S. Samuel
Actor/Rapper David Banner has shared his thoughts on the upcoming VH1 Hip Hop Honors Dirty South ceremony and why it is impossible to pay homage to every influential rap artist.
From Banner’s perspective, he is proud VH1 is putting the spotlight on his region.
“Anytime you have something like that you’re always gonna miss somebody,” he said in an interview. “These are people that don’t get the credit that they can. No matter what we did or do we will never get everybody that had a part of something. I’m just happy that they’re taking the time to honor those people. And you know, maybe the next go around we’ll get the next group of people. You know Hip Hop Honors they honor somebody different every year. And maybe next year they’ll realize, ’cause people will make enough noise about who they feel like should be honored.” (XXL Mag)
Writing via Twitter, Scarface felt this ceremony segregated the South instead of respecting hip-hop as a whole.
“I regret to inform you that I will not be attending the dirty south hip hop honors that’s an insult to us DIRTY SOUTH huh????smh @vh1,” he wrote Thursday (May 13) morning. “As hard as we fought to be a part of general population they still wanna give a n*gga a label it’s hip hop f*ck where I come from. @DaunteWrites I was a nominee at 1st @KatrinaME 100% sure it did but they tryin 2 make a n*gga look xtra country and stupid we can call it dirty…@jackolantern80 let the honorees be honored I jus feel insulted…but f*ck me who am I? @DJ_GREENLANTERN bruh we fought hard to get in now we just “dirty south” huh….” (Scarface’s Twitter)
Producer Lil Jon recently spoke with SOHH and confirmed his attendance for the ceremony.
“Of course, I’m definitely going to be involved,” Jon told SOHH. “You’ll see me there. I love Hip-Hop Honors it’s great to show tribute to the old school and to teach the younger generation about the culture that some of them don’t have any clue about. [Uncle] Luke is a good friend of mine too. We did some work together years ago and of course I grew up on 2 Live Crew. Maybe they’re going to come back and honor him separately. He was in a group and then he went on his own and did his thing as well. Maybe they should’ve just done it all at once. I don’t know. But thank god they’re just recognizing the south in general and a group like the 2 Live Crew that totally broke the mold for traditional music at the time.” (SOHH)
Last month, Uncle Luke threatened to not be a part of the event.
“This year I’m supposed to be honored, but they only want to honor me as a member of the 2 Live Crew,” Luke Campbell said in an interview. “They want to honor Master P for his business savvy and they want to honor Jermaine Dupri for his business savvy and I’m kind of offended by that. We have basically been talking it out, but it’s just so sad that people just don’t know my history. They try to link me with a group and not see me as a businessman. Luke Records was the first independent black owned record company owned by a rapper. We were the first to distribute our own product. There’s just so many first…For an organization like VH1 to try to say I’m just the first person to go to the Supreme Court over music censorship and be a part of the 2 Live Crew…I told them the other day, ‘Just go f*ck yourself.’ We were even the first to have a street team…I don’t want to be a part of it unless you honor what I’ve done in a proper way. I’ve never asked anyone to do anything. But when you ask me to be a part of something, I’m not going to let you disrespect me.” (VIBE)
This year’s special will air on VH1 Monday, June 7th at 9 PM EST.
Listen to David Banner’s “Slow Down” track below:
