David Banner - Play

"On Everything," showcases Banner's lyrical prowess as he goes toe-to-toe with Chicago rhyme slinger Twista while the heartfelt "Crossroads" shows the Mississippi conductor once again thinking out-of-the-box with a straight-ahead rock statement on spiritual redemption. And on the socially conscious track "My Life," Banner examines the socio-economic struggles that continue to plague black America. "Think about the slave trade/We sold our own just to get paid/Nowadays it's the same thang…let your brains hang," he proclaims over a heartfelt-tinged, acoustic guitar track.

For David Banner the marriage between the sacred and the profane has always played a huge role in his work. The man has long committed himself to serving his community—as evident by his personally-funded college scholarship program which in late 2004 awarded five David Banner fans each $10, 0000. Whatever his methods, Banner is still the same ambitious kid who dared to dream of rap super stardom even amongst the disheartening racism, poverty and gang violence of his home state of Mississippi. It was an older cousin from the North that first put a 12-year-old Banner on to the 1987 sounds of New York innovators Stetsasonic, T La Rock, and Mantronix. By 16, he was cultivating his production techniques on a Casio keyboard sampler and finding inspiration from everyone from NWA and A Tribe Called Quest to Southern rap giants The Geto Boys, UGK and Outkast. More than decade later, as a member of the Mississippi rhyme duo Crooked Lettaz, Banner would become part of the dirty south revolution, releasing the critically lauded and criminally slept-on Tommy Boy Records debut Grey Skies (1999). A year later, Them Firewater Boys Vol. 1, his defiant introduction as a soloist, saw Banner become the hottest underground artist in the country as both XXL magazine and Murder Dog named it one of the best albums of the year. Soon the major labels were knocking on Banner's door, sparking off a bidding-war. When legendary music executive Steve Rifkind (Wu-Tang Clan, Mobb Deep, Three-6 Mafia) signed the self-contained Banner and his b.i.G.f.a.c.e. Entertainment imprint to Rifkind's SRC label, the music industry soon took notice.
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