life is getting better. You’re blessed.” As much as I’ve been blessed, I’m still a really down person a little bit. The crowd will never see that, though. I’m so critical of myself and my career. I don’t ever take time out to be happy about the things I’ve accomplished. I concentrate more on the things I didn’t do right; relationships I could’ve handled better. Let’s talk about some of the other people you worked with on this album, like Jazze Pha. My thing with Jazze Pha goes a whole lot further than just music. When I was in Atlanta and was doing bad, Jazze helped me out. A lot of the early work I got was because Jazze would always allow me to come into his studio. Bonecrusher was the one that introduced me to all of them. When I was doing bad, Jazze would just tell me to come in and sit back and studio. I never forgot his kindness. He would even give me drum sounds and stuff. Lil Jon. Lil Jon was just interested in me because he saw the hustle, and early on he’d even help me out with beats. When he got hot, dude still supported me and made sure I got good looks in his videos. The whole Atlanta movement really supported me and what I was trying to do for Mississippi. Lil Scrappy. Scrappy’s like my little brother. He reminds me of how I was at that age. I always wanted to make sure he’d be aight, even before his career popped off. Scrappy just recently came back to Mississippi and did a free concert for the kids for me. Mannie Fresh. I met Mannie Fresh at The Source Awards, when all of us performed – me, him, Ying Yang, Bonecrusher, everybody. Mannie was like, “Dude, you’re one of my favorite artists, cause you’re the underdog. I root for the underdog, and I wanna help you.” Ever since then, Mannie has always helped me, given me sounds, always keeping me updated on what’s going on. If somebody’s working on some stuff, he’ll make sure I’m a part of it. Me, Jazze, and Mannie are just the get money brothers. Trick Daddy. Trick goes down in history for me because “Thug Holiday” was the first big hit I ever had. Trick really got it poppin’ for me, and he’s always helped me do well. Whenever he sees me, he either tells me what I’m doing wrong or what I’m doing right. Nelly. When I produced “Tip Drill” for Nelly, he had already sold like fifteen million, so for Nelly to come to me for production was really big. Everywhere I went, people would tell me, “Nelly was talking about your beats on the radio.” Dealing with Nelly is one of the things that helped solidify David Banner as a top-notch producer, and of course, “Tip Drill” was the ghetto video of the century. T.I. “Rubber Band Man” was the biggest production credit of my career so far. T.I. told me a long time ago, “If you believe in me and work with me, I’m gonna take this song and flip it a million times and come back and get you.” A lot of people say that, but not too many people keep their word. Dude came back and took care of me, so that let me know that it’s still some men in this industry that can keep their word. Even before he blew up Tip always made sure he paid whatever he could for beats – he didn’t want nothing for free. Twista. Twista’s one of the best homies in the game. We’ve known each other for almost ten years. Whenever I call him, he’s there. (Above) Banner was elected SGA President of Southern University in 1996, but don’t call him a politician UGUST 2005 2005 OZONE OZONE A AUGUST
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