Drink Champs - Episode 453 w/ David Banner

Episode Date: May 9, 2025

N.O.R.E. & DJ EFN are the Drink Champs. In this episode we chop it up with the legend himself, David Banner!DC Alumni, David Banner is back and returns for a powerful conversation with the champs! In this episode, the Mississippi legend opens up about his journey from homelessness to hip-hop stardom, building a studio in his van, and navigating the music industry as an independent artist.He talks about topics like politics, race relations, and the role of conscious rap in today's social climate. Banner also discusses his experiences with law enforcement, the state of hip-hop, and his commitment to activism.Don't miss this insightful and unfiltered discussion that showcases Banner's passion, resilience, and dedication to empowering others.Make some noise for David Banner!! 💐💐💐🏆🏆🏆 *Subscribe to Patreon NOW for exclusive content, discount codes, M&G’s + more: * https://www.patreon.com/drinkchamps *Listen and subscribe at https://www.drinkchamps.com Follow Drink Champs: https://www.instagram.com/drinkchamps https://www.twitter.com/drinkchamps https://www.facebook.com/drinkchamps https://www.youtube.com/drinkchamps DJ EFN https://www.crazyhood.com https://www.instagram.com/whoscrazy https://www.twitter.com/djefn https://www.facebook.com/crazyhoodproductions N.O.R.E. https://www.instagram.com/therealnoreaga https://www.twitter.com/noreaga  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. to, yeah, banana pudding. If it's happening in business, our new podcast is on it. I'm Max Chastin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, the unexpected, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves. This medal is for the men who went down that day. On Medal of Honor,

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Listen to Dope Labs on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And it's Drink Chats motherfucking podcast. Make some noise! We'll be right back. biggest players in the most professional unprofessional podcast and your number one source for drunk facts where every day is new year's eve it's time for drink champs drink up what a good beat hopefully this is what it should be this your boy n-o-r-e what's going on it's dj and this military crazy royal podcast make some noise It should be just your boy N-O-R-E. What's going on? It's DJ E-F-N. And this is Military Crazy Royal Podcast. Make some noise! Right now, the brother we're about to interview, he's on his third life. He's been one of the most hottest rappers out there, one of the most acclaimed producers out there, and now he's really the hip-hop Denzel Washington out there.

This motherfucker. He's in everything. His smile. He's looking younger. He's doing better. He's driving Ferraris now. He waited a long time to drive Ferraris and Lamborghinis and live his goddamn best life, and he doing it.

Yeah, man. They say the black and the berry, the sweet and the juice, and the merry, the merry, the merry, the cute and the coots. We are out here. This man deserves his accolades. He deserves his flowers. He's an icon. He's a legend.

He's a friend of the show, a friend of both worlds. Family. Family. And we're going to give him his motherfucking flowers today. In case you don't know what we're talking about,

we're talking about the one, the only, David, the motherfucking man. And man, we here, man. Yeah, we here. Yeah, we here, man. So, David Banner, right?

For a kid coming from Mississippi, right? Because traditionally, there was hip-hop cities at one point, right? Atlanta became a hip-hop city if it wasn't for one Miami and so on and so forth. But you would be like the first hip-hop rapper coming from Mississippi, right?

No, I mean... Man, it was actually a lot of people before me, man. Okay, yeah. Wildlife Society. Okay, okay. Y'all had just seen it. Yeah. It was out there. You you know hammer had a group that was from mississippi really yeah yeah bro and it's like i love to learn you know the thing

that i'll say is that um i was just the culmination of all the sacrifices and not just other rappers but the blues you know what i'm saying and i i i'll never take all the credit. One thing that people never noticed about me is that, if y'all notice, I never really talked about my city, where I was from. Because I wanted the whole state of Mississippi until we got a scene. I didn't want people to think because we were from the capital or we were from the city in Mississippi that I would ever leave anybody out. I never wanted people to feel the way that hip-hop made me feel that one time. And that's one of the reasons why I had the type of respect that I have for you two.

Because a lot of people don't know this, bro. Did you know that Nori was the first person in history to buy a David Banner beat? That's goddamn right. And do you remember who it was for? Moose and Maze. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was for his little brother's group

You know what I'm saying? And so for us To still be here, man With our gray beards You know Not all gray beards And if you do have a gray beard Just so you know

You know, and So what I always try to do is let people know that there's a strong and there's a great history in Mississippi. And I actually was bestowed one of the greatest, greatest honors of all time. I'm in the Mississippi Music Hall of Fame right in between B.B. King and Elvis, bro. Wow. And I think, I don't know if I'm still, but I think I'm the youngest to ever get that honor. Wow. In front of the Civil Rights Museum in Jackson, Mississippi, I'm on a mural. Wow.

And y'all, I got to tell y'all, I'm going to tell y'all a quick story, man. This actually runs, chills through my heart. I thought my basketball coach in high school hated me. He was so mean to me. And one day he brought me into the classroom after school, and I didn't know he was into the Black Power Movement a whole lot. I guess he never let us know, let the kids know. So he brought out all of these pictures and stuff.

And he was like, Lavelle, I had a dream that one day I saw you on a mural between you and Malcolm X, right? I ended up being on a mural between some of the greatest Mississippi people in history. And everybody on this mural in Mississippi is dead. I'm the

only one that's on that mural that's still alive. And so I called him the morning that they were... The high school teacher? Oh, yes. Okay, the coach, right. He died the morning that I found out about the mural. Damn. I had called him at like 7 o'clock in the morning. He had died at 5 a.m. And I was calling

him to tell him that his dream came true. It wasn't Malcolm and Martin, but it was Mega Evers and Eudory Welty. You know what I'm saying? But what that showed me is that God is always on time, man. And for us now to be, you know, I ran with Norrie this morning. And for us, you know, for me to know the young Norrie and the stuff we used to do.

You know, when I was homeless in New York, sleeping on Wendy Day's floor. For us to be here, bro, and I even think about me and your relationship, bro. I don't know why, every time you were in a few people, every time you called me for a feature, I always just did it. I don't care whether it was rock and roll, whether it was, you know,

whatever kind of music, you just always called me, bro, and I would always say, yeah. So for us to be here, man, is a testament to God's life, bro. Hold on a second, stay with us. Okay, okay, okay. Y'all know I'm like most people who I always meet in New York.

Oh, you got, you got the David Banner gift bags, okay. Yeah, this fly, this is fly. Every time I come, this is from the Banner Vision. Yeah, the Banner Vision, okay. Thank you, man. Good luck. Open your eyes. Good luck, good luck. Good luck, I. Thank you. Yeah, man. Good lovin'. Open your eyes. Good lovin', good lovin'.

Good lovin', I'm ready to drink some champagne. Last time, I brought y'all shoes. Yes, I still got my shoes right at the top of my top. Yeah. Nah, man, with a bag. I appreciate y'all, man. Ooh, fire. Yeah, man.

Yeah, I got the jacket to go with this, too. Yeah, right. Oh, and the shirt, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, you up that button. The button I got you with that good leather. And that button. And that button. Yeah, man. Yeah, shirt, yeah. And you upped that box with that good leather. And that box. And that box.

Yeah, man. We got money, y'all. We made it. Yeah, man. This is dope. Let's put this to the side. So let me ask you, because I seen you in the breakfast pub. And you said one of the most interesting things I ever heard.

You said that you didn't see your father smile. Or, no, no, that you smiled. But you said that you didn't smile because you came in the house one day and your father sees you smiling and he's like, what are you so happy about? And I promise you guys,

I don't work for this movie, but there's a movie called Race, right? It's on Netflix. It's about Jesse Owens. I'm addicted to this running shit. I'll be watching all the shit now. And I remember Jesse Owens' father being a figure just like that. He didn't smile the whole time.

And I started to think of the people in my neighborhood who actually did have fathers. And most of the black fathers were, like you said, your high school coach was. They were kind of mean, but they were trying to teach us structure, and we didn't understand that. Was it like that in your household? First of all, I'm glad you asked me that question because I want to take up for my father. Because my father got flack when I said that.

Oh, really? So I didn't realize until about four years ago, I thought my dad was the meanest motherfucker on the planet. But my dad got beat with a bullwhip when he was young. My dad grew up on a farm, right? What's a bullwhip? I'm sorry. A bullwhip.

A whip. A real fucking whip. That they beat bulls with. That they beat bullwhip. Okay, cool. And so if you think about it, in comparison to his life, he was soft on me. Right. So I just thought he was this brooding, just mean monster.

Right. But what I figured out was that my dad knew what black men had to go through in life. And so he can coddle me if he want to and then put me out in the streets in Jackson, Mississippi, and I get ate the fuck up, right? So what my dad did was prepare his son, and all of these motherfuckers that criticize my father, look at who I am now. Look at what I am now. So why would you change anything about, you know, I see black folks and always trying to adjust our culture, always trying to go into our future. That shit ain't working. That shit ain't working with our kids. And then we always talk about the Bible.

We say spare the rod and quicken the child to the grave. You can't spare the rod. And what's happening with our children is that we are taking the, you don't take the pain out of your child's life. You take the danger out of your child's life. Y' the danger out of your child's life.

Y'all, it used to make me so upset because all my friends loved my father. He would laugh at them, play games with them and shit. And then as soon as I leave, I'm like, Dad, why are you laughing at them? My dad say, them ain't my motherfucking kids. I don't care what the fuck they do. They can ruin their life if they want to. Ain't your shit sweet? This life ain't sweet. You know what I'm saying?

And no lie nor I remember one time, and I want to tell the story for here because people may have not seen The Breakfast Club. I was about 10 years old and I walked into the house laughing. You know how kids are just happy. Kids just be happy just for the sake of being happy. You know, the sun is shining

and I'm happy. I walk in the house and my dad said, what the fuck you happy for? Why are you smiling? He said, I pay all the bills and I'm not happy, so why the fuck

are you happy? And I stopped smiling. I ain't bullshitting. I really didn't smile. Think about, think about the David Bowie album. Y'all didn't see me smiling

till I turned it off. But also, people don't think about this. Jackson, Mississippi was the murder capital of the United States during that time, bro. You know what I'm saying? And we were a smaller town. So in other cities, you could go a month or two without seeing your enemies. Where we from? Let me ask you.

Let me ask you because that was something that I brung up earlier Before you had came on the run That was something I wanted to actually Ask you about Because yeah We know that That was the murder capital But was that racially

Infused Or was that Was that gang on gang Is it black on black Like when it was The murder capital Well I'll say this bro I don't

The thing I tell people About Mississippi all the time is if I had to pick a white person on this earth to fuck with, it would be Mississippi white folk. Because Mississippi white folks, if they love you, they'll die for you. If they hate you, they'll try to kill you.

It's unlike these other cities. You'd be around a white dude working with them, and then this motherfucker been stealing your pension. You 80 years old and your money gone. And you thought that was the homie. At least in Mississippi, a motherfucker like, there were lines. I even knew this from selling my CDs. There were lines in Mississippi, lines of demarcation,

where white kids didn't go past. If your music wasn't in certain stores, past that line, they just wasn't going past that line. And if you saw white people past that line, they just wasn't going past that line. And if you saw white people past that line, then you knew that they fucked with you. Okay. You know what I'm saying? Right.

So in Mississippi, like, I really didn't deal with that racist shit that people were talking about. Motherfuckers, I heard the white boys in North Mississippi up close, you know, was a little bit different. But where we from, like, black folks ran that shit. We didn't have no problems. We didn't have no problems with white folks at all. I had never seen no

Ku Klux Klan in guard. You know what I'm saying? Because black folks was about their shit. We had been through enough. But you see them in Walmart. Not in guard? We're not in Walmart. We're probably seen them all over. They went out the closet in Walmart.

But what I will say, man, is that I think what happened with Jackson, Mississippi, you know, you had the migration lines, you know, through the Mississippi River and the trains. So we were so deeply connected and so deeply rooted in Chicago. So like, you know, our parents were moved to Chicago. Like, me and my mother were different. Most people didn't know this. Like, my mother was born in Mississippi, raised in Chicago.

And it was the exact opposite for me. You know, and so when somebody would get in trouble in Chicago, they would send them to their grandma. You know what I'm saying? When we wanted to see a better life, we would move up to Chicago.

You know what I'm saying? Think about it. That's crazy. Think about it, y'all. Crazy how that sounds. First time in Mississippi we looked at Chicago. Those of you all who've seen Sinners, that's what the whole story was about. Yeah, oh, don't tell them. Okay, alright. Make sure y'all go see it three, four times. We got him coming, we got him coming. Ryan Guga.

Yeah, Ryan Guga. We'll tell him in his next Mississippi movie to make sure he, you know what I'm saying? He can include you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Goddamn it, me too. I can make a Mississippi accent. So let me ask you,

bouncing around all over the place, right? Somebody said, somebody was being funny earlier, and they was like, imagine David Banner with Dr. Umar,ar right have you ever met dr umar being um dr umar went on a speaking tour oh it was so loud okay it was called three king okay yeah umar who else uh who is me dr umar and who else was it it's so funny funny to me, man. And I'll say this. One of the things that I do dislike in Black Power is that shit is almost like the rap game.

I don't care what religion people believe in. I don't care how people believe that we can get to freedom. Let's just get to freedom. I don't think that Malcolm and Martin had to fucking compete with each other. Sometimes you need the guns. Sometimes you need peace. Why can't we co-mingle

if we really want to see people free? Like, I don't give a fuck people's theories on how black people can be liberated. Black and brown people can be liberated. If we got a foot in our ass, we got a foot in our ass. You know what I'm saying?

And if you look at white oppression, it comes by air. and brown people can be liberated. If we got a foot in our ass, we got a foot in our ass. You know what I'm saying? And if you look at white oppression, it comes by air. It comes through the ground. It comes through the water. That's what I'm saying. Look at the army. So why can't we have different facets of liberation?

So I love what we all do, man. I don't have no problem with nobody, man. I like Dr. Umar he be like no more snow bunnies what did you think about that with Shannon did you hear what happened with Shannon Shaw I don't really care who nobody fucking

I think that's the lamest shit in the world man like bro look at the tariffs look at what's going on with our food there's bigger geopolitical things there's so much shit that's going on in our communities, man. I don't give a fuck who somebody is having sex with. And so for me, man, for us to concentrate on that so much, and I do, I want to tell you all this.

This is something that I was watching and it was led to my spirit for me to say to you all because I consider you to my friends right that's cool I don't consider too many motherfuckers my friends is you all got so successful so fast but the difference between you and you and other people in it and and and while oh and Gilly are very similar, is that you all control y'all power. You know? So they have us chasing numbers, and they have us chasing things that we never have to chase because you all accrued at your power on your own.

So you don't have to get any more popular than you are. Just stay true to the people. Because sometimes I see people, once they get really famous, they don't know where else to go, so they start doing corny shit. They start doing shit that ain't in their spirit. Y'all are rooted in the people.

Y'all are rooted in the culture. Nori, I talked about that this morning about you. This man called me. He don't never call me when it's time to make some money. When the revolution runs, it's Nori calling. Nori called me and Nori said, Nori said, The rap game needs a motherfucking union. the revolution, right? That's right. Norris called me and Norris said, Banner, Norris said, Banner,

the rap game needs a motherfucking union. We need to figure out, we sat on the fucking phone for two and a half hours literally trying to figure out how we can get a union, right? And so, bro,

those are the types of things that we do. Hold on, man, let me see that. Dave Banner ain't gonna smoke one of these. Come on now. I'm gonna take one with me.

They ain't gonna know what I did with it. You know what I'm saying? But y'all just stay rooted in what's powerful to you all, man. You all came up with an idea, bro. Even think about it, man. For you all to get some people to drink who may not drink, they're going to say some shit that they normally wouldn't say on TV. But that's fucking genius.

I love everything you just said, but I want to let people who know who just probably caught your speech, this is about giving people their flowers, man. Really what it is is there's been people that me and EFN has been even more successful than we bow down and we humble ourselves and we give people their flowers because in this game if I sincerely believe if you was famous for two years if you was famous for three years and especially let alone who we interview if you famous for 10 years and you can still have a head on your shoulders you really do deserve your flowers you really like deserve your flowers. I said this playing around and I named this record Super Thug and I

tested on this earlier, but if you been famous in this rap game for 10 years, you are a superhero. You are a version of it. And not just famous. If you were a pioneer or someone that worked on the ground that we know is foundational.

When it was hard to get on and when it was time to get on, I sincerely believe that this is my therapy. You know what I'm saying? When I could give a person their flowers and tell them, listen, man, I want to give it to you while you can smell them, your thoughts while you can think of them, your drinks while you can drink them. You know what I mean?

Because the thing with us, what we said is, it's never going to take away from us for us to give people their just due. You know what I mean? And that's what hip-hop is missing. That's what I think is a real special part of the show. But, crooked letters. Let's start with that, right? Me and you spoke about it earlier, but let's let the fans in.

We have very similar, like I came out with the War Report, Capone and Noriega. Then you guys came out with that. How, what is the difference between you when you're in a group and you when you're a solo artist?

What's that difference? Man, it's, I'll just say this, man. It feels good when you have your brothers around you. Mm-hmm. You know, I was always the oldest brother. You know what I'm saying? I was always a trailblazer, man.

But this shit ain't easy. People don't talk about the mental aspect of having to go through this shit. They never talk about the street shit we got to go through. Mm-hmm. They never talk about the social implications. They never talk about the police shit we got to go through. They never talk about the social implications. They never talk about the police. You know what I'm saying?

Especially what they was doing to y'all during that time. Yup, yup. Hip-hop police. Boy, the hip-hop police wasn't playing. Shit, bro. I was with,

me and Razzcast was with John Forte one night, bro, and got held up going to the Cheetah Club. John Forte got locked up, though, right? He got it bad, man. Yeah, I remember that.

But the difference between being in a group, man, is that you have somebody that you can go through this shit with. Because a lot of things we can't talk to people about. A lot of pressures we can't talk to people about. Even from a street perspective, bro,

me and you talking about this, something as small as where we from, ain't no motherfucker all up on you all close and shit. Back the fuck up. But you know, as you become famous

and shit, everybody want to run up. People don't make quick moves where I'm from, bro. Like, if you make a quick move where I'm from,

you're dead. You feel me? So it's like even getting used to going from being a hunter to being the hunted like i wasn't used to that shit right and when you have a brother with you that's dope but then you also got to worry about if somebody else is late you know i'm saying or if somebody else gets

sick or something happens with his daughter and he ain't able to make it or all of those different types of things. Or if somebody doesn't see your vision. I used to get mad when people didn't see my vision, but that means I'm actually closer to God. If you can see what I see, then you're not blessed. Then I'm not blessed because it's general knowledge. I've always been a man of vision, so I can't expect somebody else to see it. I can't expect somebody to jump on everything that I decide to do but if if if in history I consistently show motherfuckers

that I know what I'm doing then I would think that people would have an internal fortitude to say something special about that negro we might need to follow him so I just realized you know when I'm by myself and and I think I was a little bit different. You know, Crick was a little bit different. T-Pain was a little bit different. Not only was I a dope rapper, but I was also a dope producer. So I didn't have to wait on nobody. I didn't have

to wait on the producer. If my producer started acting funny, even in my company. Did you engineer your own shit too? For a while. Okay. For a while. I have one of the few people that can i can go in the studio by myself and do a whole yeah it's all about the act like by myself it may not be great because i'm doing everything but i get the shit done all right you know what i'm saying um as a producer has there ever been a beat that you gave away as a producer

that you wanted to keep as an artist oh um no if i No, if I gave it away, I gave it away. You let it go and it was done. And I got to be honest, and I want to say this in front of everybody. You produced a lot of beats. I did. I don't want you to brush that. I did.

But there's two things I want to tell y'all about. I think T.I., as a rapper, has one of the best ears. As a producer? No, no. Just as an artist, period. Like choosing beats? Like most people

who can rap at the level that he can rap, they usually don't pick beats well. Right. I don't care who, you talk about your favorite rapper, they usually, the beat's not usually jamming.

Right. That's part of the problem. Right. And so what I would do with Tip was I would go and play beats for Tip. For him? And have him pick it out for other artists? And have him pick the beats that he liked and then I would do with Tip was I would go and play beats for Tip. For him and have him pick it off. And have him pick the beats that he liked.

And then I would take those beats and go play them for other people. He was my A&R. I didn't even know it. And it was funny because I just went to him recently. It was like, bro, I want you. I want your ear on my next album, bro. Like, I really want him because he has such vision in me. So I don't know if it's something really special. But because I give you an example,

when we did Rubber Band, man, I'm a producer. I'm not a beat maker. Tip left and came back with that record being the way that it was. So like the kids and all of that kind of stuff, that was him. He added to it?

Yeah. Like, he didn't add to the beat, but the structure. The overall? Yeah, because because i produce records i don't just do um i just don't give a person the beat and they run off you know and that actually came from snoop snoop is the person that turned me into a producer instead of a beat maker bless you um i was producing snoop and i was just so happy to be producing snoop. I didn't say shit. And Snoop said, come in here, nephew. He was like, you don't.

He said, tell me what to do. And I said, if I can tell Snoop what to do, the rest of y'all motherfuckers can't tell me shit. He got that from Dre. I started going in here telling motherfuckers, you do this, you do that, man. Fuck that Snoop. Say I'm shit. Fuck you. No, but if you think about it snoop has

kind of always been produced i mean yeah he's always been produced so he probably even if you didn't want to like produce for him he probably had to force you to do that man and so you know from that point bro i i just realized like i give y'all another story um Y'all gonna trip on this. And it's crazy because Beyonce just used Like a Pimp in her tour. Man, y'all clap for that shit.

That was too good. Hey, take some champagne, bro. Take some champagne. I was talking to my mom on the way coming over here. I was like, Mom, would you ever

would have thought that Like a Pimp would be doing because... Did your mom know or you had to tell your mom? What? About Beyonce.

No, she knew. She knew? I mean, regardless of what people say, Facebook is their hood. You know what I'm saying? It is Like a Pimp on top of that. Yeah, but the crazy thing is I didn't like Like a Pimp. Right. I really didn't.

I picked that beat because Lil Flip was like, well, I'll barter with you. You give me two beats, I'll give you a verse. And so I gave him the two beats and I was like, well, I sampled Pimp C's voice. That's Texas, Texas. I know he'll like that. I just threw him a beat real quick and I said, I'll go and change the beat later. We made that song in like 20 minutes, bro. Wow. And the last verse, we went back and forth, just like on some freestyle shit all of a sudden. And bro, it was this DJ in Atlanta named DJ Will. I'll never forget this, man.

Because you remember I had the Lil Jon record. Might get your job, bro. Might get your wig split. And DJ Will heard that this, man. Because you remember I had the Lil' Ja record. Might get your job, bro. Might get your wig split. And DJ Will heard that record, bro. And he was like, this is your hit record. He was like, if you use this song, flip this from your A and B side, he said, you'll be a star, bro, in the next seven months. And I switched that to my A side, bro.

And it was history from then. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action, and that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing.

So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves. This medal is for the men who went down that day. It's for the families of those who didn't make it. I'm J.R. Martinez. I'm a U.S. Army veteran myself, and I'm honored to tell you the stories of these heroes on the new season of Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage from Pushkin Industries and iHeart Podcast. From Robert Blake, the first Black sailor to be awarded the medal,

to Daniel Daly, one of only 19 people to have received the Medal of Honor twice. These are stories about people who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor, going above and beyond the call of duty. You'll hear about what they did, what it meant, and what their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network, hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck. This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser known histories of the West.

I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian, Dr. Randall Williams, and bestselling author and meat eater founder, Stephen Ranella. I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here. And I'll say, it seems like the Ice Age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops and they get asked

all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated.

I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Let me ask you a question that probably only you could answer and a couple of other people. But what would life be like right now had Pimp C been alive? Music would be different.

Life would be different. And I think that's the reason why some of the things happen to some of our heroes. Because the world would be different if Pac was alive, if Pimp C was alive. It's just certain men if Nipsey was still alive, bro. You know, and I don't know, man. It's crazy for me because Pimp C was my friend. That's why I'm asking Pimp in particular. Yeah.

All right, so this is— You've got a song called Chad, right? Yeah. Where you're basically giving— Yeah, this is a true story, bro. So Pimp was real proud, you know, because I had gotten really sick. And the reason why I lost all of the weight, because the doctor said, you know, with me having high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and high blood pressure, sleep apnea, I think I had like high cholesterol with all of that stuff at the same time.

He's like, you're going to die soon. So like I got with Scott Parker and ended up losing like, bro, like 56 pounds in like three months. And so me and Pimp C had gotten really tight. Speaking of like a pimp. While you was losing the weight? No, that was before. Okay, go ahead.

When Like a Pimp came out, you know, I told y'all the story last time about how I used to write them in jail. And we had became real tight. Pimp was going to move to L.A. And so. I see that. And so like it was me, Juicy his producers like we always gonna work on Pimp album so I was in the studio out in LA I had moved to LA and um I got a call from Pimp I started going to the studio early so unlike most rappers when they go to the studio late I started going

to the studio like 10 in the morning so I could get out, you know, and have somewhat of a regular life. I was in the studio. I saw Pimp had called, didn't pick up because that's the homie now. It ain't like, ooh, Pimp, see, like, that's my homie. So I didn't pick up the call. When I got out the studio, I called and called and called. He didn't pick up, right? So two days later, I heard he died.

In L.A., right? Yeah. Oh, okay. I end up picking up, I end up listening to the voicemail after I heard he had died. And he was like, Banner, I'm at LAX. Come pick me up, dog. Come pick me up. Damn.

Like, bro, imagine what that does to a human being. Because one thing that I don't do, I'm not like one of the cats who, when I get in a certain position, I don't understand who my friends are. Right. Like, although he was my friend, that's still Pepsi. Still Pepsi. Be clear. Right, right, right. You know, Snoop is still Snoop to me.

I'm still a fan of the people that I look up to. Yep, me too. But, bro, like, that bothered me for a very, very long time, man. That, you know, and people would ask me my opinion about how did I think he died, and I always tell people I don't give a fuck. My homie did. You know, I don't really, that really don't matter to me, bro.

You know, so, it would be a lot different. Pimp didn't take no shit. I ain't gonna lie to you. Every time I've been around Pimp, it's always been fun. Like, he's always been like the laughing type. Like, Banner, Banner, man, don't let these niggas know you, Banner. Pimp is so fucking funny.

But Pimp had a theory that if you let people know the child in you, then you're going to have to hurt them. Wow. Because people will play with you. And Pimp didn't let motherfuckers play with him. Banner, don't let them niggas know you, man. You smart. That's what he would tell me that all the time.

You smart. Pimp would always tell me, he was like, Banner, you got to take some time, bro. Like, you smart and you ahead. He's like, it's going to take time for the world to catch up to the shit that you on. Right. He's a great motherfucker, bro. Yeah, I miss him like a motherfucker. Rest in peace, Pimp C.

Y'all make some noise for Pimp. So, our show is about giving people their flowers. We want to give you your flowers. Where we at? Yeah, we want to give you your flowers. You know what I'm saying? Because you never got them from us. You never got your flowers.

Yes. Yeah, so we want to give you your full blessing. Face to face, man to man. And we started this tradition. Oh, shit. That's hard as fuck. Oh, that's hard as fuck, y'all. Snoop said it's better than a Grammy

because it comes from his people. Oh, man, that's hard as fuck. And we got to really thank you because you came early to Drink Champ. Would you believe we just celebrated in March nine years of Drink Champ going on to our 10th year as wild. Me and Norton was talking about it this morning.

I don't know if anybody's been on here more than me Oh, shit Jada kissing you And John, Fat Joe, I think around Yeah, bro, I appreciate it I'm honored I remember before we was on TV This is your house

So let me just say this again For people that didn't see this I just want you to know You can come up here Anytime you want to talk Anytime you want to speak politics You want to speak anything This is your house You should We know this already I want the people to know it too You can come up here. Anytime you want to talk. Anytime you want to speak politics. You want to speak anything.

This is your house. Well, you should know this already. I hope you know it. I want the people to know it too, motherfuckers. I want you motherfuckers to know it. And if you see him, you see us not going for a week, and you see David Banner here every day, we planned it. Well, you know what might end up happening

if y'all want to go on a break. Yeah, that's all good. Yeah, that's all good. That's a good idea. Yeah, it's all good. So I've been having so much fun watching you have so much fun living this movie star life. Wow. It just seems like,

for lack of a better term, here, I'm going to salute you with Chad Parker Nate. Thank you, bro. For lack of a better term, it's like I see, I don't want to use the word reincarnated,

but I see you, like you're a whole different person. I can't know if I attribute that all to just the movies. Maybe it's mixed in with the workout. But lately, when I see you online and I see you, you know, promoting the movies and I see you, it's just a glow and it's a look that you have that it speaks happiness. Like, you don't even have to say you happy. I can see the shit. Like, what the fuck is going on? Bro,

this time last year, bro, and count two years back, I went through the worst depression that I ever went through in my life. And motherfuckers really showed me their ass. Family, friends, the music industry, everything. They really showed me their ass family friends the music industry everything they really showed me their ass and god is so powerful bro because god laid the whole world out to me and showed me what the world was you know and bro no bullshit i talk about this, man. Y'all going to be surprised, bro. I called Method, man.

And Method told me, bro, he's like, the only common denominator in everything you're going through is you. You can't make nobody buy your records. You can't make nobody put you in their movies. You can't do none of that shit. You can only change you. And I told him, man, I was like, bro, and what's funny, this is the funniest shit in the world meth didn't know me um rockwaller um i did a verse did you remember bro i just went on this or just this run while i was just spazzing on the mic right and i did a verse on um eric sermon album and me and motherfucking rockwaller got really tight. And it's so crazy because Rock Waller seemed like he was from Mississippi because I said, man, I'm doing a God Box too.

And I think I want Method on record. He did some Mississippi shit. He was like, you want Method on the record for real? Hung up in my motherfucking face. I was like, what the fuck? Like, bro, 15 minutes later, he going to Method's number. He said, call him tomorrow. So I called. Method did the verse

In a fucking day bro Wow And I asked Method I said Method Man why you fucking with me Like you don't know me Method was like Man I get on Twitter sometimes

And black Twitter say Protect David Barrett Right right So we gonna do that shit Yeah I guess And so then We had game You know we would talk every now and then so one day man i was seeing like how how happy he was on tv and how well he was doing

so i said if god has blessed me to have people in my life like that call them on some real shit right so i was just like hey bro i can't sleep dog. And Matthew said, I went through the same shit. And he said, I wasn't sleeping but two hours a night, Nori. Wow. And start fucking with my mind. I ain't going to even bullshit you. And it's crazy because when I would go to the doctor, the doctor be like, okay, yeah, yeah, you can't sleep. I'll see you in four months.

Motherfucker, I just told you I couldn't sleep. And you say you can't see me for another fucking four months as much as I'm playing your black ass shit so Matthew said I couldn't sleep either banner he said so what I started doing is getting up going to the gym he said the gym in New York opening 4 30 and so bro when he told me that bro I just started going to the gym every fucking day. Bro, even if I was super depressed or whatever, I would just go sit in the fucking parking lot. But I wouldn't miss that fucking gym. There's a book called Atomic Habits.

And dude said something so powerful in that motherfucking book. He said, even if you ain't going to do but one pull-up, do that one. Because when you don't do that one, then that's when it starts. When you don't do none ever, right? So he said, even if you get on a treadmill for two seconds, just get on the fucking treadmill, bro. And no bullshit, I started going every day. I said, I don't care how fucking sad I am, I'm going to get in this fucking gym. And then one day, bro, it clicked to me, bro, that I am not going to let nobody, I don't care if it's my mother, and I love my mother more than any of you motherfuckers on this planet, but I'm not even letting my mother take my happiness away.

Bro, no bullshit. If a person doesn't have a good spirit, if they not own their shit, I don't even want you around me, bro. So let me ask you, do you think that by you working out, you attracted these movie roles? Do you think, do you think, I mean. It changed the state of mind. Yeah. Could through that. Let me just be honest with you, bro.

I'm one of the sexiest motherfuckers in the planet. I'm just being honest with you. I mean, y'all don't have to admit it. I know we buried heterosexual men in this bitch. But I look awesome. Did you see when we was running this morning? I started to go get reparations right then. I was like, no.

I'm out here with Noy. Let me be cool. No, seriously, bro. No. Like, no bullshit, bro. When I tell people that I'm the sexiest motherfucker alive, it's not because I'm popping shit. It's because we stay in that fucking gym, bro. Bro, I see how you was running today.

That's four years of training, dog. Like Matthew said, bro, I can't expect a motherfucker to put me on their film, but I can be prepared when I walk in that fucking room. I can know my lines and look better than any of these motherfuckers on this fucking planet. And what it also does, bro, is it motivates the children, bro, to want to be better, man. So what I decided to do, man, is not complain about the world, but work on me and me

be better. And no bullshit, bro, you talked about it earlier. The reason why I started fucking with the Ferraris and shit like that, it wasn't to pop. A lot of people do that and get into opulence so they can show out in front of other poor people. That's not the reason why I do that. I do it because I've never done nothing for myself. Right. Bro, think about all the fucking money that I made. And I looked around and I didn't

have shit. It's not about having a toys, but if everybody else in the world I told somebody I said when I presented to the world A martyr All black people brought me was death When I presented to the world A fucking king They brought me money Jewels, gifts, opportunity

And I say this especially to our young ladies that's watching Drink Champs. People treat you exactly how you treat yourself. If you treat yourself like shit, then other people going to keep shitting on you. If you don't take shit and all you put in your body is the best, all you step into is the best, the best clothes, the best thing, then people are going to treat you exactly how you treat yourself. I told them, motherfucker, this, man, when they brought me to speak.

I said, how you going to offer me $10,000 and my outfit is seven? I'm not bullshit. I'm dead serious. Look at me. Look at me, motherfucker. In order for me to come to your event, motherfucker, you're going to at least have to double my outfit. So honestly, like, bro, like, I get paid a house.

Whether hip-hop is selling or not, bro, my lifestyle is a certain way. So don't call me if you don't have the bread. You know what I'm saying? And I'm serious, man. God loves us so much that whatever you say is true. If you say you a nigga, then you a nigga. If you a God and you act like it, you that too. God wants the best for you.

Life conspires to give you exactly what you want. But what you don't notice, we don't notice what we say to ourselves. Nigga, I'ma die tonight. I'ma die tonight. I'ma die tonight. That nigga dead. And I'm a cash money millionaire. I'm a cash money millionaire. I'm a cash money

millionaire. You become a millionaire. They're millionaires. So I want opulence, bro, and I want peace and I want happiness. And one thing that I want to do for opulence, bro, and I want peace, and I want happiness. And one thing that I want to do for y'all, bro, I have some things that I'm doing on the technology side. And it's funny. I told Big Tigger this this morning. When this shit happened for me, all y'all motherfuckers could quit.

And we ain't that cool. But I'm telling you, when I do this shit That I do Oh my Y'all quit this shit We done for life Like bro The stuff that I was so proud of myself Last week And this is not

On no cap shit bro No week before last Three of my phone calls Were casual Phone calls With billionaires And if what they say Who you talk to,

and who you spend your time with, the 10 major people around you are going to influence your life, well, y'all motherfuckers better get ready then. Talk to that shit. Let me ask you something. And this is for me

knowing you for 25 years. And this is an outright question I want to know for myself okay do you trust human beings do I trust human beings I trust human beings to be human I'll tell you all something and this is serious it's gonna shock a lot of people one of the things that helped my depression is i don't hate anymore i don't hate anybody on this planet anymore um other races of people um who actually may deserve hate because of the things that they have historically done what i realize is that there's a finite amount of energy in the universe right so there can't be any more energy created

right so if i give my energy to like 30 or let's say 50 of that to hate and it may be justified hate right then you constrict the opportunity to have opulence love opportunity vision right so what i started understanding is that if you know people have historically been a certain way then why you keep going around the motherfucker right that's your fault a lot of people got mad at me when i said um i told big boy this this is the best time in history For black and brown people And people say huh? I said because these motherfuckers have shown you

Exactly who they are And if we don't take care of ourselves We're done So now is the time in history for us to create Our own shit Our own movies It's time to let the fucking plantation go And back in the day When I used to talk my shit our own movies. It's time to let the fucking plantation go.

And back in the day when I used to talk my shit, y'all be honest, most motherfuckers thought I was crazy. Some of y'all in here probably thought I was crazy too. That nigga crazy.

And now that all this crazy shit is happening, now people are looking for solutions for the motherfuckers who are crazy. Bro, I know the albums

that we made. I know the songs that we made. We was talking about this shit 10, 12 years ago, right around. Bro, I know the albums that we made. I know the songs that we made. We was talking about this shit 10, 12 years ago, right around even. And this shit came true. So now it's time for us to get our farms, bro.

Now it may be time for us to move to Belize or to Brazil or I just got back from Bali. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's time for us to stop talking, bro, and start moving. Acting. Yeah. Acting on it. Bro, Simmons threatened me if I go to Bali and I don't go see him.

You got to do run champs out there. Queen's threat. Oh, that's fucking great. Yeah. Everything you're saying, I keep thinking of Banner Vision, the brand. Because you know what? I'm going to be honest with you. I know you for a long, long time, right right and it always seemed like you got

smarter with your section like you know what i mean like it always felt like but it did feel like at one point you didn't trust the industry particularly the industry and that's why i labeled it human right now because that has to come from somewhere, right? Hip-hop hurt my feelings, Nor. I'm just being honest. The culture of the industry. I could speak about that all day, but please explain that to the people who can't understand that. Hip-hop hurt my feelings, bro.

That's deep. That's deep. What most people don't know about me, bro, is I was a battle rapper. I was a battle rapper. I was a backpacker, but living the life that I talked about later on. You know what I'm saying? And I had this love for hip hop. And on every one of my albums, I would always, and people never notice this,

I would always have a battle rap or a hip hop song or something giving homage back to like... I always heard it. Most people didn't though. You know what I'm saying? And I always lived by the rules. But hip hop really didn't give a fuck about me. It didn't really give a fuck about Mississippi. When did hip hop hurt your feelings? When I realized that this shit is

imperialism. It's a business. Yeah, it's imperialism. And it ain't personal though. It's a business. Yeah, it's imperialism. Yeah, and it ain't personal, though. It ain't personal. It ain't personal. That's deep in itself. Hold on, hold on. Because that's a two-part question.

You just answered that two... Because one, that's exactly what it is. It's like, yo, this is a business. It's just called hip-hop business. Well, there's a difference between the business side of it and the culture side. You could make the distinction. There is a distinction. Okay, I want to think...

There's a monetizing of the music and the culture. I want to think that all three of us entered this for the love at first. Yeah, of course. But once we realized it was business, we didn't want to get jerked for our business. But we're like, what better business to be in to make money out of what you love? But then, like he said, that's the other part of that. It's not personal. But the problem is that I think what happened to

hip-hop in general or anything when it comes to people of culture, we do it by feelings because we're spiritual people. We never laid down the rules. Right. Like, I'll give you a great example. Everybody want to talk about who's the GOAT, who's the GOAT. How can you have a fucking GOAT when there ain't no rules?

If we're going to say somebody is the the go to basketball then let's sit down at a table and say okay how many championships you have to have how much influence do you have on the culture all of these different things we have to have some rules criteria right because if not then it's emotional and if it's emotional then you can be constipated. Or generational. Or generational. Because if you notice, when people talk about their ghosts, they're really emotional about who they like when they were growing up. I stopped that shit. You know what I'm saying? My son, I can't speak about LeBron at all.

He takes it super personal. And I'm just like, I don't do it no more. And then for a person to not really talk about some of our greats who got 10 rings, you know, 8, 9, 10 rings, you know. And, you know, for us to talk about the GOATs and hip hop and nobody say Rakim. No, no, that's wild. At all? Nobody? Nobody say Scarface?

Like, are you serious? Face? Come on, dude. Right. You know, so I think part of the problem is we have allowed other people through their money to have a say-so in hip-hop. You know, one thing that I just finished speaking at Adweek, and what I told them is I wish hip-hop was the way that it used to be. Is you give me your fucking money. You sit the fuck down.

I'm going to make you a profit. Let me do what the fuck I do. We have allowed white people to become too comfortable in our culture. And this is something, I mean, I guess that's the reason why y'all call it drink shelves. Because I'm going to say something. I'm going to say something that's really real. One of the reasons why I stopped producing is because there was a young white A&R at one of these labels. And I had already produced two number one hits for this label, right? And this white boy felt comfortable to comment about Southern rap music to me.

Now, I probably would have took his notes. Or R&B, maybe, maybe, maybe. Country music, maybe, maybe. This motherfucker fell, call yo David, you need to, motherfucker, you better shut your motherfucking mouth

and take these fucking credits. You don't know nothing about this shit. Because I may not have created, but I have something to do with this shit. You know what I'm saying? And the

motherfuckers feel entitled. And it's because we allow people. And you got too many Negroes who will take the check and allow their black or brown skin to be used to manipulate other black and brown people. And I think that shit is

whack, dog. People use culture when it's most convenient to them. And I don't like that shit dog. Want to do Quick Time with Sly? Let's do it. Cool. You want to explain the game? Oh yeah, he's never played Quick Time with us either.

I saw that shit and I'm glad they never did that shit with me. Alright, here we go. So, we're going to ask we're going to give you two, we're going to ask you a question of two different. This shit is hard. Two different topics, two different people, two different names. Yeah.

You pick one, we not drinking. We explain this horribly, by the way. Yes. Pick one, we not drinking. If you don't pick or you say both, we drinking. Okay. Yes. And really what we want is just bring up names.

Names. Give us stories. I'm with it. Because we are celebrating motherfucking David Banner tonight., we drink it. Okay. Yes. And really what we want is just bring up names. Names. Give us stories. I'm with it. Because we are celebrating motherfucking David Banner tonight. I'm with it. I'm with it. Like, listen, man, you know, the show has got bigger and bigger and bigger, and we truly have a different audience,

and we truly want to share this audience with you, you know what I mean? Because you've been a part of each audience. Yeah, this is your audience. So this is your audience. Each iteration. Each iteration, yes. Yeah, so, damn, what are you drinking?

Marijuana. This is another Marijuana. You got a fancy bottle. I'm proud of you. Yo! Because I ran out of my homies. I ran out of the other ones. Yo, you usually have

your shit in plastic. Like, yo! Marijuana king is still the king. Yo, I'm proud of you, bro. Shut up the shit in plastic. Like, yo. Mama Wanda King is still the king. I'm proud of you, bro. Okay, okay. This is Pitbull brought this through. Okay, okay. Damn, Pitbull got a motherfucking Mama Wanda.

Remember? He brought it through last time. Oh, yeah. I forgot. All right. Ready? Yeah. Tupac or Eazy?

Tupac. Any stories or any thoughts? Bro, it's so crazy about pop. Pop, and I'm being very honest with you, bro. I don't like the fan stuff a lot, but I really found that I missed how brilliant Biggie was because of pop. Like, I was such a fucking Tupac fan that I listened to Biggie, but I didn't absorb it because I was such a fucking pop fan, bro. Right, right. And I didn't know either one of them.

You know what I'm saying? And I tell everybody this, man. Usually, and I'm not saying this is the case, usually the person that you like musically, usually be the asshole. Usually. You know, and we get connected, and America is doing this now, bro.

I'm watching with this Trump shit. Bro, just because you like somebody or you like their music don't mean that they right. And the stuff that they do is right. We got to get back to what our grandmothers taught us. Like, if you wrong, motherfucker, I don't care that they right. And the stuff that they do is right. We got to get back to what our grandmothers taught us. Like, if you wrong, motherfucker, I don't care that your beats jamming. Back in the day, bro, just because you had money,

we'll spin up your money, motherfucker. But you ain't cool. You still a fucking lame. You know? So for me, bro, I really, Suicidal Thoughts from Biggie was one of my favorite songs, bro, from him. And I would listen to that a lot.

But I really miss the opportunity to enjoy, you know, Biggie's artistry because I was such a big Tupac fan. I think Tupac transcended hip hop. And not many people can say that. I think he had a bigger calling on his life. And he wasn't a perfect man. None of us are perfect. But I think the calling on his life. And he wasn't a perfect man. None of us are perfect. But I think the calling on his spirit was so big. And that's, you know, we talked about Pimp C.

You know, imagine if Pac was still alive. A lot of these rappers wouldn't be rapping. It'd be crazy. You know. So you picked, is Tupac or Eazy-E? No, you picked Tupac. You picked Tupac. Big crit or currency?

Crit. Okay. I think crit is one ofrency? K.R.I.T. Okay. I think K.R.I.T. is one of the dopest artists that ever walked this planet. K.R.I.T. is dope. Yeah. We need him on Drink Chance, brother. A-Ball, MJG, or 3-6 Mafia? Oh, we not drinking.

Oh, we are drinking. We are drinking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We drinking twice. So you're saying both? I'm saying both, both. Oh, come on. Yeah, brother. That. Well, let's get out. We drinking twice. So you're saying both? Oh, I'm saying both, both. Oh, come on. Yeah, brother.

Shit. That was a good one. He got the shot glass. He got the shot glass. Oh, yeah, she put a shot for you. Okay. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding,

but the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action, and that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. With guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull, we'll take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick.

Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves. This medal is for the men who went down that day.

It's for the families of those who didn't make it. I'm J.R. Martinez. I'm a U.S. Army veteran myself, and I'm honored to tell you the stories of these heroes on the new season of Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage from Pushkin Industries and iHeart Podcast. From Robert Blake, the first Black sailor to be awarded the medal, to Daniel Daly, one of only 19 people to have received the Medal of Honor twice. These are stories about people who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor, going above and beyond the call of duty. You'll hear about what they did, what it meant, and what their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice.

Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network, hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck. This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian Dr. Randall Williams and best-selling author and meat-eater founder

Stephen Rinella. I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here. And I'll say, it seems like the Ice Age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region

today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley, But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st, and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Okay, I want this one. Ooh, I know where he gonna go, but I want this one. Wu-Tang Clan or the Dungeon Family? Dungeon Family. See, are you voting with heart?

Because, see, that's one thing. Y'all South motherfuckers is very protective. You can't say it like that, though. Yeah, y'all very protective of y'all South shit. I ain't going to lie. But New York niggas not?

Yeah, but it's New York. It's New York. That way it's just the South. Think about it. Think about what the fuck you said. Y'all, what the fuck you said. But no, ask him about Brooklyn. When Brooklyn's here,

it's Brooklyn. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's true. It's true. It's true. It's true. But hold on. But let me tell you this, though, bro. Let me tell you this.

And this is very important to me, man. All right. I think Rico Wade's family and the Dungeon family's family. Rest in peace. We go with that. Rest in peace. Absolutely, yeah. Bro, they should be billionaires or close to you.

Absolutely. Bro, they helped shape Atlanta in general. The South as a whole and hip-hop as a whole. Think about what Atlanta turned into and how big the Dungeon family was a part of that, bro. You know, for me, the Dungeon family,

and I am a Wu-Tang fanatic, be clear, and I'm from the South, bro. But Goody Mob stopped me from going down that wrong road. When I was thinking about because I've always been blessed with

both sides. The intelligence, school, the streets, rap. I've always had all of those things around me. When I heard Soul Food, and they used to be in something that was called a robbing crew. A couple of them dudes used to go around robbing parties, dog. And for me to hear some dudes that were really thorough, for real, for me to hear some of Kujo's stories, like what I heard about him, bro. And for him to talk the shit that he talked about spiritually.

Bro, it changed my life, bro. Like, people can say what the fuck they want to, bro. Outkast, Andre 3000, to me, is the best rapper who have ever touched this planet. I don't give a fuck what nobody say. And I'll say it because he don't really even care about the shit. Imagine me thinking a motherfucker Andre said the hardest shit any rapper has ever said in history. He said

I asked her what she wanted to be when she grew up and she said a lie. It didn't even rhyme nigga. He asked a child what she wanted to be when she grows up and she said a lie. What the fuck?

So for me, bro, like being from the South, we didn't have the Yankee hats to hide behind. We didn't have the Knicks to hide around. We didn't have fucking hoods and shit like that to hide around. Bro, we had to fight slavery. We had to fight the motherfucking Confederate flag. We had to fight, you know, bigot-ass motherfuckers in hip-hop. And Nori, the reason why,

the reason why I'm so surprised about you is because you was one of the few motherfuckers when them niggas was hating on us, dog. You know how much they was hating on us. Them niggas was hating on us, dog. You are the only motherfucker one of us hate no-no. Them niggas was hating no-no, dog. He kind of forget that he knew. You are the only motherfucker, one of the only motherfucker, dog.

Bro, so you understand the imperialism, and I don't even go even further since I've been drinking. Shit, dog, they wouldn't give it to Rad Man. He was right across the fucking bridge. They wouldn't give it to fucking Black Thought until he rapped for 15 fucking minutes straight. They wouldn't give it to Common.

They wouldn't give it to motherfucking Andre 3000. You know who they is, right? Yeah. And they wouldn't give it to the West Coast until they stopped on buildings. So, bro, that same imperialism, that same racism that they

talk about, it reared its head in hip-hop, but people are not men enough. And I will say this, Nori, and I mean this because I love hip-hop, and I looked up to these niggas, bro. All they had to do was show love, bro.

Bro, if they showed love, they would still, because think because think about it bro we don't even put our heroes in songs but we would always go and get slick rick we will always go get krs1 we will always find the new york motherfuckers that we had we won't even bro i'm telling you bro we won't even put our own we don't put teela we don't put a ball like We don't put A-Ball. Why don't we put our own heroes the same way that we respect and revere other people, bro? So for me, it would be a discredit to my people in the South and for me to be in the forefront like you said that I am, for me to say anybody but the people that changed my fucking life, homie. To the day that I die, bro bro Dungeon Family changed my life bro

and I ride for them niggas if they like me or not bro cause they changed the south they changed and and them niggas was so hip hop I'll give you a great example watch this I'ma talk my shit you know this as a DJ they may not want me to tell this but

you remember the remix the Outkast remix of Southern Playalistic? I was already thinking. Right? So that's the same sample from Mad Props, because people don't know that I was a battle rapper. I'm a hip-hop head from the youngsters. But they just took and put a piano over it.

And with me, because I'm a producer, I could hear the sample and the phantom noise from the headphones. I was like, them motherfuckers are geniuses. They took fucking hip hop and put mud on it, bro. And I'll tell you something, bro. I got to give a big shout out to Big Daddy Kane. I played the God Box 2 for Big Daddy Kane because I didn't know whether i wanted to put it out or not and big daddy kane called me back and said david banner this is southern hip-hop it's not people from the south trying to sound like they from new york he said bro this is what southern hip-hop is supposed to sound like because i remember telling carol s-One one time, bro, I said that I really do got a Cadillac on 22s.

My homeboys did really sell dope. So my hip hop, if hip hop is really truly a life experience, it's just what you live in life. And our lifestyles are not the same. Kodak Black or 21 Savage? 21 Savage. Okay. Ghetto Boys or UG Savage? 21 Savage. Okay. Ghetto Boys or UGK?

Nobody answered that question. We drinking. We drank twice. I was both in the motherfucking long down one. Cheers. Okay. Dead Prez or Blackstar? Ooh.

Oh, shit. Need a Oh! Oh, shit. Need a shot? Oh, shit. I'm trying to see. What would I pick? Dead Prez. I don't know. Dead Prez.

That's Florida, too, man. I'll go Dead Prez. I mean, shut up. Listen. I got to go Dead Prez. That's a tough one. I got to go Dead Prez. Okay, I like this one.

It's funny. Hold on. Let me go dead, bro. That's a tough one. I got to go dead. Okay, I like this one. It's funny. Hold on. Let me finish that, too. It's funny because me and Talib are really, really tight. And me and Talib are really, really tight. And as of lately, I can't call him Mos Def no more, huh? Yassin. lately. Can't call him Mos Def no more, huh? Yassine.

Yassine. Yassine is that verse that he did on some of the last verses I've been hearing from him. Nah, he's him. He's stupid, bro. He's stupid.

But for the culture, bro, I got to stick to it. Yeah. Shout out to Stickin' and M1, bro. This is one I always love. NWA or Public Enemy? Well, it's been Wu-Tang and NWA. We switched it now.

NWA. Okay. Rap City or Yo! MTV Raps? Rap City. Black! MTV Raps? Rap City. Black Thought or Nas? I'm not. I'm not asking. I'm not asking.

Come on. Okay, let's go. Come on, let's go. What happened? Yeah. Castle Water. Yes. Yeah.

ODB or Biz Markie? I love this one. Oh. Rest in peace to both of those. Biz Markie. Okay. Okay. Michael Jackson or Prince?

Prince. You got to meet Prince? You want to talk about that? Yeah, you got to meet Prince. You want to talk about that? I feel like we, did we ever talk about it? Because we always talk about Prince. All right, so this is my thing about that.

For entertainment purposes, it's Michael Jackson all day. Right, right. He's the ultimate. But for singles, radio, but Prince, hands down, is one of the most talented motherfuckers who have ever walked this planet. He can play everything. He play everything. And he was the youngest artist,

even when he was a teenager. He played every instrument on his record. He produced himself. He's a fucking genius. And advocated for ownership. Exactly. And he didn't need nobody else in the room, but just him.

Right. You know, it's funny because all of my favorite artists are actually related. Prince's favorite artist is Curtis Mayfield. Okay. Andre 3000's favorite artist was Prince. So it's like all three of them, it was a line of the people who I've always looked at.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, but Prince, from an artist's perspective, just straight up getting in the studio by yourself. Nobody else is there. That's why I have such a deep respect for Big K.R.I.T. I have such a deep respect for T-Pain, the people who I never really, really talked about. Myself, who don't really need anybody. Because Nori, I'll tell you something that i thought about bro i'm listening my career would have been so much bigger if i would have had

like anrs that i could listen to that could really bring me beats because like think about it all of my hits really came from some shit that i did right absolutely you know what i'm saying that shit that shit hard as fuck to do, bro. On that level all the time. Because all vibing is is lining up with God. To even say, think about the Bible and how many people who are actually in the presence of God. When we say we vibing, that's when we zoning out and you actually in the presence of the most high. So even if you did that one time, think about it. Like a pimp could have been the only time that I ever was close

to God. But I've done that six, seven, eight, nine, ten times. Yeah, yeah. That shit hard, bro. But it's got to feel good. It got to feel better than someone else producing it. You did everything yourself. I'd rather, I don't give a fuck

whether somebody else write it, produce it. That hip-hop shit, I'm telling you, bro, we get so into that. I used to be into that shit, bro, but the real truth is, bro, you got to get the record. Right. I'll cry in my Lamborghini later on,

you know what I'm saying, when I had that hit record. But, like, bro, you put yourself through so much emotionally, and you got to think our bodies, we don't, these are the conversations we don't dive into, bro. Our bodies are changing. Life is changing. You know, the time that we decide to do the album may not be the time that God want us to do it.

And so sometimes we force shit that's just not there. Y'all, when I'm happy and I'm healthy, I don't think there's too many motherfuckers on this planet that can fuck with me. But it's so hard to get in them spaces and them places. Who next? You got to be on that frequency. Analog or digital?

Analog. I'm glad you said that. EPMD or gangsta? Oh! Oh! Analog I'm glad you said that EPMD or Gangstar Oh Oh Oh That's so Nodded drinks Is what make you

Make people answer The shit That's smart Wait he was holding Back up No I just said I don't want to answer That

I'm moving on Now I got a drink Let me take a drink Hold on No no Wait Wait Alright Damn I'll move on. Now I got a drink. You can take a drink. Yep, let's go. Hold on. No, no, wait. Just wait. Wait. All right.

Damn. Yeah, a drink. Yeah, okay. That's smart. Rest in peace to Guru. Oh, shit. Pharrell or Timberland? Pharrell.

Well, let me say this. The Neptunes together. Okay. Let me be clear. Let me be clear. Let me be clear, bro. There is a soul that Chad brought that people don't talk about enough. I miss the Neptunes. Yeah, I agree.

I miss that you don't have to call era, that that that synthetic soul 60s soul that they used to do bro like I miss that shit bro like yeah I agree Pharrell and the Neptunes by far have influenced me a lot yeah

yeah that's dope me too Soulja Boy or Bow Wow Soulja Boy or Bow Wow? Soulja Boy. Soulja Boy, tell them. B.B. King or Bo Diddley? B.B. King.

You going fast now. Karis Winner or Rakim? Rakim. Okay. All right, hold on, but I got to say this. It's crazy, bro. I know KRS-One. It's fire.

He said he talked about being on a record, bro. It was the craziest shit in the world. It's fire. And they're still doing it at a high frequency. Getting good show money, yo. Getting good show money. Getting good show money. I was so proud of my OGs. I see a couple of their offers.

I was like, okay. They getting it, man. As they should. Bro, I was a fiend before I became a teen. I met no microphones instead of calls. I was music oriented. Someone who was hot when it originated. Fitted like pieces of puzzle.

Complicated. I grabbed the mic and tried to say yes, y'all. I tried to take it. They say that I'm too small. Cool. I never get upset. I kick a hole in the speaker, put a plug, deny, check. Bro. He the

reason why I wanted to rap, bro. I never heard no shit like that in my whole entire fucking life, bro. I got to experience something. Sorry to cut in real quick, but I got to experience something. Sorry to cut in real quick, but I got to experience something. We were in Mass Appeal office and Nas comes to me and he goes,

Eric, me and Rakim has a concert tonight. It's the first time they've been together in years. He's like, dude, do you think we're supposed to go? And I was like, are you leaving this shit up to me? Wait, wait, he asked you, should you guys go? He's like, should we go? And me and Nas went to, and this was the best, because this was like, for me, this was like the student

watching the master still at work. And then when Rakim starts going into these certain records that I didn't know, I looked at Nas, and Nas knew every word, word for word. You was there?, and Nas knew every word. Word for word. You was there? Yeah, he knew every word. And it made me say that. It was like the karate kid watching Mr. Miyagi.

That's that lineage right there as well. Yeah, like Mr. Miyagi. And I saw that. So I got to see that David Banner. First of all, Rakim and Eric B. be great getting together. No, no. That was amazing. But to see the other person that took over that lane

or that world. Took the baton. Yes, took the baton. And to see that he's still a fan. It was like so amazing to me. I love that shit so much. Can I say something, y'all? Throw some D's on that bitch

by Rich Boy. I think is my, most complete song. It used to be Luchini. Luchini for the Camp Low. Camp Low. It just made me feel a certain kind of way. But I don't think we give out flowers to places and people who don't have the light from other people. Bro, that song has stood the test of time.

You see Kendrick rapping over it right now. He's talking slick, dope shit, a dope-ass hook, polo on the beat, and that bitch feels so good. Feels now. Yeah, that's a beat that I wish. That's one I made. That was mine. And that remix that they did for that one.

Man. And Andre came out the sky with his flute. And came to spit on that motherfucker shit. That remix is crazy, man. So that leads me to the next one. Kendrick or Drake? Kendrick. You look like a Kendrick type of nigga.

Like, I ain't even going to lie. What does that mean, man? Like, I ain't going to lie. Like, if I had to guess what was on your playlist, I'd be like, you're Kendrick. But what I will say, though. Like, in a good way. That's a great one. But what I will say, though, what I will say, though, is that Drake won my respect.

Mm-hmm. Drake won my respect. You know, as far as music and putting hit records together, you got to give that boy his fucking, you got to give him his credit. Like, from being able to market itself and create at the level consistently as he did, bro, and I'm a rapper, rapper, and I was like, uh, uh, no, that shit dope. That motherfucker rap, he sing, he the complete package. You can't deny that.

It's just for me, what tips the scale for Kendrick to me is activism. And that's what tipped the scales for me with pop right like you can rap all that shit cool but kids dying bro like we can talk all this party shit that's cool but racism is real colonialism is real motherfuckers is hurting right you know and so for him to to put thought into his music and and for there to be something different and something deeper, bro. Purpose.

You see purpose in everything he did. I have to give it to him. And what's crazy is artists like him, as popular as he may be, the world really don't shed the light on him that he deserves. Think how big that song was, bro. You should see him everywhere on everything. The same way you heard it in the car. Marketing in America should reflect that, but it doesn't for a reason.

Even the tour, as successful as it is right now, you're not really hearing about the tour. Yeah, yeah. The Dominican version, the Dominican people were saying the wrong version. Of what? They was going, what was they saying?

No, no, let it go, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, That's how big that record is. I'm dead serious. The record is big. Cash money or no limit?

Drinking. Okay. Cheers. Shout out to KLC. That's what we got to do to South niggas. Shout out to KLC. You put two South people together. He's like Brooklyn in a different way. Yeah, he's like Brooklyn.

They cannot go against the South. I respect that. That's the cheat code, though. Rick Ross or T.I.? Come on, bro. Bro. Rubber band, man? I'm leading the witness, my bad.

T.I., in my music career, if there's anybody that I would say has always been a part of my life in some kind of way, it's been Tip.

Tip has been one of the few people in this music shit, every time I call him, he show up. Yeah, that's dope. I'll tell you something that I wouldn't have said on nobody else's show. The last records I produced, I think it was on Dime Trap, I didn't have said on nobody else's show. The last records I produced, I think it was on Dime Trap,

I didn't charge Tip. And I bought my motherfucking money. Them fucking Ferraris cost a lot of money. And I didn't want to charge him because I just wanted us to be in the studio with him. It used to not be about money.

Because the real truth is, if me and Tip or Tip and Toop get in the studio by ourselves with none of these motherfucking distractions can't nothing stop us, bro. That's like fucking Jay and Just Blaze

getting in there with none of the money shit on they mind. And I told Tip, bro, I didn't realize we hadn't been in the studio in 10 years. I was like, bro, let's just get back in, bro. Fuck that money shit. And there ain't too many people that I say that about. Like, I don't really care about what he think about me.

Like, he's always been an admirable man to me. He's always showed up for me. Whenever I needed it for Mississippi, when shit happened in Katrina, Tip got on the fucking radio and said, all you motherfuckers talking, y'all got money? Then get a hood some motherfucking money. Banner is trying to help his motherfucking people. Fuck y'all.

On the radio. Raised $30,000 and gave it to me. Just like that, Banner go, I know you're going to do the right shit with it. Like, Chip is one of the few people on this planet, bro, who he settled and cooled with the good and the bad in his life. You know who's like that, too? The ghost is like that. Styles? Styles P is like that. Styles? Styles P is like that.

Styles P is cool with every aspect of his life. Styles P called me one time, he's like, he's like, I'd rather be on this positive shit, but if the nigga shit come up, I'm cool. Styles is the most amazing.

Like me, he's all right, bro. Styles out of place with me that he don't even know. Styles is the most amazing Like me Like He's alright bro Like he Styles out of place with me That he don't even know Like Styles has done some shit For me bro That

Anyway But Tip bro I'll tell y'all a story About Tip He didn't know I was dating this girl That was on this movie That he was on He was That was on this movie that he was on

He was in Africa shooting a movie And she told me that he said Somebody in the room said my name And they said Tip just raised his head He said I just want y'all to know That's my homie Watch what the fuck the next thing come out your mouth and put his head back down.

And it's not the shit that people say when you around. It's the shit that they say when you don't know ears or any woman. Bro, for a motherfucker, and I'll tell you another story. Tip was in a room with a bunch of diplomats. He don't even know that I know this. And they

asked Tip, who you go to when it's something that you want to know about? Somebody in that room told me he said David Banner. Tip know Obama. Tip know some of the smartest people on the planet.

For him to even say my name in that room. I didn't know Killer Mike too. Yeah. Yeah. So for me, bro, like, I have so much admiration for what he stands for

and what he is. And I also want to say this. I should have said this before. That shit that happened with Tip in the media, black people didn't support him when he was going through some of the worst times

in the media. Then we found out the shit that was said about him that wasn't true. That dude lost Ant-Man. That dude lost his place in Marvel. And black people didn't even come back and reinstate. That dude lost millions, bro. I forgot that.

And we didn't hold him down. They took him out that fucking, you know how hard it is to get black folks in Marvel? I'm dead fucking serious, dog. Nah, that's real. And we didn't even reinstate. We didn't even come back and say, dog, we sorry. None of that shit, bro. And I looked at him and I told him that.

He said, Banner, I can't say that. So I said it. There it goes. We say it, God damn it. We got tipped back over it. Y'all's my homie too, man. He's always been a real one to me. I can't even think of a time

if I'm going to Atlanta without calling him. Hey, y'all, I'm going to tell y'all something about Tip, though. Tip, one of them motherfuckers, bro. He ain't got no problems, bro. I remember one time I see a Tip. Tip is at peace with wherever he is in life. And to me, that's a real man. A real man isn't the decisions that you make, it's do you bitch about it.

Right. When what you did comes to the light. And I've never seen my homie bitch about shit. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action. And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin.

And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves. This medal is for the men who went down that day. It's for the families of those who didn't make it. I'm J.R. Martinez. I'm a U.S. Army veteran myself. And I'm honored to tell you the

stories of these heroes on the new season of Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage from Pushkin Industries and iHeart Podcast. From Robert Blake, the first Black sailor to be awarded the medal, to Daniel Daly, one of only 19 people to have received the Medal of Honor twice. These are stories about people who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor, going above and beyond the call of duty. You'll hear about what they did, what it meant, and what their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network, hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck. This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian Dr. Randall Williams and bestselling author and meat eater founder, Stephen Ranella. I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here. And I'll say,

it seems like the Ice Age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes. But there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple.

Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes four, five, and six on June 4th. Ad free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. Razzcast or Exhibit? Razzcast. Razzcast, a lot of people don't know this, bro. Razzcast A lot of people don't know this bro Razzcast Me and Razzcast was roommates in New York

For a while That's my homie too During the penalty Used to be my roommate Me and Razzcast are really really fucking tight And what's crazy Is that people don't know Exhibit took Razzcast's place in Dre's unit.

People don't think, I'm a historian when it comes to hip hop. You remember when Razzcast left and came to New York? Who took his spot with Dre? Yeah, makes sense now. Xzibit. Wow. Yeah. And I saw all of that shit happen, bro.

Razzcast has some tapes, bro. When I was dusty and sleeping on the floor, bro, when I looked at the camera and I told, I said, bro, one day people are going to have to pay me my just due. Matter of fact, matter of fucking fact, wow. Razzcast was with us tonight. That the, what did I just tell y'all about? I've been drinking.

Who did I just tell y'all about? I've been drinking. Who did I just tell y'all about? No. The dude from the Fugees. No. John Forte. Yeah, he said that. Me and Razz was with him that night. Wow.

Razz is the homie, bro. And he's a legend, man. Super legend. Oh, bro. And people don't know how many historical L.A. groups that Raz had, RazCast had a hand in helping them get in their spot, man. Lyricists, bro. Huge part of that L.A. underground scene. One of the most intelligent. You know about his kids?

Yes. Yeah? Okay. Just making sure. Come on. Concontra's off the chain yeah yeah okay mob deep or mop damn it are we doing better mob db D. Oh, okay.

Biggie or Big Punt? Biggie. Young Thug or Future? Okay. Salud. Oof. Poor War or Lil Flip? Flip.

Good. For obvious reasons. For obvious reasons. Good. Paul Wall is one of the most genuine people on this planet. Paul Wall has seen me at one of the weakest times in my life, and he's never talked about it. I got into a really bad fight.

Paul Wall was there. Wow. I punched a, yeah. I fought from the lobby all the way up. They were going to call the police on him. My boys ripped the phone out of the dam. And I was so embarrassed. I didn't want Paul Wall to see me that way And Paul Wall never told nobody about that shit Nah, he a good dude

Yeah, Paul Wall see me at my worst Paul Wall, I apologize I hate you saw that part of David Banner He saw the old David Banner I feel like we was taking a shot for that too, I'm sorry You just made it sentimental And he picked Flip But then he said

Yeah he picked Flip Well I mean Flip changed my life though That's right Absolutely Like a pimp Like Yeah we're going to talk about that

For a lead too Yeah yeah yeah Hell yeah Okay alright Young No no no LA or Miami Okay yeah that one's you

I'm in Miami Right now Yeah yeah Well I'll take one No, no, no. We did that already. L.A. or Miami? Okay, yeah. That one's you. I'm in Miami right now. Yeah, yeah. I'll take one. But let me tell y'all this. Now, I'm in Miami, so that's the reason why I'm going to drink. But L.A., I do want to say something. L.A. changed my life.

A lot of times we pray to God, you know, for success and the things that we want. L.A. showed me the type of love that they don't show many black, young black men. I never told this story in my life. I was in a club in L.A. This dude walked up behind me, whispered in my ear, David Banner, we know you live here. We respect what you do for the people. And I never turned around.

Because I got this thing, if you lock eyes with motherfuckers, then it's something else. That happened to me one time. I was jogging past Taft Projects. I used to stay in Harlem. People didn't know I stayed in Harlem for six years. Right down the street from Taff Projects. Dude said the same thing. We know you in the hood, but you good.

I never looked back, kept jogging. But L.A. showed me, like, I didn't know the type of motherfuckers I was around in L.A. until I left L.A. And them dudes looked after me. Them dudes showed me a certain amount of grace and love that they don't show most black men. And I don't know whether it was because of what I stand for. I know that it has something to do with God. And that was the reason why I say sometimes God blesses you with protection instead of other things that you think you need and you want, bro.

Man, L.A. loved on me so fucking much. One of the biggest mistakes that I ever made in my career is I didn't know how much love I had in the Mexican community. As a matter of fact, we had this conversation today. I never wanted tattoos in my life, but Mr. Cartoon did all of my tattoos, and it was for a spiritual reason You know

And I didn't even know about the fonts I didn't even know what he had tattooed on my back You know what I'm saying It was with Gabi and all of them Gabi took me over there And um There's a certain amount of There's a certain amount of culture that's on my back

That's way bigger than what I knew I didn't even know The responsibility that he's on my back that's way bigger than what I knew. I didn't even know the responsibility that he put on my back. And so LA has a place in my heart, bro. The Bay Area has a place in my heart. When my career went down, you know, a lot of people like to think it was the South, but, you know, the Bay Area put me back on when stuff got, like, play got broke in the Bay. Right. Besides Jackson. They break a lot of records in the Bay. Big Vaughn broke that record.

Like, I'm just being honest with you. Right. You know, and so my love for the West Coast and what they did for me. And we got our independent hustle from them. You know what I'm saying? Motherfuckers talk all this weed. Everybody's smoking weed and all that kind of shit. But they made that shit popular.

And so for me, what I went through in L.A., my transformation is acting shit, bro. That shit was all in L.A. And I love L.A. and I appreciate L.A. I don is acting shit, bro. That shit was all in LA. And I love LA and I appreciate LA. I don't know if you remember, I checked you when you was in the studio in LA. I was visiting my family out there and then I hit you and you was like, yo, come through. I think it was in Studio City. And I went and checked you out and you had your whole setup and got the five out.

LA was good. You got to think I was a black man with a Bentley in LA with a hit song with Chris Brown. That was good. You got to think I was a black man with a Bentley in L.A. with a hit song with Chris Brown. That's fine. We're going to do this last and then we're going to jump back into the interview. I'm not going to lead the witness. Don't lead the witness. I'm not going to lead the witness.

Loyalty or respect? Respect. Respect by far um if if if I say loyalty then I leave it on you fuck that I rather motherfucker fear me motherfuckers need to be clear this kind David banner this at peace David banner I am much more dangerous than I was when I was popping shit. All that tough shit is fear. If you a killer, all you got to do is kill. You never ever

in your life have ever, ever seen a Kung Fu Master mad or out of control. All you got to do is break your fucking face. Like, bro, at the end of the day, dog, like, I be wanting to tell people, like, I always got my pistol on me. Always got my pistol on me. And sometimes I remember telling a dude this one time, dog, I love you more than you love yourself because you don't know how close you are to it.

Like, there's something awful about me, dog. I just happen to love people so much, bro, but I don't like, I don't like, like, I was telling my publicist this, I was telling Sydney this, like, they have

a problem because I pop off. They don't give a fuck. But I told her, I was like, the only time you ever have problems with me is when somebody's mistreating black people. Y'all ain't never seen me get mad about shit. But the liberation of black people, that's the only

fucking thing I get mad about. We knew the motherfuckers was fucking us up with Nori, because me and you talked about it. We let that shit slide. I let everything slide but when they mistreat weak people that's the only thing that makes me mad. Nigga, you got all

them fucking muscles and you want to pick on a little kid? You want to pick on a defenseless woman? You a pussy. That's the shit I don't like, bro. That's the only thing that drives me, bro. Like, I don't fuck with nobody, dog. I don't beg from nobody, I don't fuck with nobody, dog. I don't beg from nobody.

I don't borrow from nobody. That's the only thing that drives me and make me mad. Shouldn't nobody have nothing to say about David Banner. Because I have never, ever in my life tried to intentionally fuck over nobody. You know, if I fucked your mom, I'm sorry. I didn't know that was your mom. That went sideways. No, it wasn't. I didn't know that was your mom. That went sideways. No. It wasn't right.

It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was. It was.

It was. It was. It was. It was. I'm sorry. I didn't fuck another people's mom. I did.

So let me ask. So after Penalty, the Crooked Letters, you went to your solo career and then it was with Steve Rifkin, correct?

SRC. SRC? Was it SRC or was it Loud? No, it was SRC. It was SRC. SRC. So that's after the Steve Rifkin, correct? SRC. Was it SRC or was it LOW? No, it was SRC. SRC. So that's after the LOW regiment, correct? I was the one Yeah, he was the one. I popped off SRC. I remember I met him right at that moment right there.

So let us describe to us, people who wasn't around, that transition from Penalty Records, which was a super independent who had distribution through Tommy Boy, which was a super independent who had distribution through Tommy Boy, but it was still independent. And they were penny-pinching. And now you got one of the hottest labels.

This guy popped off Wu-Tang Clan, Bob D. But he's in a transition, too. SRC was an experiment to an extent. That was the big budget, though, right? If you remember, bro, Tommy Boy, at that time, had just about everybody that ended up popping you remember wasn't

Nauti by Nature that was Rakim that was before he was at Tommy Boy but think about that Cardan was over there Nelly was over there with Cardan Nelly was supposed to be on Penalty

but they had Nauti by Nature they had Queen Latifah over there with Nelly and Nelly was over there with Cardan. Nelly was supposed to be on Pendleton City. They had a big set of hair. But they had Nobody By Nature. They had Queen Latifah. They had... Bro, it was a lot of them. Lil Jon was over at Tommy Boy. Oh, I didn't know Because you remember

the Lyrical Giants which had a lot of... I thought Lil Jon was at TVT. TVT. You're talking about before TVT? Before TVT, yeah.

Lil Jon was producing the Lyrical Giants. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I misunderstood what you said. It was a lot going on over there at the time, yeah, yeah, yeah. I misunderstood what you said. It was a lot going on over there at the time, bro. And that's what I'm saying, bro. We were around a lot of fucking dope shit at the time.

Right, right. And that's the reason, man. No bullshit, bro. I have love, respect, and admiration that I have for you, bro. Hold on, because I want to get to this SRC thing. My bad, my bad. I apologize, because this is about you. Because now, this is a label,

Loud was the hottest label, but he started his own independent SRC, I believe that stands for Steve Rifkin Company. Yeah, which is what he had before, I think, Loud, actually. Where do you stand with this? How does this deal come about? All right. You want to know a story, story? actually where where are you where you stand with this how does this how does this deal come about um all right you want no story story yeah i'm in all right so so i i wouldn't know this for my own so so this is the craziest shit right um i had and for people who are in the music industry they understand this i had 800 spins on the radio

with like a pimp. And most of the people on Universal didn't have 800 spins. And I was sleeping in the van. I was literally homeless. I built a studio in my own van. Like I went to Walmart and got a converter. And literally, since people didn't want to go with me, if you listen to Mississippi, the album, the interludes, you can hear the wind. Because literally, I had a mic, literally a mic, in between my legs, steering wheel here, and I was driving. You was driving and spitting on the mic?

Nah. Yeah, I was. Fuck out of here. Ask the DJs from the moon. Ask the DJs how the dude dropped. Dude, no bullshit. That's why I tell these kids, ain't no fucking... I built a studio in my fucking van, bro.

Go back and listen to the motherfucker. You ain't hear it. So, motherfuckers couldn't understand how this dusty motherfucker in Mississippi got all of these spins, right? The reason why I went with Steve Rifkin was because that white boy got some gumption. Bro, I went out to LA. Everybody was coming at me, bro.

And Steve Rifkin said, bro, I'm not letting you out this door. I never saw no white boy that like he literally got in front of the door and said, you're not going home till we finish talking. And I was like, motherfucker,

if you don't get out the motherfucking door, you're going to have a problem. And Steve has always been hard-nosed. Like, if some shit popped off, Steve going. Right. And whether he whooping the motherfucker ass or he getting whooped, Steve is fucking going. Steve is one of the white boys that you fight, and you can whoop the shit out of him,

and he's still going to scratch your fucking leg. Like, motherfucker, fuck you. And Steve had always been that way. And what's funny about Steve, Steve never knew the respect and the admiration that I had for him. I did a freestyle one time, and I said, if Steve Rifkin's stiff a nigga, then I'm back on the block. He thought I was dissing him.

And I was just saying, if Steve Rifkin decide he don't want to fuck with me, then I got to go back to the shit I used to do. And he thought I was dissing him. I'm like, no, dog. You changed my life. I changed your life. The only problem that i have with these companies

is that bro i i i was the one that fueled your company i know that it don't say it in the contracts but that's not worth anything right bro you were the LL for, for his death jam. Yeah, you just sold your company. Like, bro, send me another Ferrari, homie. Like, that's how I do.

Like, no bullshit. I did, I just finished, um, well, two years ago, I finished,

uh, really big fundraiser for this really big company. And, um, bro, I made so much money. I doubled their profits right and they

were not expecting and they gave me a big bonus i had like 120 people on my staff i gave like 50 60 people a bonus out of my money because i made so much fucking money for doing a good job and i remember my little homie that i pulled out the streets I gave him a nice little check And he was like, Banner, I ain't even do nothing I was like, well, bro, you were here when shit was bad I'm giving you back pay But when you did shit and it wasn't successful He was like, damn, ain't nobody ever did that before

Like, I don't know if that's in they spirit to do But that's all I ever wanted from Steve Like, bro, like, we did some shit that didn't nobody do, and we came from the bottom, homie, like, just, you know, we didn't have Wu-Tang's success, but without the David Banner, you would've

never got to the A-Count. Nah, you guys ushered a whole new movement. Yeah, yeah, you know, but the thing is, bro, is Steve means the world to me steve came to mississippi and he steve got in the trenches steve did some shit that a lot of motherfuckers that look just like me wouldn't do all right like if if if there was a if there was a white boy in the industry that i would fuck with to this day would be Steve Rifkin you know

what I'm saying and I think to give credit to other people in that in that era too shout out to TJ and TJ's DJs that was very instrumental in that era of helping break a lot of artists man from out here um hold on I want to give a shout shout out to somebody um I never knew this. And Ozone as well. I never knew this. Dante Ross actually was the person that brought me to Steve's attention.

And Dante Ross was hot. And I was like, bro, I never knew that you told a ho. I didn't know. And so I like to shout him out because I heard he was the one that, you know, and he didn't get anything from the situation. Right, you might never know these connections. But that didn't have nothing to do with me, but I heard that years later. So shout out to Dante Ross.

I thank you, bro. And eventually you went to Atlantic Records, correct? No, I just produced Thug Holiday and Rubber Band Man and all that. I never went. No, it was Steve Rifkin. So I'll tell you a secret. Let's go. That people don't know.

I was independent 15 years before people ever knew I was independent. And one of the reasons why I do have respect for Steve is I went to Steve one day and told Steve, like, bro, I want to be you. I can't be you signing you. And he said, are you sure sure David Banner I said yeah he let me go back the next day and so what I did was was I when I remember one time I had four

videos on MTV um a lot of people didn't notice but I I hired my own um radio promoters I hired my own video promoters. And I just never told people that I was independent. I just kept putting Universal on the sheet. And I kept getting for like 10 years, bro. I was getting all of this

all these fucking accolades and nobody ever knew. I was independent 15 years before people ever knew. That's genius. And Universal wasn't tripping because they were getting the props for David Bowie. So they were signing all the artists because they were like,

well, yeah. And so I kept putting that on the call sheet and people kept going. That's funny. That's funny. Man, I asked you this earlier. If you had to pick one profession from the beginning, acting, producing, or being an artist, from what you know now, if you could start from the beginning, with all the information that you know now, and God says you can only pick one, what would you pick?

Let's take a drink, because God didn't say that. Yeah, that was a great fucking answer. Let me tell y'all this. It used to be a curse to me that I could do so much stuff, because think about this. Be honest. When I was close to being one of the top Southern rappers, right, I'd go and produce. When I started moving to that Timberland and Pharrell level, I was getting close to Lil Jon level, then I would go off and do activism. Then I would go off and do speaking. Then the pandemic happened.

And you got to think what rappers went through. I didn't have to go through that because I could go speak. I could go do movies. So I never really had to be into what other rappers had to be into because I was getting money from so many different places.

But the problem was I never became respected as a genius On any level because every time I would get close to the top I would shift To something else right So now It I just talked to Adweek This week in Miami and that was one of the things

That I talked about is like When it comes to corporations And when I do the things that I do Because a lot of people don't even know this, bro, I produced the second biggest Gatorade commercial in history ever, bro. And it was funny, this really happened in real life. Jimmy Smith, who was working at Chiat Day at the time,

the heads of PepsiCo was in the room. He walked in and said, this little motherfucker know what he doing. Y'all leave him alone and let him do what he do best. He know what he doing. David Banner, let's go. All these big billionaire motherfuckers. We walked right outside the room.

The motherfucker looked at me and said, you better know what you doing. And I never have produced a commercial in my fucking life. And it ended up, my first commercial was the second biggest commercial ever in history, bro. So what I tell you, though, is that, bro, like, instead of saying which one would I pick, I think that would be spitting in God's face. Be thankful to God that I can do it at such a high level.

One thing that people don't know is when I shot Family Business New Orleans and I was shooting Family Business New Orleans and Fight Night at the same exact time, bro. I was shooting two major TV shows at the same time. Coming out of my depression, bro.

People don't talk about that shit. Some motherfuckers can't do well with one show. I was shooting two shows, bro. Working on Jill Scott's album. You know what I'm saying? Fucking speaking at the same time. Doing tacos and tequila tour.

Bro, that shit ain't human. And that's the one thing that I want to tell people, bro, when they look at us, dog. Y'all are fucking fathers, bro. Y'all running this shit. You still trying to run your own business. Fucking juicy, bro. I saw the other one. No, I saw the other one. Let me do that. I got you, dawg. I got you. I got you. And bro, like, even though I do it, bro, it ain't fair. I try to tell my staff that, bro. Like, bro, I'm in the middle of, we did run champs. We did drink champs. I got the F1 shit going on.

I had to speak at, what was the shit I spoke at? At Adweek. And then the audition came in. I got to learn all these fucking lines, find a place to do my audition. Bro, that shit's not human And although I do it People didn't understand bro For 10 years straight

I did activism At the highest level bro I produced at the highest level I acted at a high level Not at the highest level But I'm getting better I rapped at the highest level bro And still stayed a good human being But let me ask you I'm getting better. I rapped at the highest level, bro,

and still stayed a good human being. But let me ask you, that was something deep that you said right there. You still audition? Oh, yeah. So what does that mean for a person? You have the role, but you have to prove that you can hold the role? Oh, you're trying out for the role.

Yeah. Maybe they're offering you the role. No, bro. If I audition, it's for some bigger shit. Okay. You know what I'm saying? It's for some shit that's worth auditioning. And then the other thing is also for me is a lot of times we get beside ourselves. and I had to learn that in advertising like as big as I may have been at the time

that ain't shit to a multi-billion dollar company right like bro I gotta get in there and I gotta I gotta show up and show out one of the things that made my company so big and people didn't know how I was able to sustain so much money is because I would turn my shit in two weeks early. No artist has ever done that. Nobody has ever done that. And it's because I knew, bro, I'm going to show y'all this. Cameras, get close to this. When I was doing Mercedes Benz, I was also working on a movie. I decided to ride my bike to the studio. Shout out to Hector. And it was 20 miles. I rode 19 miles, flipped and broke my arm in half. But I was producing a commercial for Mercedes Benz.

A Mexican dude, bro. It was funny. He was like, damn, Holmes, you fucked up. And he took my backpack off my back and he MacGyver a splint and he made my backpack into a splint and put my fucking and it was funny I broke my arm so bad that it was actually short it broke in half it was so funny because I had a Jewish doctor and he cursed when I walked in he saw my arm. He was like, what the fuck? They had never seen, he said he only seen one break that bad

in his life. It was a girl who was in a Jeep and the Jeep flipped over. This is in LA? This is in LA. And I ended up staying and finishing

the commercial and having surgery the next day. And people was like, why? I was like, because they don't want to see black people

make this kind of money. I knew that although I had broke my arm, if I didn't turn that commercial in in time, they would find a way to say that I was lazy or that I didn't do my work. You know how they do us. And everybody asked me, like, why did you do that? I said,

because I made enough money that I could have bought a RoboCop arm. Fuck that. You know? Did I answer your question? That was fire. Okay. I'll take a pee-pee. I got a piss, too. And, you know, I know you've been to see Dave

Chappelle. Yeah. Was it Ohio? Yeah, Ohio, yep. And it was something that I learned, right? So we were trying to, like, go there and just hold ourselves down. You know, we didn't want nothing from Dave. We just wanted to get the there and just hold ourselves down you know we didn't want nothing from Dave we just wanted to get the interview and kind of like leave and as we landed we couldn't do nothing without Dave Chappelle permission like yeah we couldn't check

into a hotel we couldn't get car service it was all like no no Dave Chappelle already got you he was like we want to buy our own it was like there own. Let me tell y'all something. So me and Dave are cool. I told you, me and Corey. Yeah, Corey Blackstone. And so the thing about Dave that he got to understand, bro, I have money. I had a lot of money,

but I don't have that kind of money. So I had to tell Dave, because you get around Dave Chappelle and time slows down. Like, I'm dead serious, bro. I have to tell Dave because you get around Dave Chappelle and time slows down. Like, I'm dead serious, bro. Like, I have to leave because you look up, bro. It'll be 10 in the morning and then it'll be 4 p.m. two days later, bro. So I remember, bro, I was with Dave and I was about to leave. I was like, so I tried to sneak out.

And Dave Chappelle said, oh, Dave, why are you leaving, David? And I was like, fuck, Dave Chappelle. And ended up staying another two days, bro. It's almost like a void of happiness, dog. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding. But the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action.

And that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek. I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Businessweek editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick.

Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is that they're doing. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves. This medal is for the men who went down that day. It's for the families of those who didn't make it. I'm J.R. Martinez. I'm a U.S. Army veteran myself, and I'm honored to tell you the stories of these heroes on the new season of Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage from Pushkin Industries and iHeart Podcast.

From Robert Blake, the first black sailor to be awarded the medal, to Daniel Daly, one of only 19 people to have received the Medal of Honor twice. These are stories about people who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor going above and beyond the call of duty. You'll hear about what they did, what it meant, and what their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network, hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck. This podcast looks at a West available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian Dr. Randall Williams and best-selling author and meat-eater founder Stephen Rinella. I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here. And I'll say it seems like the Ice Age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th,

where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what happened when a multibillion-dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission.

This is Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated. I get right back there there and it's bad. It's really, really, really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute season one, Taser Incorporated on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes one, two, and three on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Ad-free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. And you know what's crazy about that?

I love the fact that he locked down that little town and it's just his. Like, he's the mayor that—he don't have to say he's the mayor. He's just the mayor. You know what I mean? Remember he had the burger people there? Yeah, yeah, yeah. When we finished, he's like, they got the DJ. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So are we back on now? Yeah, we've been on. We ain't stopped. We ain't stopped. We don't stop. This is organic. So I want to take this time to say something about two people that's really important to me. Number one, the comedian Ryan Davis.

Bro, he's fucking amazing, dude. And Ryan Davis introduced me to Ali Sadiq. And me and Ali Sadiq, we have this unspoken competition of helping each other and supporting each other. Ali Sadiq is Muslim. And I met him, bro. And the dude actually, man, to a certain degree, changed the way that I looked at hip-hop and entertainment. And, bro, it shook me.

How so? So Ryan took me to his show, and it was really funny. I ain't going to tell y'all that story yet. It was funny, but I told him, I was like, bro, we as black men have to do better with keeping up with each other. We always say we got each other.

We got each other, but motherfuckers don't never show up. When you call people for the album, they say they got you and then you call them, they won't pick up the fucking phone. And so I told Ali, I was like, bro, i'm gonna fly to houston because he's from houston i was like bro i want to sit down and talk to you and and we got to start congregating with each other and um ali sadiq said let me be clear with you about something david he said i'm muslim he said so when you give me your word, that means life and death to me.

Like y'all say, word is bond. Like I'm not playing with that shit. He's like, so if you say that you want to kick it with me, bro, be prepared. I wasn't used to a motherfucker. I'm used to checking motherfuckers. My motherfucker's like checking me. And I was like, well, shit, motherfucker. I'm dead serious about the shit I do.

And so, bro, we stayed in contact. And he told me something, y'all, that changed my life. He said, them other motherfuckers, they don't really fuck with us. Those of us who have honor and that are really about the shit that we say, them motherfuckers don't really want us around.

They waiting for us to fall off and we ain't going nowhere. And so what he taught me is that we got to create our own communities nor you saw how powerful it was this morning when we was running and i'm taking a shot you got me hype man i'm just being honest whatever shots you got left just got me hype just now no no i'm serious no no no keep going you got me so ali ali ali told me he was like better fuck them niggas bro he like, those of us that's real,

if it ain't but five or ten of us, then I'm cool with that. And so I'm done with trying to hang out with these niggas. I'm tired of conforming to these weak motherfuckers who don't care about the culture and don't care about the people. If you pussy hang with the pussies, dog. That's it.

Drink chance. Goddamn. Shout out to Ali Sadiq, Ryan Davis. Let's go. Now, this is pretty much... If there's anything you would take back this whole time

you've been in the industry, if there's one thing you would take back to make better, what would it be? I would treat myself better. I'm my biggest enemy. I'm my biggest critic. You know, people love me. People honor

me. People respect me. I don't honor and respect myself. How did you mistreat yourself though? Too hard on myself. I didn't give myself grace. You know, my mentor told me this, Dave Moody. He said, he said, David, bro, you, you didn't have any mentors. You didn't have nobody to show you the right way. You were from Mississippi. He's like, you got it how you live. And he's like, bro, that's admirable. He said, you do better when you experience better, when you know better.

And so like, bro, I love myself. I treat myself better. I was telling somebody on another show, I date myself. I take myself out. You know what I'm saying? I told you I did this seven miles while I was here because I was on a beautiful beach around beautiful women. You run a little bit further with a sexy motherfucker in a bikini.

Yo, you know what? You get that extra setting, yo. We need some nice cakes. You know what I'm saying? But no, man, I just wish I would have treated myself better. I wish I would have known that I was worthy. I'll tell y'all this quick story. I interviewed Manny Fresh.

And Manny Fresh told me that when I used to come to the studio back in the day, like him and Jazzy Faye used to always talk about how dope I was as a producer. And it hurt me a little bit because I was like, bro, imagine if Jazzy Faye would have told me that back then. They didn't tell you that? Jazzy Faye means so much to me, bro. He was one of the people but he told me, he's like, bro, similar to my father, he said, I had to make you earn it because you have to be a man, bro.

That was the reason why we didn't tell you. But if Jazzy Faye and Manny Fresh would have told me back then, I would have told all these motherfuckers, y'all kiss my ass, pay me, bitch. But, bro, it came in a hard way. And I'm grateful for it. And I'm grateful that I'm still here.

And I'm grateful that I'm healthy. Bro, this African lady told me, and I don't know whether people really feel this. She's like, you know what we think about you, David? And I was like, what? She's like, you're one of the people that didn't sell your soul and we respect and honor you. So at the end of the day, bro,

honor is something that you still can't buy. And I'm grateful that I stand for something and I hope that's what I bring to hip hop. It's some honor and some love

and some respect. But a bitch gonna pay me. Do you believe in Illuminati? Do I believe in Illuminati? Do I believe in Illuminati? It don't matter. I don't benefit from it. Bro, what I tell you is that I believe that white people have always had secret societies, always. But America is part of a secret society.

You know, all that shit is what it is. What I do believe is that we need to create our Illuminati and move in a way... Illuminati? Huh? Illuminati? Black Illuminati? Nah, we call it our own shit. Nah, man, it is. But if you look, pardon me for cutting you off, but if you look right now,

I don't want to be mysterious, but look, you got Eli Muntz hanging out with Trump, Trump hanging out with Jeff Bezos, Jeff Bezos. If that's not what the fuck we've been told what Illuminati is, is that, am I bugging or am I not? It wouldn't be because they in the open, so it wouldn't be that. But they always fucked with each other. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They in the open. Illuminati, we not seeing whatever the fuck that really is. Mark Zuckerberg. But let me tell you what's amazing is the difference between them. Dana White. The difference between them is that those are all low-tier motherfuckers. Yeah. Like, bro, like, now that I'm moving in business,

the motherfuckers who are really powerful, you would never know who they are. You know what I'm saying? And I'll tell you, my ex-girlfriend was one of the youngest, most successful women in Atlanta. No. in Atlanta. In Atlanta, she owned a construction company. She told me something and taught me something so dope, it's going to fuck everybody's head up. Watch this.

Have y'all ever wondered whose name is on the top of all these buildings when we look up at these buildings? You don't know them motherfuckers, but they own a a whole fucking building they ain't out popping on the internet they ain't like look bro i was out um i went to this restaurant on this the secret island dog and uh the restaurant was the only fucking we you had the only way you can get to the island is on these boats right and as i'm going to this island i'm seeing all these big-ass fucking houses. Like, who are the motherfuckers that own those islands? It was thousands of opulent fucking houses. But the real motherfuckers that's running this country, that's running us, bro, that's running our food, dog, like, you'll never know who the motherfuckers are.

So the fact that we even talk about it that shit don't mean nothing what we need to do is grow our own food buy our own and consume our own and be self-sufficient bro and empower our homies and and the difference is is it's not empower the homies that's just around empower the homies that really got some real fucking talent, not just the motherfuckers that hang around. And, bro, to a certain degree, I watch how y'all move, and I'm proud of y'all of that. Bro, me and you just didn't run by ourselves. It was eight motherfuckers that was out there that was around you,

and that was powerful. That was king shit, bro. Your whole movement. Motherfuckers may not see it, bro, but you always move with 20, 30 motherfuckers that'll die for you, homie. That's the same thing that the white boys did. They just put themselves on another level. And we got to dream for bigger shit.

Y'all, we got to stop just dreaming the smaller dream. We got to dream a dream that's so fucking big. I'm serious. When I tell y'all what I'm about to do, I have to stay quiet because if I continue on this path, the motherfuckers are going to murk me in a second, dog. I got to just shut the fuck up. And they murk you. That's one thing that I learned. Just shut the fuck up until it's too late.

Right. But, bro, I'm telling you, when I do what I'm about to do, dog, we all can retire. They can kiss all our ass, dog. I'm serious, bro. We're going to buy some land and we moving. I'm up. I'm done. My. We're going to buy some land and we moving. I'm up. I'm done. My bad.

No, it's all good. As a person, and just so you know, we look up to when you speak. We look up to, like, for me, I want people like you and Killer Mike, run for the mayors of these cities, even if it's California, whatever. I really think that we can actually do that. Like, when they say, like, the local vote, is that something that you ever would think about? No, man, no money in politics. No, we get this money, we get this money and we buy politicians. Politicians are prostitutes.

So you buy the fucking That's how the mob has been doing it Yeah, you buy the fucking politicians And you make them bitches do what they supposed to do And if you don't do what you paid to do You get your bitch ass beat Period Alright

Bro, if we really want to be powerful If you really love me You wouldn't want to see me be a politician That's a waste of my fucking time Ain't no money in it I don't know No, I'm just saying Not you per per se.

But the real power is in me getting real money, and then we playing chess on a board with other motherfuckers who want to do that kind of shit. Me being the mayor, I can't make no money. I can't be shooting no movies. I can't be in tech. That's who's financing those politicians.

I like New York City's mayor. He's outside. He's single. He going to all Spanish parties. He's going to financing those conversations. I like New York City's mayor. He's outside. He's single. He going to all Spanish parties. He's going to all Spanish parties. He's out here living a reggaeton life. He's black. You know what I'm saying? I ain't going to lie.

I like you, Eric Adams. I like that. I like... That shit is fly to me. Like, and... And let me just say something. He's wilding out. Me?

I'm wilding out? No, no. He's wilding out. No, he's wild. He's outside. He did drink chess, bro. He got a big break right now. He's wilding out. Me? I'm wilding out? No, no. He's wilding out. No, he's wild. He's outside. He did drink chess, bro. He got a big break right now. He did drink chess.

We had to. He asked us to be on. That was a wild shit. Eric Adams is the man, bro. I'm being honest. I'm sorry. But I'm saying to myself, why can't we have that everywhere, right? I know I'm relating to this to the most

simplest thing but let me just break down something for you one time I'm traveling you know the 50 states and what I realized everywhere I went there was a Roughrider Club there was a motorcycle club everywhere I went. Shout out to Y and D. Shout out to D and Y, motherfuckers. That's right. And I'm like, okay, right now, I said I'm labeling it to the simplest thing right there. Right now, I can have a run club everywhere I go.

Right? Absolutely. But why I can't have, when I go to Atlanta, Killer Mike is actually the motherfucking mayor and T.I.'s the governor. I know this sounds crazy, but it's not sounds crazy to me. It doesn't sound crazy to me because they can actually get the votes. But watch this.

You remember me and you had that conversation? I was trying to get you to go for Mississippi. We actually wrote it down. It was like, OK, we could talk to E-40. You do remember that. We had talked about every fucking place. You don't even know me. We actually wrote it down. It was like, okay, we could talk to E-40. Yeah, E-40. You do remember that. We had talked about every fucking place. You remember everything. Go ahead.

You got me hyped. You get me hyped, man. No, because it meant a lot to me. And, bro, it was so fucking smart. But the only way that I would do it and it would be worth my time is if it was a movement. Yes. And not just me. Because I'm going to tell y'all something.

And I'm going to say I wasn't going to say this, bro, but this shit pissed me off. Some niggas that I thought was really my friend, bro, they would have come and get me when it was time, revolutionary time, and they would put me out there.

Let Banner talk, let Banner talk, and then I get fucking shot up and my career fucking fall and them motherfuckers go get their motherfucking deals with Disney and shit and keep it moving. And they ain't really give a fuck about me, bro.

So if it's not a movement, then what they really want, and this is part of our problem, is that we have a Jesus complex. I don't think that the story of Jesus was about a man coming and bearing a cross for you. I think the story of Jesus was about a man coming down and being a man and showing you how to carry your own cross. Ain't nobody going to fucking save us. Ain't nobody coming out the sky. Ain't nobody but you going to save your fucking community. If it ain't us, bro, that shit done. What we need to do is find an articulate, bright kid.

We all see him in our hoods, right or wrong. Put some money behind that motherfucker, raise him and be like, look, we're going to take care of you. But what we need you to do is this and this, this and this for our community. And then you can do whatever the fuck you want to do, bro. We got to be more strategic, bro. Like, like, like,

for instance, and you've been doing this all day. You said, I'm going to give you an example. So I'm going to give you an example. So I'm going to give you an example. Dave Chappelle, we can start with Dave Chappelle. We don't want Dave Chappelle to change. We don't want Dave Chappelle. But you run this Ohio, run for the whole fucking governor. And you don't think Dave Chappelle would win in Ohio?

But why should he even do that and put himself in that position? What I'm trying to say is hip-hop takes over everything. Let's imagine if we really, you said like a movement. This is what you said. This is the reason why I'm going to say is hip-hop takes over everything. Let's imagine if we really, you said like a movement. This is what you said. This is the reason why I'm going to stick to this. If we got together and really said, yo, listen, we're going to have Raekwon one for Dallas. He's going to be

Dallas and whoever is from Dallas. Slim Thug, J Prince, you know, what's my man name? what's my man name? What's my man name? Trader Truth. Trader Truth.

And we got y'all running, and we're really getting behind this. Now we got Houston. We got Dallas. We got Atlanta. We got New York. We got that shit is like that. But watch this. Okay. Let me put a twist to it.

Yes. We are the only people that put... But watch this. Okay. Let me put a twist to it. Yes. We are the only people that put our generals on the front line. Like, no, you don't put your generals on the front line. Why you going to put Dave Chappelle? Dave Chappelle is our money. Right. Dave Chappelle is our bank. What we do is we take...

Donna Rowlands? Okay. Okay. That's who you choose. Yeah, that's who you choose. But what I'm saying is instead of you taking Dave Chappelle, you let Dave Chappelle be the brain trust that he is and the financier that he is. And get behind a real policy. And we find a young motherfucker.

So that's like, instead of, let's say like, I'm not just saying this, but let's just say if Crick was interested in it, okay? Then why not me take my money, influence me move on this level put my money into somebody like that or okay one of the problems that we have in the black and brown community is that we want to be entertained if it's about politics then find somebody that's good at politics right now this president is an entertainer. This president is an entertainer. And look how fucked up America is. So you're proving my point. So watch this. It's a reality show.

So watch this. So watch this. If we have been socially engineered in America to be in the positions that we're in, why would we go hire a rapper? Go find a fucking engineer. That's why we never have sustainable movements because we want pretty, entertaining Malcolm X said it. I don't want rappers on fucking CNN speaking for me. Go rap, nigga.

I want someone who can articulate real solid fucking plans. I am one of the smartest motherfuckers in hip hop, period. I don't give a fuck what nobody say, but I don't even think I'm worthy to speak on behalf of the plight of black people bro i don't i do it because i know a lot of these other motherfuckers

don't give a fuck but the reason why we don't get forward is because we don't have real sustainable plans one of the things that pissed me off so bad that we did and one of the mistakes that we made, is when Ice Cube stepped up and literally created a plan for politics. And he said, I'm going to talk to Trump. Motherfuckers got mad. We always

say we playing chess, not checkers, and you're not going to let the man play chess? You talk to everybody what people don't know is some of our greatest leaders in the world sit down at the table and talk to the clan if you don't want me in america and you're gonna put up two million dollars for me to get the fuck out and i don't want to be here then why can't we sit at the table and talk? We talk to them white motherfuckers as rappers who we knew were accountants,

who we knew that was lawyers and didn't give a fuck about the hood. And we sat down and found a medium and that's how we created record companies. Why we can't sit down from a political standpoint and really have sustainable plans? Motherfuckers want to be emotional.

They don't really want a movement. I honestly think that most people are scared of freedom, real freedom, like they are scared of death. Actually, y'all, death may be better. Hold on, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on. You don't know what the fuck death is because you ain't died yet. You just don't want to take the chance

to see what's on the other side. But death might be better. You don't know what the fuck death is because you ain't died yet. You just don't want to take the chance to see what's on the other side. But death might be better. You don't know. A lot of times the big economic forces we hear about on the news show up in our lives in small ways. Three or four days a week, I would buy two cups of banana pudding, but the price has gone up, so now I only buy one. The demand curve in action, and that's just one of the things we'll be covering on Everybody's Business from Bloomberg Businessweek.

I'm Max Chavkin. And I'm Stacey Vanek-Smith. Every Friday, we will be diving into the biggest stories in business, taking a look at what's going on, why it matters, and how it shows up in our everyday lives. But guests like Business Week editor Brad Stone, sports reporter Randall Williams, and consumer spending expert Amanda Mull will take you inside the boardrooms, the backrooms, even the signal chats that make our economy tick. Hey, I want to learn about VeChain. I want to buy some blockchain or whatever it is. So listen to Everybody's Business on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States.

Recipients have done the improbable, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves. This medal is for the men who went down that day. It's for the families of those who didn't make it. I'm J.R. Martinez. I'm a U.S. Army veteran myself. And I'm honored to tell you the stories of these heroes on the new season of Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage from Pushkin Industries and iHeart Podcast. From Robert Blake, the first black sailor to be awarded the medal,

to Daniel Daly, one of only 19 people to have received the Medal of Honor twice. These are stories about people who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor, going above and beyond the call of duty. You'll hear about what they did, what it meant, and what their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The American West with Dan Flores is the latest show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network. Hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought show from the Meat Eater Podcast Network, hosted by me, writer and historian Dan Flores, and brought to you by Velvet Buck. This podcast looks at a West

available nowhere else. Each episode, I'll be diving into some of the lesser known histories of the West. I'll then be joined in conversation by guests such as Western historian Dr. Randall Williams and bestselling author and Meat-eater founder Stephen Ranella. I'll correct my kids now and then where they'll say when cave people were here. And I'll say, it seems like the Ice Age people that were here didn't have a real affinity for caves. So join me starting Tuesday, May 6th, where we'll delve into stories of the West and come to understand how it helps inform the ways in which we experience the region today. Listen to The American West with Dan Flores

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I know a lot of cops, and they get asked all the time, have you ever had to shoot your gun? Sometimes the answer is yes, but there's a company dedicated to a future where the answer will always be no. Across the country, cops called this taser the revolution. But not everyone was convinced it was that simple. Cops believed everything that taser told them. From Lava for Good and the team that brought you Bone Valley comes a story about what

happened when a multi-billion dollar company dedicated itself to one visionary mission. This is Absolute Season 1. Taser Incorporated. I get right back there and it's bad. It's really, really,

really bad. Listen to new episodes of Absolute Season 1, Taser Incorporated, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Binge episodes 1, 2, and 3 on May 21st and episodes 4, 5, and 6 on June 4th. Add free at Lava for Good Plus on Apple Podcasts. That is the reason why I created a banner vision. That's the reason why I'm going to do science-based movies and sci-fi. Because they constantly are preparing us for a future without us. So what I'm telling you is, is that if we really want to talk politics, most black people don't even know what they really want. When you talk to any other subsection in this country,

they can tell you exactly what they're fighting for. If you ask 10 of our people, what do you really want out of politics? They don't know. And until we start paying, politics is a pay game. Until we start paying and then knowing what the fuck we want, without vision, what do our people do? They perish. My opinion. Fire.

Hold on, I got to take my prayers. You ain't got class. I know who I am, Lord. Yes. Moving forward. Uh-huh. Do you think that hip-hop still needs a union? No.

I'll let that sit there for a minute, just ratings. Because we already gave hip-hop away. I told y'all a long time ago that streaming was the dumbest shit that we ever did in history. Dog, we finally started getting pennies. And then you're going to let these motherfuckers give us fractions? Watch this. It's going to fuck your head up. You remember when the white folks went to war

about movies and them streaming movies oh yeah they boycotted that's right watch this didn't they just do the same fucking thing to music and none of us said shit fucking Prince

T.I. David Barron Snoop I told you how stupid that was and y'all calling me crazy shit. Fucking Prince, T.I., David Barron, Snoop. I told you how stupid that was and y'all calling me crazy. We gave hip-hop away. So what you bitching for now? And then they do it to movies. The only reason why they didn't let it happen to movies

is because they still making money off movies. They haven't sucked that totally dry yet. We had just found out how to create our first mom and pop stores, how to burn our own CDs, even though we was bootlegging. We had just learned, bro, I

had just started getting $9 an album, dog. Understood BDS. Bro, I didn't need but one more fucking album and that would have been a fucking multi-millionaire on music, dog. And I produced myself. And we let them motherfuckers.

Bro, we gave it to tech motherfuckers who don't even care about music. Who ain't even cool, dog. Shout out to all my tech motherfuckers who give me a lot of money. Y'all smart, but you ain't cool. Bro, we gave fucking hip-hop away. So don't bitch about it now. Ain't no need

for a union now. We gave it away. Under the guise of independence. Everybody thinks they're independent right now using these tech companies. No, niggas want to be cool. That's our problem. I want to be paid, dog. I want to be free, dog. I don't care if you think I'm a geek.

Niggas said I was crazy, dog. I told them that was the wrong thing to do. The God Box failed because I wouldn't stream my fucking album, dog. It's some stories I can't tell y'all about. When people from distribution companies call me and say, Banner, I need you to help me fight on this streaming shit. And then they got cut into the equation and then they didn't call me no more. You know who you are i'm not gonna put you on front street you still the homie but i remember that shit they cut the right people in they cut the right artists in and they sold y'all out y'all motherfuckers want to be cool and and and make

tiktok pictures and shit and you broke motherfucker reason why your motherfucker always asked me put out an hour put out out for what i'm grown nigga nigga ain't making no fuck i ain't because i'm gonna make quality music i ain't spending a hundred thousand fucking five hundred thousand like i did on the last god box album and y'all niggas giving y'all money motherfucking money to these fucking tech companies that's stupid and until we as men we gangster about dumb shit but you ain't gangster about your fucking money, about your life, about your culture, I don't play about hip-hop, that's why I don't do it no more, because I care about this shit too much, niggas don't give a fuck about shit, bro, I gave my whole life to this shit, and this shit was a lie, dog, y'all gave this shit up to them white folks in them tech companies, now you

butt-ass hurt, and you wonder why artists who don't give a fuck make so much motherfucking money because you didn't stand when it was time to stand we let streaming we we wanted to be cool and stream and look cool and all that kind of shit and the niggas look i asked the motherfucker if you were selling dope on the corner you was getting ten dollars bad and the motherfucker said hey come and use my dope and let me give you 0.2 percent of a penny would you do that shit fuck no you'd be like nigga i kill you so why you didn't do that for your music just because they give one or two dark-skinned black people that y'all happen to like a few

dollars y'all sell y'all soul to like a few dollars, y'all will sell y'all soul for that shit. That's just some ho shit. And I also think the same thing socially. Just because when other cultures of people decide that they want to hang black people that we love and respect, we let that shit happen. If you look at a lot of lynching pictures, because I study history, if you look at when black people lynching pictures, because I study history, if you look at when black people used to get lynched back in the day, you used to see black people standing around doing nothing. All y'all talk about how much you love Jesus. Y'all let them put him on the cross. He told you he was the son of God and you said you believed him, and you let them crucify him, and you stood by? You a bitch.

They took our music for us, and we stood back, and all y'all niggas said y'all gangsters, you hoes. And I believe that with all my life, and that ain't the alcohol. Man, I love this shit, dog. But I be out here by myself, and y'all let me be by myself, and then you wonder why I don't give a fuck now I don't I'm not emotional about this shit

I'm emotional about the motherfuckers that have A certain level of culture And honor Dude every time I call you you pick up the phone Every time I call you you call me back And you don't pick up the phone Nah I just mess with you Nah but you pick up the phone bro No, I just mess with you. I just mess with you.

No, but you pick up the phone, bro, and it means the world to me, bro. I love music. I love our culture, but it never really loved me. And so now I'm about to get this bread. Well, I got it, but, you know. Get more of it. Yeah, a lot more. Y'all clap, man.

Come on, brother. Take a Yeah. A lot more. Y'all clap, man. Come on, brother. Take a picture. Take a picture. Go down, boy. Make some noise. That was so hard. Let's take a picture. Hold on. Let me let him end it.

Is there anything else you want to say to your people, your folks? I want to give a shout out to black women. This reemergence that I've had in my career has been because of black women. Y'all, I've had play. I've lost weight and done all that kind of stuff. But the love and admiration that's been given to me as of lately, y'all, has been amazing. And I want people to know how serious I am about where I am. Family business, New Orleans.

Make sure that y'all watch that. That means a lot to me. I heard some statistics that, you know, that I was one of the fan favorites. And they didn't write it to be that way. You know what I'm saying? And it is that way. What network is this on? It's on BET and it's on Amazon. It's been in

the top 10 of Amazon since it's been on there. Start that up. You know, fight night, bro. Like, I just want to say this to y'all, man. Like, and it's because of my relationship with you too that I can be this honest.

Dog, bro, every night that I went to work, I was across from Taraji, P. Henson, fucking Terrence Howard, fucking Samuel L. Jackson, Kevin Hart, dog. And we from the hood, bro. But hold on. This is the part I want to say. Nobody ever prepared me for that shit. But this shit ain't easy. And I can't say this shit ain't scary, dog. And I have to do this shit by myself. I just got to the point where I'm cool enough to call Samuel L. Jackson when I don't understand something. But I went my whole career, bro, not understanding this shit.

This shit lonely, bro. That's why when you asked me the question, it was so hard for me to answer. You know, is it easier being a solo artist or being in a group but most of the shit I've done I had to do alone bro I just had a um anxiety attack on set for the first time in my life and I ain't had nobody to fucking call bro but this is a million this is the first time I had ever been on network TV. And, bro, somebody that I thought was my friend, somebody that I thought that was going to have my back, threw me up under the fucking bus, homie. And, like, I'm used to coming from the hood. I'm used to beating a motherfucker when they do that kind of shit.

But we know, like you taught me, Norrie. I never finished the story. Norrie was the one that teach me. Better go in there and turn over a table, but don't hit the white dude. That's what he taught me about you at Levine. When you tell me that, Lord? No, he said, turn over a fucking table. Throw the fucking chair through the window, but don't hit the white dude.

Y'all, but listen. That's amazing. But y'all, listen to me. I knew back then. This is important, though, y'all. Like, y'all, like, bro, this shit lonely. And it's scary, bro, this shit lonely. And it's scary, bro. Ain't nobody where I'm from ever done what I did. You know, Pimp C was one of the only people that I could call and talk to who really came from a

small country place that had the type of success that I had, bro. Most people were from big fucking places, dog. Like I said before, I can't hide behind that Yankee hat. It's just me. And so, bro, imagine the shit that I go through, bro, the shit that I do. And I got to do this shit by myself. That's the reason why my conviction and my love for God is so different. But I ain't hiding under no religion, bro. So when y'all get behind me,

when y'all allow me the opportunities to speak, it means the world to me, and I'll never, ever, ever take advantage of that, bro. At least I hope I don't. And Drink Champs, I appreciate that I was here from the beginning, me and Dad. That's right, from the beginning. I heard you talk about this shit.

You better not ever sow this shit, dog. I'm sorry. This is the only time in my life that I ever get mad shit, dog. No, I never, never, never. This is the only time in my life that I ever get mad at y'all. No, no, no, no. We have never let that footage come out, right, E?

No. No, and that was my bad. Yeah. Why, you moved the chair? I had moved the chair by accident because we were going to take a picture and then he decided

to sit down. I forgot that part. That was my bad. I forgot it was your part, boy. Y'all on the first drink, champs, y'all. Yeah. I got some motherfucking hammered up. Yeah. That was my bad. I forgot it was your part, boy. Y'all were on the first drink, champs, y'all. Yeah. I got some motherfucking hammered up.

Yeah. You wasn't drunk. That wasn't the reason why that happened. I was drunk. I just had to tell y'all. No, but that wasn't the reason why you fell. It was because I moved the chair because we were going to take a picture, and you decided to sit down.

I was hammered, though. I just had to tell y'all. The sitting down part was the drunk part. What I figured out was it wasn't the fact that we were drinking, but, bro, we switch up. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. We like now. We like now. We like now.

We were a little bit more hardcore. And remember, can I say this? Tiger bone. And I hit the blood that night, remember? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, off camera, remember? Oh, no, no. You was going in.

You was going in. Because I trust y'all, and I love y'all, man. But let me just tell you, man. On the real, I can say this wholeheartedly. I haven't seen a lot of people career from the beginning to, and there's no ending, right? So we ain't saying the ending, but from the beginning. And for me to see the transition from all your accolades, right? Because one thing for sure, two things for certain.

Accolades can make a person big in the head or whatever, whatever. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about you're relentless. I'm talking about, like, there's been times I know this game is tough. Tough is an understatement. This game is, yeah, I don't even know the words. And I know you was resilient. You pushed through all this shit you smiled

when you had to smile you know what i mean and you and you did this shit you didn't let the game beat you up a lot of us let us beat us up in public so even if the game be when you said to when you said just now i got chills you was like hip-hop let me down and I was... Because it's so much, but I feel like at times, me, I've said it in public. I've never really seen you like give hip-hop a left jab back. I've never really seen you talk down to hip-hop because you you know, we all love common and common-related hip-hop to a woman, right? So, I've never seen

you argue with this woman, hip-hop. You know why? It's because that's not what men do. Bro, if you do some fuck shit, I'll pull you to the side. Me and you go out in the grass if we have to. But in front of people, bro,

we shouldn't do each other like that. That's one thing that I hate about our culture. Bro, we... Can I just say it like I want to say it? Please, please. We act like hoes, dog. Like, bro, men don't supposed to gossip. Like, that's what I said. I don't give a

fuck about who Shannon Sharp is fucking. That's ho shit, dog. That's whole shit. Seriously, though, I want to say this in closing. I am proud of who hip-hop has allowed me to be. I'm one of the few people who grew up and hip-hop allowed me to still flourish. Y'all, I'm at the precipice of only doing superhero movies. You know, the reason why, and Nori, you don't even know this, bro.

Like, you got me back into running again. I run three miles every fucking day of my life because I was training for Run Champ. Because I wanted to make sure when I got on there that people didn't see me struggle. Because if other rappers see you struggle, you know how we all into our image and how we look. A motherfucker won't come on

because they'll be scared. That's why, and I think this is bullshit, why the main fucking stars don't want to get in the dunk contest. Because they're scared of being embarrassed. Man, fuck that.

Y'all get in there and dunk that bitch. You know what I'm saying? So I got in that bitch and I ran. Yes, you that. Y'all get in there and dunk that bitch. You know what I'm saying? So I got in that bitch and I ran. Yes, you did. And you had fun. And you had fun. And I ain't gonna lie, man. Hold on. Wait, wait, y'all, before y'all clap. I can't do it today. I'm not

quite ready. I don't know if it's gonna be here or not, but I am going to do a press release on my new abs and I'm going to release it to the world. I almost pulled my shirt off today so y'all could get the props. One of my dreams, bro.

Sonny was hoping that you were going to do it today. The press release. Hold on. This really happened in real life. Let me tell y'all, bro. I actually called LL Cool J to actually, bro, because I really wanted to talk to him on how to do this shit the right way. I was in an interview, bro, with a very established woman's magazine. And I'm talking to this lady, bro, the same way that we talking now, bro.

And I just looked at her. And she said, oh, you looked at me. She folded over in the middle of the motherfucking interview. I said, this sex symbol shit works. But what I'm saying, though, is that... Hold on, listen. This is important to me. I want to be our children's superhero, not just in movies, but in real life.

That's fine. You know, I remember our uncles, bro, the ones that was the carpenters and shit, bro, with them big-ass hands, 80 years old. You know the motherfuckers that's on top of the motherfucking houses? I honestly want to make our culture proud of me, bro. And I want to do it the right way. I want to be one of the few black men that get these billions of dollars and don't turn his nose up at the culture. You can ask my publicist.

Thank you, bro. My publicist right now. I told her, did I not say this? Say it loud so they can hear you, Sydney. Didn't I tell you that I wanted to go back to my people before I blow up? Yes. I said, I want to go back to black culture.

I know what I'm about to do. It's already done. The shit that I'm about to do is already done. I know where I'm about to go. I said, let's go back to Black media first, because most Black people want to leave, and they want to be over there with them other folks and wonder why they get strung up, wonder why they lose their careers, and wonder why they sacrifice. I said, let's go back and pick our people up. And instead of me getting popular and separating myself from Black people, let me take black people with me. My name is David Banner.

I'm honored to be on Drink Champs. I love y'all. I appreciate y'all. And hold on before you take your headphones off. I want to say, y'all, I was on a raw vegan diet. Yes. I promised myself that I was going to be, I'm going to get off blood pressure pills this month. I'm tired of that shit. I've been on that shit since I was 27.

I was walking around with my blood pressure over 200 on the top. I'm talking about people, I used to go to the doctor and the doctor used to not want to let me out because my blood pressure was so high. I said I'm going to be off of those pills. So I went raw vegan and my fucking blood pressure went down 40

points on the top. And this is the first time in my life that my blood pressure was actually low so i got to keep it low for another three weeks and then i can start getting off these pills just because of y'all um i came on here and drank i wasn't eating meat but i said that um i ate last night because i didn't want to be weak when I got on Run Champs. Eat some chicken? Yeah. Okay.

So I broke my fast because of y'all. Okay. And I'm going to get back on it the day after tomorrow. I'm going to stay on it an extra day. I love y'all. I appreciate y'all. Let's take a picture. I was going to.

Drink Champs is a Drink Champs LLC production, hosts and executive producers, NORE and DJ EFN. Listen to Drink Champs on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Drink Champs, hosted by yours truly DJ EFN and NORE. Please make sure to follow us on all our socials. It's at Drink Champs across all platforms, at TheRealNoriega on IG, at Noriega on Twitter. Mine is at Who's Crazy on IG, at DJ EFN on Twitter.

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