The name ‘Digging for Kanky’ comes from an urban myth in North Manchester involving a local grave robber named ‘Old Kanky’ in the 1800’s.

Ben and Smithy are a duo, combining haunting melodic vocals with hard hitting rap influences and rumbling trip hop style production to create an ominously dark tone.

Being born and growing up in North Manchester, the gritty influence of the northern estates has been the linchpin of the sound. Music has always been apart of life for both Ben and Smithy. With Ben building a career within the events industry and Smithy working daily on community music projects with the under privileged youth on the local estate, music has always been close to both.

After years of bedroom production, and dabbling in other bands and projects casually. 2019 saw the childhood friends connect again and Digging for Kanky was born.