Banner opens up to Boardroom about the defining moments throughout his decades-long career, his faith, and his legacy.
Simply put: One can’t think of trap music without mentioning David Banner.
We were first introduced to the Mississippi-born rapper when he was a part of the rap duo Crooked Lettaz, but Banner went solo in 2000 when he dropped his debut project Them Firewater Boyz, Vol. 1. However, it was Mississippi: The Album that put the producer properly in the driver’s seat of his career, giving us club hits like “Cadillac on 22’s” and “Like a Pimp,” which are still in rotation at house parties and music festivals to this day.
Banner is a true architect of Southern rap, blending raw lyricism with deep social commentary and unapologetic pride. Mississippi is a region often overlooked in hip-hop; however, he broke barriers with his gritty yet booming production and powerful storytelling, which highlighted the struggles and resilience of a region he knows well.
Even if you haven’t indulged in one of his six solo studio albums, your favorite hip-hop artists have likely recruited Banner’s talents for their own work. Banner produced T.I.‘s breakthrough single “Rubber Band Man,” and he has worked with the likes of Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, and Oscar-winning rap group Three 6 Mafia. The winner of several BET Hip Hop Awards, Banner deserves his flowers not just for his music, but for elevating the culture and carving space for Southern voices to be heard with pride and purpose.
Now, Banner tells me he’s just getting started. While dropping new music isn’t a priority, other endeavors, such as developing a film and using his platform to advocate for mental health awareness, are more significant. In this candid conversation, Banner opened up about defining career moments, his faith, and what he hopes his legacy becomes.
Subscribe for the biggest stories in the business of sports and entertainment, daily.
BOARDROOM: Looking back at your journey from Mississippi: The Album until now, what moments stand out the most as you define your music career? How has your relationship with the industry changed over the decades, especially as we talk about the rise of digital streaming?
DAVID BANNER: My grandmother, I knew she wouldn’t move from her house, but would go to Chicago every year. I had someone pre-prepare a house for her, and when she left for Chicago, I tore my grandmother’s house down and built her one in the same exact place where her old home was. For me to be able to afford and make sure that my grandmother, before she left this Earth, to have a space that’s hers, was a career-defining moment and means more than me than any other accolades. For so many years, she worked for us and other families to make sure that her family could eat. I believe that God put me in this position — or the highest spirit or whatever we believe in — to be a representation of those who worked hard and made it into places where most people couldn’t.
How do you view the evolution of Southern hip-hop from its roots to its current mainstream dominance?
If it’s the contemporary leader or Renaissance man of trap music, from a production standpoint, I am one of the musical contemporaries or fathers of the genre. What ends up happening is if we are not serious about that, then other people will replace us, and then we’ll get mad because we didn’t fight as southerners. I believe that’s part of the problem with our culture is we don’t take it seriously enough. Why doesn’t Southern radio have the same reverence for their music as the West Coast does? I come to Atlanta, I don’t hear OutKast on the radio, I don’t hear Lil Jon on the radio. When I go to Jackson, Mississippi, I don’t hear “Like a Pimp” on the radio. It should be played at least once a week in reverence. Don’t you hear Dr. Dre when you go to LA? These things are important for me, and history has to start meaning something to Black people. I say this all the time in my interviews: People treat you exactly the way that you treat yourself.
Your faith seems like a major guiding light for you. Is that true to say?
What I’ve realized is, faith is probably one of the most important things, if not the most important thing, in life, and I’m sure for a lot of other people. Whatever you do, everything happens for a reason. It’s very cliche to say, but it’s also how you live on a daily basis. I have the foundational faith and the foundational morals to just live every day with the most fulfillment. And I think the special thing about faith in general is that there’s always this concept about unconditional love, and that’s not really something that’s taught a lot anymore. It’s like everything is conditional in this world, which is accurate to a certain extent. And with how we operate as people, as children, that’s where we are able to spread that love and show it through the fruits of what we’re doing. So even when we struggle or when there are obstacles, which I found to be really interesting when you are in a very difficult situation, how you manage that and how you accept it and go from there is all within your control.
Which current artists or trends in hip-hop give you hope or excite you the most right now?
I don’t need other people to give me hope because I have the wherewithal and the financial means that if I wanted to put out music, I could. A lot of people complain about music but are not man or woman enough to put out what you’re talking about. If you feel like music should be better, don’t complain about it; put out music. The problem with hip-hop is not the music; it’s the commercialism of it. It’s the co-opting of the music, if not by the actual artists, but by the companies. These companies really feel like they own Black music, and because Black people are driven by money, as long as capitalism is paying, even if it’s fractions of pennies, we’ll follow their direction. All we have to do is continue to be pioneers to do things because we want to do it. If you notice, back in the day, artists didn’t care about what the streets thought. You think when Prince put on the clothes he put on, he cared about what people thought about him? You think Curtis Mayfield cared? André 3000 still don’t care. He walked into the Met Gala with a piano on his back, and people respected it. As long as I’m still alive, there’s hope.
You’ve worn many hats — rapper, producer, activist. How do you approach creativity now compared to earlier in your career?
I’ve been so blessed. One of my battles is that I have so much to say and have so much that I want to do. I’m trying to get to the point where I can pick one and just start finishing things. I am working on a movie right now and recently had an opportunity to do one of the biggest campaigns in recent history and then so I got to do that. I’m just fortunate that I am not tied to one thing, just to be honest with you. I’ve been highly blessed. But what I want to do is hopefully get to the point where I can build a corporation that’s big enough for me to find people to help me balance out my ability to be creative as a CEO. One thing that I want to separate myself from other CEOs is that CEOs want to build their business so they can make more money. I only want to make more money so I can be creative and free up other poor people to be as creative as I am.
Can you talk about your experience launching The God Box and what it taught you about purpose-driven branding?
I look at my work as my children. You would you want to put your kid ahead as much as you possibly can in life, right? I’m the same way with my creations. I know once I release it to the world, it’s no longer mine, and I can’t defend it. I can’t get out there and tell somebody not to talk bad about it or I can’t stand in front of the bullet if somebody is shooting at it, whatever it may end up being. I just want to make sure that I do have a purpose for them, a rationale or a reason for them. When I did the song “Play,” I’d only heard one person or two people in history ever take the time to figure out that that song was actually written for women to empower them.
When I did The God Box, I wanted to create a project that would help people alone get to consciousness quicker than it took me. And if people noticed, I put in one box as many things as I possibly could to help people reach the level of consciousness that I was at. I put out the book that actually steered me in the direction of consciousness. I put DVDs, anyway that I could possibly arouse the senses in a way that would drive them to consciousness, I did it. I would say my only mistake was I wish I would’ve put something in there about food. I wish I would’ve been able to grab some of Dr. Sebi’s content and put it in there. But you can’t always get a 100%.
Music appears to still be at the forefront of your career, but what does the next chapter look like, or is there a next chapter for you? Are there any new areas that you want to dive into?
If God has something else for me, that’s fine, but I’m tired. When it’s my time, it’s only my time is and when it’s not, the world can have it. I really want to spend more time being a human being, then I can service better music. Think about somebody like Erykah Badu. I haven’t heard Erykah drop a whack track. She doesn’t rush the process. I called her one day and I said, ‘Sis, I’m having writer’s block. What should I do?’ Guess what she told me? She said, ‘Wait.’ That’s all she said, nothing else. Most of us are so pressured by life, by being on the wheel. I honestly just want peace.
If you were to mentor a rising artist today, what three values or skills would you emphasize the most?
Honor, skill, and discernment. I say discernment because I think we’re losing that talent that our grandparents had. I’ve been through so many situations that people may look at as negative, but if I lived and I am able to walk from it and grow from it, it’s an opportunity to learn. If I had an artist and let’s say something happened to me or I decided that I didn’t want to do music anymore, that this artist has enough discernment to know and feel.
Legacy is clearly important to you — what do you hope people will say about David Banner 50 years from now?
I hope that they say that I was a man who stood for something, and that I’m glad he used what he was on this Earth to do for us. People really think that I’m in my golden years. I’m honestly just getting started. I can make the opportunity if I make enough money. Derrick Grace, who’s one of the most amazing thinkers of his generation, he’s a young influencer. He said, ‘Can you imagine David Banner with a billion dollars and what he could do for Black people?’
And so for me, it’s just continuing to train my brain, get up in the morning, read something new, continue to be inspired in the face of the adversity that America is going through. To be honest with you, I’ll just say this: as adverse as we may think times are, I think this is the best time for American Black people maybe in history because while the system is distracted on whatever it is that they’re doing, this is our opportunity to build our own pathways and for us to move forward on whatever it may end up being. I know from a spiritual standpoint that a lot of people feel like there’s only one way to heaven, but I don’t believe that. I believe that God is omnipotent, and everything may not be for you. But I think that there’s more than one way.
Read More:
A Night for the W: Inside the Boardroom and Coinbase All-Star Party in Indianapolis
MLB All-Stars Sound Off: Automatic Ball-Strike Challenge, Changing the Game, & More
MLBPA Leader Tony Clark Talks Salary Cap, Revenue Sharing, Winning
Emmy Nominations Prove There’s Too Much Great TV and Not Enough Room
Did MLB Finally Crack the Code to the All-Star Game?
