORO to advertise Bando Fest. We don’t want any relation. I’m over it. Stop trying to start shit.”

But what does this mean, exactly? Well, yours truly was fortunate enough to get a bit more information for you wonderful readers by the happenstance conversation with an un-named masked local.

As the story goes, Aiko was attacked and kidnapped– and Bando himself was an accessory to this. In a strange coincidence, Bando seemed to lose his memory shortly after, only recalling 6 or 7 months back.

Among rumors of manipulation and generally nasty behavior from Bando, there are further whispers that he is using this convenient amnesia to his advantage, trying to essentially erase his own past transgressions and get into the good graces of KOKORO artists he had previously called ‘Lower End artists’ in order to boost his popularity and his festival.

We are led to believe, based on Aiko’s tweet, that Bando has in fact started to regain his memory that the use of KOKORO and Aiko’s name in his trailer was intentional. In any case, Aiko clearly wants nothing further to do with Bando.

Bando did clap back and provided the script for the trailer, in which the murmurs of Aiko and the controversy were conveniently not there.

So then, who is responsible for the latent beef? Is it the artists who made his album trailer? Or, is it Bando, once again hiding behind his amnesia in what is vaguely reminiscent of a guilty party with an insanity plea?

We’ll let you be the judge, and we remind you once again of our Los Santos Diatribes disclaimer:

Many of these articles are sensationalized for entertainment purposes. Additionally, you may find many articles that fall under the category of “Opinion” and are opinions of that author and not necessarily a reflection of any singular group, entity, or LSD as a whole.