David Banner’s introduction to a mainstream viewers may need been as a producer, because the slick beatsmith behind the boards on T.I.’s “Rubber Band Man.” However he was all the time a formidable solo artist in his personal proper, certainly one of hip-hop’s most outspoken Southern voicess in a time when the South was nonetheless comparatively missed by the business at giant. Banner got here of age in Jackson, Mississippi, a area with a wealthy musical historical past however actually not a mecca for rap when in comparison with Southern metropolises like Atlanta and Houston. In some ways, he needed to construct his personal scene earlier than the remainder of the world took discover.
After years of grinding, Banner’s solo debut Mississippi: The Album got here out in 2003. For Banner, Mississippi was greater than only a place or a chunk of his private historical past. It was a mind-set, consultant of all of the locations left behind by a racist state: “This is for Mississippi and every place y’all treat like Mississippi,” as he places it in an interlude. As one-half of the duo Crooked Lettaz and finally as a solo artist, Banner established himself as a defiant determine, pleased with his Southern roots however prepared to work with any artist from any area. Together with the little bit of nation twang he dropped at a various vary of rap types, his lyrics embodied a sociopolitical perspective and single-minded sense of dedication, the righteous anger of an missed man from an missed place.
Hearken to David Banner’s Mississippi: The Screwed & Chopped Album now.
The Chopstars – a sprawling collective consisting of DJs like OG Ron C and Michael Watts – was simply as prolific within the early 2000s as Banner, if no more so. They specialised in a slowed-down Houston sound pioneered by DJ Screw, which had discovered a rising nationwide viewers on the flip of the millennium. Screw typically labored with out the approval of rights holders, which restricted the mainstream industrial potential of his music outdoors of the native Houston viewers. Chopstars remix albums, in the meantime, had been formally sanctioned by the foremost labels. As a detailed affiliate of Swishahouse artists like Paul Wall, Mike Jones, and Chamillionaire, the Chopstars collective was on the middle of Houston rap’s second main wave of nationwide consideration within the mid-2000s, normally dubbing their slowed-down sound “chopped, not slopped” out of respect for the reminiscence of DJ Screw. In Texas, it’s solely “chopped and screwed” if DJ Screw made it. (Sadly that memo didn’t make its method to the file firm apparently.)
David Banner’s music was nearly predestined to be chopped and slowed due to its unmistakable Southern taste. Banner appointed himself as one thing of a standard-bearer for the South, with a sonic gumbo brewed from the area’s various musical scenes: Memphis crunk, Houston trunk music, soulful funk, and R&B, and what would quickly turn out to be referred to as lure. It’s even onerous to not hear, in Banner’s thick percussion and triumphant horns, the affect of the marching band drum strains on the HBCUs he attended as a scholar. Banner’s first main hit, the Lil Flip-assisted “Like a Pimp,” is clearly indebted to Houston rap, constructed from an iconic pattern of UGK’s “Take It Off.” The slowed-down remix is a stunning show of turntable wizardry, swanging and banging between the doubling observe. On cuts like “Mississippi” and “Cadillacs on 22,” Banner prominently options acoustic guitar; whereas different contemporaneous artists may need dabbled in rap-rock, Banner’s tender guitar chords recall to mind the ghostly legacy of the Delta Blues.
David Banner’s Mississippi already captured the setting that made him, however the slowed-down model of his debut attracts out much more of that smoky Deep South taste. In comparison with the hustle and bustle of rap’s two central coasts, the South is a spot the place you possibly can decelerate and stretch out, discovering the area to breathe and wander aimlessly. Chopping and slowing issues down simply emphasizes what’s already there, which makes Banner’s evaluation all of the stronger.
Hearken to David Banner’s Mississippi: The Screwed & Chopped Album now.
