David Banner

David Banner first emerged as half of the rap duo Crooked Lettaz, and this Grammy-winning rapper, producer, and social activist helped establish Mississippi on the hip-hop landscape during the final years of the 1990s. Born Lavell William Crump in Brookhaven, Mississippi, he adopted his performing name from the human identity of the Incredible Hulk. Matching that name with commanding vocal presence, he stepped out on his own in 2000 and issued his first project, Them Firewater Boyz, Vol. 1. Although the album initially appeared on Penalty Records, he soon concluded that the New York imprint lacked the insight to promote Southern music effectively. Assisted by his local circle, he moved more than ten thousand copies of the record in his hometown. National recognition arrived in 2003 via the simultaneous arrival of Mississippi: The Album and MTA2: Baptized in Dirty Water, which together generated such widely varying singles as “Crank It Up,” “Like a Pimp,” and “Cadillac on 22’s.” Two years afterward he delivered his fourth album, Certified, which carried guest turns from Jadakiss, Talib Kweli, Dead Prez, Too $hort, Bun B, Twista, and Jagged Edge while drawing production from Lil Jon, Jazze Pha, and Kevin Rudolf. The set entered the Billboard Top Ten. In 2008 Banner assembled Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Akon, Chris Brown, UGK, Chamillionaire, and additional voices for The Greatest Story Ever Told, marking the second consecutive project to reach number three on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop chart. He next partnered with producer 9th Wonder on the joint release Death of a Pop Star, an album whose socially conscious messages were underscored by an accompanying comic book and that included appearances by Ludacris, Marsha Ambrosius, Anthony Hamilton, and Erykah Badu. In subsequent years he broadened his credits to include roles in the films Stomp the Yard: Homecoming, Lee Daniels’ The Butler, and Ride Along. Although he circulated the 2012 mixtape Sex, Drugs & Video Games, he waited until 2017 to issue another official album; The God Box surfaced that May and again gathered a wide-ranging roster of collaborators that featured Cee Lo, Big K.R.I.T., Black Thought, Trinidad James, and others.