|  [INTERVIEW] David Banner: God's Stepchild -
27-09-2005, 12:16 AM
First he was getting down on the floor Like a Pimp now he’s Certified. Country boy David Banner is back and working it out, literally, with his new single Play, the second installment in a new down south movement titled intimate club music. Of course, Play mimics the sound of Whisper which is the first installment of the new movement.
Back on September 17th, got down with David as he threw a benefit concert for the victims of Hurricane Katrina through his Heal the Hood Foundation at the Philips Arena. Special guests included T.I., Nelly, Jeezy, Twista and more.
In light of the tragic events that occurred in the hometown of David Banner, Mississippi as well as Louisiana and Alabama he released the following statement courtesy of Ozone Magazine.
I think Hurricane Katrina has exposed America for what it is. I think it’s bigger than black and white. I think it has a lot more to do with rich and poor…we know the levels of racism that are in America. It shows that America doesn’t give a damn about people in the hood.
America is the most powerful country in the world, but it takes us four days to get to hurricane victims? The things that took the government four days to do are the same things they could’ve been done as soon as the hurricane hit. They could have flown helicopters in there or something. America is the most powerful country and the proudest country when it feels like it. They said they couldn’t get down there for different reasons, but those were just excuses. I sent a tour bus full of water and supplies to Mississippi. …My driver filled the bus up twice with water, food, and supplies before the American government did.
…you’ve got places like the Red Cross using preferential treatment with the stuff people have donated I had kids from the streets telling m they gave all the better clothes to the little white kids. People are coming city to city and can’t get food or water from the Red Cross without a little armband.
…I’m glad Kanye said what he said on NBC. The President never gave a damn about black folks. …I believe that if CNN had shown more white people stuck in New Orleans, the government would’ve reacted quicker.
I blame Bush for the time it took for them to react to the situation. I blame Bush for not taking this situation as seriously as they did after 9/11. …Where was he when we needed him? This is our President!
David Banner is a compassionate person as well as a very interesting individual. David opened up during an interview and shared his some things about education, life on the road and just David Banner.
Alright, now pretty much what I want to do is know who David Banner is. I know you may want to give information on your album, but you get asked that all day long and that’s boring. I want to know David Banner.
I think you need to ask a right question.
Okay, tell me about your child hood about you growing up.
For the most part the one thing people don’t know about David Banner is when I was in the 3rd grade I took this IQ test and the results came out that I could read at a Jr. and college level. Growing up I’ve always been an inquisitive person. Always wanted to know, always wanted to be different. I was always a loner. I never wanted to be like anybody else. I wanted to stand on my own two feet.
Growing up did you have both parents in the home?
Yeah. My mother and father were in the house and I think that’s the reason why. I have two best friends. One of them is the crack head on the corner and my other homie was shot up. I sat back and I looked at our situations and what was different, we all grew up in the same hood. It was my daddy. I was the only one that had a father in the house. People don’t understand to groom a proper man you need to be around one. My father was a very strong individual like military strong. He really instilled in me not to fear any man and how to be a man. That means telling your woman that you love her or telling your woman that she’s beautiful and to not want anything from her. A lot of times being a man isn’t what America painted to us.
What do you have to say in regards to education in this present day?
People of culture are going to have to have a stake in their children’s life and education. I think one of the worst things to happen to the black community is integration. With integration we gave up all our power. We gave up our stores, our education in the way that we teach our kids. We may not have had books that were comparable to our white peers, but at least we were able to control the mentality of our kids and the level of pride our kids had. We were able to control what we taught our kids. I also went to school to get my Masters in Education and one of the things that made me drop out, you know I had all A’s a 3.99887 at the University of Maryland, was because of something called a Core Curriculum. One of my teachers, a white dude, asked me, Mr. Crump do you know what a core is? I said, yeah a circle. Meaning something is going to be left on the outside of the boundaries. You have to understand I was the only black male in my class. He told me nine times out of ten it’s going to be your people. He did it in a caring way. He said as a teacher that’s something I would have to think about. He told me how with standardized tests you’re not getting the opportunity to teach anything outside of that paper. Usually that’s not the knowledge needed for kids to survive in our communities.
What would you say is something we as a people need to change to progress?
How we feel about ourselves. I think before we can ever progress we have to start loving black people. We have to love ourselves and find worth in ourselves. If we don’t think we’re worth shit how do you think we really feel about our kids. We love them because they’re ours, but at the same token most people won’t admit they hate what they see when they look in the mirror. We hate our hair, we buying our hair up. The first thing we say, “look at your big ass nose.” That’s the make up of Africa or descendants thereof.
Do you think music and videos affect the way we think?
No. We have to use music as markers not as something to use to influence somebody to change. If you look at the things we talk about in our music and in our music they should be the things people should attack and change. If we listen to music as being the way we feel about ourselves then that’s what we need to change not necessarily the music needs to change. Most of the time the people singing are people that come out of the worse situations. Politicians and everybody expect rappers to be all this stuff, why? We put pressure on people that are no older than 19 and expect them to change the world. We don’t put the blame on the politicians like we should. We put the pressure on the musicians, the young black males.
Well to switch things up a little and lighten the situation, what is the crazy thing you’ve ever done sexually?
Ummmm. Uuuummmm. Lemme see. Ummmmmmm.
Did I catch you off guard?
No, not really. I’m just trying to pick the best one. Ummmmm. Ummmmmm.
It’s that many!
No, I’m just trying to pick the best way to say it. (whistling) We’ll have to come back to that one.
Okay, well Prince said it’s 99 positions in a one night stand. Do you agree with that?
I don’t really do the one night stand thing. That’s one thing that surprises so many people. I don’t do the groupie thing. I saw what happened to my peers. I’ve came to far for an hour to change the course of my life. You deal with people who have ulterior motives. I watched what happened to Pac, Koby, Mike Tyson. In most cases people new what they were getting into. As an entertainer every lust that you have is given to you in abundance and that’s hard to deal with when you’re young. A lot of rappers weren’t able to get women before they were rappers. I never had problems with women. An abundance of women coming at me don’t strike me or surprise me.
So you were already a pimp before you were big like a pimp.
Naw. I wouldn’t say.
You were already getting down on the floor, huh?
Or making somebody get down on the floor one or the other.
If I were to say David Banner is how would you finish that?
David Banner is a child of God.
As a child were you raised to always keep that factor in your life?
I wasn’t raised that way. It became that way. My mother told me I was the reason she started going to church.
Anything you want to say to your fans?
I want to tell my fans I appreciate them and they changed my life.
Source: HHDX | 
[INTERVIEW] David Banner: God's Stepchild
