Rapper Draws on a Tragedy

For

The Blood

, his debut CD, Philly actor/rapper

» READ MORE: Ryan Banks

draws on a horrible part of his life: the 1996 murder-suicide of his mother and her friend.

Sarah Banks, a law-firm receptionist, shot Center City lawyer James Kozloff and then turned the gun on herself. Ryan Banks found their bodies in her Voorhees condo when he came home from work.

"It was cathartic for me to be able to put this into a creative form," says Banks, now 30. "It's not just a rap record to me; it's my life that I'm sharing with others, and I hope it will help people face their problems and their demons."

Banks recently submitted a video trailer for The Blood to Clear Channel Outdoor to be shown on Times Square in November, but he says the ad was rejected as too graphic - thereby guaranteeing notoriety. (It's at www.augustusfilms.com/banks.mov.) His attorney, Kevon Glickman of Bochetto & Lentz, says he is negotiating with Clear Channel.

"It's a story that actually happened to me," says Banks. "I'm not doing it just to make myself famous."

Banks, who has a small role in the forthcoming film Let the Game Begin with Stephen Baldwin and Thomas Ian Nicholas, will perform cuts from the album tomorrow at a party at Bochetto & Lentz's offices.