S. Samuel
Southern rapper David Banner recently shared his views on the rap game and mentioned that its current, main problem is that many people underestimate what it takes to become a true hip-hop artist.
In Banner’s opinion, the rap game is continuing to lose its originality.
“I think what ends up happening is we didn’t do what we were supposed to do. Kids are either a reflection of what you did or didn’t do. But the problem is, now, they are getting to an age where you have to be responsible for what you do now because you’re a man,” Banner said in an interview. “The problem is, there’s no balance. I think a lot of the backpack rappers, they rap they a** off, but n*gga, your beat’s wack. You rapping, but n*gga, you can’t make a hit song. You can freestyle your a** off but you can’t make a hit song. Then you got n*ggas who can make hit songs that can’t f*cking rap. You got R&B singers that can’t f*cking sing. Anything that’s talented and that you’re supposed to pay for, it’s supposed to be something that everybody can’t do. One of the reasons why rap is dying, because everybody feel they can do it. People don’t go to a Chris Brown concert thinking they can outdance Chris Brown. They already know they can’t.” (3 Digs)
In August, the Mississippi-bred emcee dropped an ear-opening record called “Swag.”
David Banner sparks a riot with his charged words on “Swag” off The Make Believe Album. The Mississippi MC/producer criticizes the new generation of hip-hop, calling out newcomers including Kreayshawn for her reported use of the N-word (she has repeatedly denied the accusations) and hip-hop collective Odd Future, who he claims “feeds evil to the streets.” “The homies is busting slugs/ The women is shaking a**/ A white girl call us ni**a and we just sit back and laugh/ We call it swag,” preaches the righteous rapper in a style reminiscent of Lil B. (Rap-Up)
Last year, Banner also cited a lack of diversity and true emcees for hurting hip-hop.
“I just have a problem with the lack of balance,” he explains. “Everything about rap music now has everything to do with the music but the ability to rap. It’s who has this n*gga killed? Who is he beefing with? Does he have swag out the roof, shawty? No, it should be, dude, can you rap? Is the beat tight? … We have allowed corporate entities to reduce our music to a download,” he says. “Our kids now they don’t really believe they should pay for rap music. So there’s a bigger problem that we don’t see. They have now replaced the artist and the talent of the artist with general concepts like swag and being gangsta.” (VIBE)
G-Unit’s 50 Cent previously said he felt hip-hop lost its connection with the fans.
“When I offer aggression, I offer it from an author, a real place,” Fif said in an interview. “It’s who I am; it’s who I had to be. Not even by choice, but to survive where I came from. So a lot of actual artists don’t have it. They don’t have that thing. Waka Flocka, ‘Hard in the Paint,’ Gucci [Mane], those guys have that…It’s just a lot of the other artists, I don’t believe them. I believe hip-hop is in a struggle of being artistic or [having] authenticity–which one matters? Because a lot of them that write music that has a street-life theme to it haven’t actually been exposed to very much of that. It’s starting to feel like it doesn’t matter. I’m watching it, and I’m like, Okay, it sounded great, but ya lyin’.” (XXL Mag)
Check out David Banner’s interview below:
Feature: Conversations With David Banner (Part 1) from 3 Little Digs on Vimeo.
