DX: [Laughs] It’s for HipHopDX.com
DB: Oh word, someone shoulda told me that before! I can go off on my tangent now! [Laughs]…It’s amazing to me…we talk about weapons of mass destruction but we’re the ones with the most weapons of mass destruction ourselves. We talk about immigration laws but the people who run this country are immigrants; they’re from England! Native Americans should be the only ones who really got something to say about America, and they don’t get shit but casinos!

DX: Very true.
DB: So all this shit is hypocritical. As far as Al and them are concerned…did you see when I spoke up and I tapped Al’s ass and he never said another thing about Hip Hop again? You seen him at Jay-Z’s party throwin’ up the Roc-A-Fella sign all of a sudden…but we allow that to happen. Didn’t no rapper say nothing to Al Sharpton while he was in the building. After the White folks attacked him and ran up in his house; then he ran back to us. But that’s how we’ve been since slavery; we’re so forgiving and so loving, "Oh, you just killed my family but now come eat ham hocks with me." But that’s why black folks are in the condition we in right now; we’re much too forgiving.

DX: February was obviously Black History Month, and I’ve always had a love/hate relationship with Black History Month. While I think it’s important to celebrate our people’s contributions, at the same time I think year-in and year-out it’s the same people being talked about to the point where it’s almost comical and trite. On top of that why limit ourselves to just one month? Why can’t observations of our historical contributions be integrated throughout the entire year? How do you feel about Black History month?
DB: I think they gave us the coldest month of the year knowing that we’re people of the sun. We didn’t come from a cold climate. So if its really Black History Month it needs to be during the summer. But once again it goes back to what I said about acceptance. Black history is American history. Be built this bitch. I call it the soul food mentality: we accept unhealthy food. We accept an unhealthy environment. It’s so bad now that that’s what we want. If you think about us as a race of people…the type of music, the type of television, the type of things we want. If a black man is going to jail, we throw him a party. If a black man get outta jail, we throw him a party. But if a black man gets into college, he’s by himself. Black man get a job and [others think] he think he better than the rest of the niggas. It’s the same with positive music. [People] talk a good game but [they] want drugs, sex, and money. That’s it.

DX: A lot of rappers talk about the crack game and violence and guns when a lot of them aren’t even living that life anymore. But it seems that some of them are still trying to juggle their past life with their present. Or that they feel that they need to maintain that gangsta persona to be popular. I don’t know about you, but if I’m making multi-millions of dollars a year, I’m not gonna be pushin’ drugs because I wouldn’t need to anymore…
DB: But the conflict between that is…that’s something that America does to us also. You can’t blame us for continuing that. I feel like I sold out my fans more than anybody else did by trying to do something [different]. You gotta understand that regardless of what we say or what we do, positive people that listen to Talib Kweli didn’t put David Banner on. People that listen to Young Jeezy put David Banner on. People that listen to T.I. put David Banner on. So when I try to do any other kind of music, I’m really betraying the people that made me rich. And that’s what America tries to get every black person to do. We came in the game as a thug then they expect people to switch. Look at Michael Vick came into the league with braids…then they wanted him to cut them off when he got big. David Banner got rich off of “Like a Pimp” and “Play," but now that I’m making money they want me to do something different. America will kill you for treason…but they want you to snitch, and rat, and betray everybody else but them. Its music and you do what sells. It ain't personal.

DX: Why did you get into music then?
DB: I been doing this since I was in the sixth grade.

DX: No, what I mean is that I know there are some artists who talk about getting into the rap game so they could stop hustling. But then they make it big and they’re still out there doing the same dumbass shit, but now just with more money backing them.
DB: But you gotta understand, most of these men--and I know a lot of them personally--most of theses men didn’t have the proper training and the proper guidance in the first place. They didn’t have no money. Then when they get it people expect them to be something different than what they where before but that’s all they know. I use to be the same way financially. I didn’t know about taxes and if it’s getting towards the end of the year, don’t take that money yet if it will put you in a higher tax bracket. When we don’t have proper mentors how can people expect us to be different that what we were before? People expect us to change when we haven’t done anything to start that process. If we were niggas before, we gon' be niggas with money. A nigga is gonna be a nigga. Once these young black men get money, why should we listen to anybody at that point? There wasn’t nobody wanting to be around us back then to mentor us or teach us anything about money before we were millionaires, why should we listen now? Continued on page 3 »