D
o you think MTA2: Baptized in Dirty Water was your weakest album because it was put together so quickly? Nah, because I’ve heard people say that was their favorite album. I was trying to make a record for the streets, and I think I really accomplished that. The songs that are on the CD could’ve been at the same level of a “Like A Pimp” or any other record that I ever produced, it was just a timing thing. “My Lord,” that was the equivalent of a “Cadillac on 22’s.” “Crank It Up” was jammin’. Even now that I go back and listen to the CD, that shit was jammin’. It’s just not what people expected from me. Even if you listen to “Play,” nobody expects that from David Banner, at all. Most people don’t even know that’s my song. People don’t expect to hear a song like “Play” because you’re known for being politically and spiritually active in the community? Well damn, I’m still a grown-ass man. I’m thirtyone years old. I think the problem is that people don’t understand that we’re just people who make songs. Actors can make a movie, and it’s just a movie. We stick an R-rated sticker on it. A porn actor could say his porn is art, but rappers can’t just make movies. I wanna make music that affects every part of a person’s brain. What people don’t know is that song has a deep meaning to it. First of all, Mr. Collipark a.k.a. DJ Smurf, the guy that signed the Ying Yang Twins and produces for the Ying Yang Twins, came up with something called intimate club music. He said that crunk music left a lot of the ladies out, so we’re gonna have to start making music for the ladies. He told me, “I want you to be a part of this movement. The whisper song was just the beginning of my music, and I want you to be a part of it. Your duty is to make songs, not for every woman in the club, but for one woman in the club. Your duty is to make every woman feel like she’s that one woman.” I coupled that with a conversation I had with a friend of mine who’s a dyke. She does both men and women, and I asked her why. She said, “Because men are selfish. But when a woman loves a man, she’ll do anything she can for that man.” So I was thinking, damn, if a dude made a song saying the stuff that women want to hear, but still from a man’s perspective, he’s outta here. It’s a hit. Having been in the music industry for several years now, what would you say is the harshest reality of the business? People don’t really care about what’s right. They care about themselves. No matter how much right you do or how much you do for the community, no matter what you’re going through – your father’s sick, you’re sick, you just fell off a motorcycle and broke half your body up – people don’t care about you. They only care about
themselves. Nobody cares if you had a bad day. Nobody cares if this is your first time out. If you went from being on the streets, homeless, to being considered a ten-million dollar dude in less than a week, nobody cares that it’s gonna take a minute to get adjusted to that. People don’t give a fuck about you. I’m a good person and I love people, but it took my own mother to tell me, “Everyone’s not like you.” All the stuff I did in the streets before, the negative things I did to people, I did them because of a necessity. I did stuff that I would never talk about on the record, I would never say it in a magazine. Hurting people physically, emotionally? Yeah. All of that. But all the stuff I ever did, it was out of necessity, because I had no way to eat or had to provide for my family. I never did anything just because I wanted to do something negative. Anybody I ever did something to deserved it because they put their hands on me or stepped in front of whatever I had to do in life. So that’s the harshest reality – people don’t give a fuck about you. People only care about what they can get out of a situation. Do you want to talk about your father’s illness, or your health problems? No, not really. Like I said, people don’t give a fuck about that. People are like, “Where’s David Banner?” Seven months ago I almost died from a heart attack. I had been on the road for two years straight. I had put out four albums – Mississippi, MTA2, and both chopped & Screwed albums – all in one year. I stayed on the road from promo to promo. People are like, “Why you ain’t been here?” It was because I was working. Not only that, I’m a producer too. I’m a platinum producer. I’m actually bigger as a producer than I am as a rapper, and I spend more time trying to be a rapper. People never understood that when I leave from a show, I can’t go home. I can’t go party. I gotta go do a beat for Young Buck, or Nelly, or whoever. If you make more money as a producer and
spend more time trying to rap, why rap? Because I have a goal. I can have more of an effect on the world being a rapper. It’s cool being a producer, and you make more money. But I can always make money. God has blessed me to be able to make money. But some people said I had an effect on the Emmett Till case. Some people say I changed the way that people view Mississippi. Regardless of whether these things are true or not, these are powers that I have only through becoming a rapper. I can’t go on TV and be like, “Hey, I’m a producer!” Being able to be on VH1 and MTV and BET means more to me than any money. I don’t believe that a producer could get the cover of OZONE Magazine - could he? To be immortalized in history means more to me than money does. Nobody can take my cover of OZONE away. Nobody can take my cover of The Source or Fader or URB away. That’s history. That goes down in history forever. Nobody can “x” me out of history. That’s what means the most to me, being a historical figure. Where does your obsession with firearms and weapons come from? I understand that the government is no more honest or upstanding than the average man. The government and the police department are just as crooked as any individual. You’ve got racist people who will kill you because of your color; racist cops who will kill you because of your color. If a police man has the right to bear arms, regular everyday people should have the right to bear arms. Wouldn’t it be dangerous for anyone to be able to obtain a gun, at any time, any place? I really don’t think it’d be any more dangerous. A person who really wants to get it poppin’ can find what they need. That’s what I don’t understand about these bullshit laws. A person who’s a criminal doesn’t give a fuck about the repercussions of the law anyway. Think about it. You seem to be a natural politician. Do you
“PEOPLE DON’T GIVE A FUCK ABOUT YOU. PEOPLE ONLY CARE ABOUT WHAT THEY CAN GET OUT OF A SITUATION.”
OZONE AUGUST 2005
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