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Podcast Summary: Earn Your Leisure - Episode with David Banner
Episode Overview
In this episode of the Earn Your Leisure Podcast, hosts Rashad Bilal and Troy Millings sit down with the legendary David Banner for an in-depth conversation that touches on his journey through the music industry, his activism, and his views on race, culture, and the music business. Banner shares personal stories of hardship, success, and the lessons he's learned along the way.
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Key Themes and Discussions
- David Banner's Background
- Humble Beginnings: Banner discusses his origins in Mississippi and reflects on the challenges he faced, including being homeless and building a studio in his van.
- Musical Journey: He transitioned from being a producer and rapper to an activist and entrepreneur. His entry into the rap game was marked by hits like "Like a Pimp".
- Activism and Financial Loss
- Financial Sacrifices for Activism: David reveals that he has lost over $12 million due to his commitment to activism, emphasizing the high cost of staying true to one's principles.
- Racial Responsibility: He explores the idea of race and cultural responsibility, drawing parallels between the music industry and historical systems of oppression.
- Music Industry Insights
- Comparison to Slavery: Banner controversially claims that the music industry mirrors the plantation system, with artists often being exploited.
- Integration vs. Segregation: He shares controversial views on integration, suggesting it may have been more harmful than beneficial for Black communities and businesses.
- Personal Growth and Mental Health
- Battling Depression: David opens up about his struggles with mental health and depression, crediting his progress to self-awareness and therapy.
- The Nature of Faith: He reflects on his spiritual journey and how challenges have strengthened his faith.
- Business Acumen and Teamwork
- Building a Team: Emphasizes the importance of having a strong support system and an extraordinary team in business.
- Learning from Experience: Banner shares how he has navigated the complexities of contracts and business negotiations, stressing the need for self-education.
- The Role of Music in Society
- Power of Music: Music is discussed as a potential tool for both good and evil—capable of inspiring revolution or perpetuating negative stereotypes.
- Cultural Impact: He argues that music should reflect societal struggles and aspirations, rather than be used as a weapon against marginalized communities.
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Key Takeaways
- Visionary Leadership: Being a visionary often comes with isolation but is crucial for creating change.
- Earn Your Leisure: Success requires hard work and active participation in one's financial and personal development.
- Community and Collaboration: Collaborating with others and supporting Black-owned businesses is vital for progress.
- Mental Health Awareness: Recognizing and addressing mental health issues is essential for personal growth and well-being.
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Conclusion
This episode of Earn Your Leisure with David Banner provides profound insights into the intersections of music, activism, and personal development. His candid sharing of experiences highlights not only the challenges of navigating the music industry but also the importance of maintaining integrity and purpose in one’s pursuits. The discussion encourages listeners to reflect on their own paths and the broader implications of their choices in the cultural landscape.
For more information and resources, listeners can visit the [Invest Fest](https://investfest.com) website and explore sponsorship opportunities with [PNC Bank](https://www.pnc.com) and [Square](https://square.com/go/eyl).
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*This summary captures the essence of the podcast episode, making complex discussions accessible for readers interested in the intersections of finance, culture, and personal growth.*
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human. Run a business and not thinking about podcasting? Think again. More Americans listen to podcasts than ad-supported streaming music from Spotify and Pandora. And as the number one podcaster, iHeart's twice as large as the next two combined. Learn how podcasting can help your business. Call 844-844-iHeart. Hey, it's Joel. And Matt. From HowToMoney. If your New Year's resolution is to finally get your finances in shape, we've got your back. Prices, they're still high. And the economy is all over the place. But 2026 is the year for you to get intentional and make real progress.
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2:56It's not just about payments. It's about giving you time back so you can focus on what matters most. Ready to see how Square can transform your business? Visit square.com backslash go backslash E-Y-L to learn more. That's square.com backslash go backslash E-Y-L. Don't wait. Don't hesitate. Let Square handle the back end so you can keep pushing your vision forward. All right, guys, welcome back. Yeah. EYL, this is going to be a special episode, man. Friend of ours, David Banner. Yeah, long overdue, man. Yeah. Before we even start, man, I want to tell you, you guys are inspired. I am by you all and how proud I am of you all and your business acumen, not just as thought leaders, but just as black people in a financial space.
3:43Man, I'm so proud of you all to be able to mobilize people the way that you all did, the way that you market, how you all put it together and just being all around just trailblazers in that space, man. Because that was a space that was needed to be able to see a deficit and to be able to cover that, man. Like, I'm very, very proud of y 'all. Thank you. Appreciate that, man. Thank you. Appreciate that, man. That means a lot. Received. It means a lot. And every time we see you, it's always been good energy. Yeah. So, you know, definitely the feeling is mutual. Yeah. Feeling is mutual. So, David, somebody that, when most people heard of you, it was through music, right?
4:22But I've seen you transition in multiple different genres. So from a producer to a rapper to an actor to an activist on a certain level to an entrepreneur to a variety of different things that you do. You're a renaissance man of sorts. So I want to start at the beginning. Mississippi, right? At that time, to my knowledge, there wasn't a major artist, rap artist that came out of Mississippi. Is that correct? No, it was some major artists. There was a group called Wildlife Society. I forgot the name of the record label. The record label almost popped really big. They had, I'm trying to think of the rapper.
5:06I know y 'all know his name. um but they were uh they were signed to you know how penalty back when i was on penalty when nori was on penalty it was one of those labels one of those subsidiary labels that was really really close to popping like penalty did but there was a group called a wildlife society that was on uh i keep forgetting the name of the group that hammer had but hammer mc hammer had mc hammer had had a group that was out of um mississippi and they had a very very big singer there was a the female rapper out of that group her name was treasure she actually ended up going solo and she saw some success too so it's been you know some groups that have been out i think with me it was just that i came at the right time you know src was just starting after steve rifkin um you know was coming off of his loud success and i think it was just time spirit look you know me being prepared and ready for the moment.
6:06And it just all came together, bro. And it was history. Like a pimp. That's the song. Yes. Where you on a little flip. Yes. That's the first time I saw it was like a pimp. And you had like a very big entry into the rap game, right? So my question is coming from Mississippi where there wasn't a lot of traction, let's just say that, right? It's not like Atlanta or New York or L.A. but we always hear about like the southern hustle as far as like the stories of people selling music out of their trunks of their cds stuff like cds out the out the trunk of their car was that something that you you did from a grassroots level yes so i'm going to tell you you all something just because you are who you are to me um so what happened was that nobody ever talks about is that we as independent artists because we don't talk to each other as black men that's something that I like about our relationship bro I've called you before when there was something that I didn't understand and was like bro can you tell me what this means bro how do I do this or I'm going into the tech industry what would you suggest that I do we've had that conversation both in person and on the phone right um but we don't do that as artists bro like what was happening was if you calculate the amount of money that independent artists were making especially in Texas and in the bay like they were kicking the shit can I say shit okay um yes okay they was kicking the shit out of major labels bro you got to think about like the South Park Mexicans bro you got to think bro I think Slim Thug yeah Slim Thug little flip I think did 80 thousand or 120 ,000 or something like that bro think about what e40 and too short and master p and all of them people now put all of them people together bro and think about the millions and then that you got to think that's when you know you was getting 10 10 a record bro you know what i'm saying and so what they ended up doing bro is soaking up all of the independent artists bro and signing them the deals in a lot of cases this is just my opinion with not even the hopes of them being successful to move us out of the way of their major artists bro and one of the only reasons why I didn't fail is because I produced my own music I marketed my own music I had enough good people around me to tell me like you know and a lot of artists thought I was crazy because you know Universal was still taking out of my budget to, you know, get record promoters and radio promoters and video promoters.
8:53But I still out of my own money that I made. I had my own radio promoter. I had my own video promoter because I just knew and I went to the president of Universal one time and he told me he was like, Banner, like, I know you a smart guy and you're going to figure this out. And he really gave me the game. So the thing was, it was like, man, why are you double spending your money? because I know them folks are not going to do me right. At least they're not going to do me like I do myself. But you were treating yourself like an independent artist, even though you were on the label. And every record that I didn't work myself failed.
9:25So what would usually happen is that if you even, I don't know if people know this, but like I came into Universal with 800 spins on radio while I was sleeping in my van. I was homeless. You know, I don't know if y 'all knew the story about my red van. Like I built the studio in my van. Like an RV? Yeah. No, no, no. It was just a regular work van. And I went in, got a, what do you call those, the things that you put into the lighter, you put it into a lighter, and then you plug whatever into. Transition? Yeah. It's like an extension cord, in a sense, but it's like you're using the power from the light to get out.
10:05And so I literally, if you go back and listen to Mississippi, the album that had like a pimp on it, If you listen to the interludes, you can hear the people passing in the van. And one of the things that also made me popular is like if a DJ wanted to drop, I tell them to come to my van. You know, I could even do verses in my van. That's why I tell these kids, there's never no excuse. Like people in the South know this story and I was sleeping in that van, you know? So you, you was homeless. Yes. So how'd you link up with Lil Flip? Because he was already lit at that time. Yeah, well, what happened was is that what people don't know is that I produced Thug Holiday for Trick Daddy.
10:43So I never wanted to be a producer, but I come to find out a lot of people don't know that people, the person who I would never call him my stepfather. But the people who the person who people know as my father is actually not my biological father. He raised me from from when I was three. and come to find out that my biological father played 13 instruments. With the exception of, you know, playing in a band or whatever in school, I've never been classically trained. And, like, bro, I've co-produced Quincy Jones before. Maroon 5, you know, Chris Brown, Justin Bieber. Like, you know, I'm executive, co-executive producing Jill Scott's album right now.
11:26So like, bro, like I did it all, man. You know, and that's one thing that I want to tell people that I'm learning about being a businessman. And if y 'all don't listen to nothing else I say, man, it's like you have to have an extraordinary team. And regardless of whether you all tried to do it or not, one of the things that is very special about you all is that y 'all did it as a group. Y 'all did it as a family. And that's the power of America is family. And that's the reason why they want us in these boxes on these computers. And that's the reason why I really think COVID happened is that we won't congregate with each other.
12:07True information is not just verbal. It's also a vibe. It's also getting together. It's sometimes it's envy. Sometimes it's competition. That's just being in the room, competing with each other. Speaking of me and Lil Flip, bro, people used to think that me and Lil Flip was beefing because we were so competitive against each other. I remember Jim Jones was in the studio with us one time when we was doing a song that's called, it's called Talk to Me Now. It's funny. This white movie just licensed the song and I can't wait to hear, see an all white movie with a song that aggressive. of, if the boys want war talk to me now, if the boys want war talk, lay it down motherfucker, lay it down, you bitch.
12:51And I was like, see, the white boys with that record on, bro. But what happened with me and Lil Flip was that I was already a popping producer like in the hood. Like all over, I mean probably from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Florida. And so Lil Flip just told me him being the businessman that he is He was like, bro, you give me two beats, I give you a verse. And so I didn't even like the like a pimp beat. I'm being honest with you. It just had pimp C. I had sample pimp C on the hook. And so I was like, well, I know like Lil' Flipper like it because it got C on it. I just get Lil' Flipper verse and then I go back and make the beat again.
13:35I was popping so much and moving so much because this is something that I think that will help you guys with this show that people don't know about. I ran a three-state distribution company out of the back of my van. I may have been the first artist to ever put a store up online. People don't know that. Your website, you were selling stuff. Yeah, one of my friends worked at Xerox. Wow. So he was in the tech before the average person was in the tech, so he set up a store for me, right? And so anywhere within a three, I'll say a three-state radius, is if it was enough, I would actually take the CDs myself, especially if I was driving to go do beats or go to shorts.
14:19You was hand delivering them? Yes. Hand delivering them? Yeah, if it was enough. If not, then I would just send it in the mail. The original Amazon Prime. Exactly. You know what I'm saying? That's another one we're not thinking about. You know, I just saw something online that said I may have been the first person to do NFTs. i don't know about quite know about that one but i know that i was probably if not the first one one of the first people to do crowdfunding okay let's break this down yeah okay nfts how'd you what was your involvement with that well what i don't see the thing is is that when you are the first you don't really know what you don't realize and the thing was is that i wasn't doing it to make stuff easier for other people i was doing it because like in my company to this day ask any of my staff When they come to me and ask me, is it good enough?
15:12Ask my staff, what is the first thing I tell them? I always tell them, is it good enough for Apple? Apple was always the company from their inception. That was the company that I always competed against because that shit was so clean. It was so easy. How did they get their phone down to just one button? Even think about the packaging. How do you have? Everything. Like if you look at my guy, I'm like, boxes that act that soul and some people said it was one of the greatest marketing they said was a marketing scheme I said it wasn't market a marketing scheme because I meant what I was doing it wasn't a scheme it was a box of consciousness I took all the things that helped me to become conscious and I put it in a box and what I did is I said I wanted to cater to every sense that a human being has so the the slickness of the box women always tell me how good I smell didn't you smell me baby when I walked in the room I know you did it was quite elegant I see the way that you're looking at me and oh no you wasn't locked in but but no women would always talk about how good I smell so I would spray my cologne in the boxes literally so when they open up the box male or female when they when they smelled it when they touched it like all whether we know it or not we represent culture and I knew especially during that time in music anytime you thought of black independent people would always try to make it feel like it was um low quality so i always wanted to represent us at a level where at a zenith level where people will always be proud of me that's the reason why i'm enough of a man to come on here today and say the way that you all represent culture it it transcends just business and music like you all are doing something that inspire people all over the world i'm in meetings all the time and y 'all name come up Appreciate that.
17:07I mean, it says a lot and you use the word transcend and transition in a certain step. Excuse me. Hold on one second. Can you go back to this camera right here? Damn, I look good. I saw myself. I saw myself on that screen. Somebody called people. Okay, go ahead. As we were saying. The transition from being independent artists, assigned artists. what is it like when you're trying to, I guess, infiltrate or enter a new space in terms of business? How are people viewing you when you walk into the space? Is it like, hey, this guy's an artist. He doesn't know much. You said that the head of Universal realize that you were a smart guy.
17:49But how are the other people in other forms of business looking at you? Were they looking like this is an artist who may not know or we're not taking them serious because he doesn't come from this background? So I'll say this. I want to answer this question in a very specific way because I'm pretty decent with my hands. I own several firearms and I go to tactical gun training monthly. I can be a little bit more vulnerable than the average artist. And I think it's very important for us to be honest. It's really, really scary. It's scary because a lot of these spaces, unlike you guys, if anything, y 'all can fail together.
18:38If anything, if something go down, it's more than just one of y 'all. And most of these spaces, I'm usually the only one. And even more than that, and I found this out in higher education as I moved up higher and higher in education. I became not only the only black male, but in a lot of cases, the only black person in a lot of these spaces. You all know this because we bumped into each other in tech spaces. That's lonely, especially not only when you're trying to navigate yourself through it, but you're trying to learn it at the same time. So I'm trying to continue to make hit records when none of us know the real equation to hit records.
19:17I'm trying to stay current, but then I got to learn accounting. I got to, you know, I'm going overseas, navigating myself in spaces that I've never been before. then you know what they don't talk about is the music industry gets younger and younger while the people who own the music industry get older and older and wiser and wiser. So Master P may come up with a stellar contract that breaks down the walls or Michael Jordan in the case of shoes may come up with a deal that's never been seen before but then white folks are not going to let that happen again. You're gonna have to find another way to do it.
19:55And every time we break through, the contracts get tighter and tighter, but we're getting younger and younger and younger. And your music business is becoming more disposable and more disposable. So to answer your question directly, in a lot of these spaces, bro, I don't even have anybody to go to. And acting, man, like I'm acting across from some of the greatest actors on this planet. And I just got Samuel, I just got to the point where I can call Samuel L. Jackson. And although, yeah, I'm tough from a street perspective, but I'm dealing in things and in rooms that I've never, ever experienced before.
20:38And like you say, I am, I'm representing us whether I want to or not. But I'm just glad that my parents instilled something in me. And hip hop, from the standpoint of when I was growing up, was intelligent. So I always learned to study. I'll give you all an example. I actually, my first Gatorade contract, I actually wrote the contract myself. And I wrote the contract because I went to LegalZoom. That's when LegalZoom first came out. And I downloaded every contract that had something to do with marketing that had to do anything with commercials and music. And I study. Watch what I did. Most lawyers charge you by what?
21:26The hour. Right. Have you ever noticed in most cases? You only really spend 30 minutes, but they always charge you by the way. Well, so every time I would read something in legal zoom that I wouldn't that I didn't understand When my lawyer got his ass up. No sit your ass back down. I got 30 more minutes. I got these list of questions So after about 20 times of doing this with my lawyer, I got this shit And he got to the point where other rappers would call me and say hey, bro read over my contract I could pick out what was wrong I didn't know how to rewrite the contract, but I could pick out what was wrong But it was because I had the internal fortitude to study and learn on my own.
22:09I hope that answers. So you got your four hours worth. Oh, shit, shit. Did they ever get mad at you for like, yo, bro. Yeah. Consultation is over. Well, no, I will tell you that come to find out that particular lawyer that I'm talking about ended up being a thief. But he told me to my face. He told me two things that were very powerful. Number one, when he read over the Gatorade contract, he said, I corrected a few grammatical errors in a few terms. He said, but for the most part, I can't charge you. He said, you did that. He really looked at me and was like, bro, you did that. And what he did say about me that I thought was honorable, he said, David Banner, unlike most people, you handle business the same way you are in real life.
23:03Like one of the hardest things for me is to negotiate with producers because I'm a producer. I say this all the time. Most black people don't want to free the slaves. They want the opportunity to hold a whip. How am I going to fuck over a young producer when I am a producer? That ain't God like to me. You feel me? So he was like, you are the same man in a contract that you are on the streets. And that's all I could ever ask in business or in life or in the spiritual realm, period. That's integrity right there. You brought up the word loneliness when we were talking about what it's like navigating through these spaces.
23:41What we don't talk about is the mental toll that it takes when you're facing that by yourself, right? Like we're going through something. Obviously we have each other. We have family around us. How are you navigating from a mental side? Because you're deep into consciousness. How was that for you navigating as you're trying to be strategic of where your next move is going to be? Oh, man. It's hard for me to say because. Words are so powerful. I want to say something, but when you say it. You manifest it. You manifest it. So it's sort of hard for me understanding that, you know, I navigated better.
24:25That's what I say. I didn't always navigate it well, because in a lot of cases we're the first people to do what we've done. Imagine how I felt in Mississippi going from being homeless. I literally went from being homeless to them announcing David Banner has a $10 million deal and the poorest state and arguably the poorest city in America. Jackson? Yeah. Yeah. So for me to say that, you know for people to say that and for me to have to navigate you know not understanding taxes bro it's hard to explain to people just because you're intelligent that doesn't mean that you know everything you're intelligent in what you're great at I didn't know nothing about taxes and yes I went to school in business but name one place that they talk about taxes in business school I went through the whole fucking curriculum.
25:19They don't teach you that, bro. And it's a game. So not only, and bro, I'm glad that y 'all asked me this question because I've never been able to say this before and I feel comfortable enough to talk about it here. And it also gives y 'all something exclusive that I never said before. But like, bro, I'm still a black man from the streets. I still gotta deal with street shit. So not only do I have to deal, excuse me, Jordan, I'm gonna break. I'm gonna break it for a second. Not only do I got to deal with crackers, which is ignorant. I got to deal with niggas, too So I got to deal with racism. I got to deal with street shit.
25:58I got to deal with accountants I got to deal with lawyers and then a lot of times the lawyers are in cahoots with With the accountants bro, and then your family and And in the hood, you know, everybody feels ownership. That's not even fair. And none of them bought a CD. That's the crazy thing. Or listen to your music. This is the text they don't talk about. Bro, and it's then, and then watch this. Then you're blessed to accrue new information because now we're traveled. So bro, I'm in New York and I'm in college and I'm all these different places getting knowledge itself. I learned about Buddhism and I'm from Mississippi, a Christian, Christian, Christian.
26:46And they tell you what you're going to hell forever, ever, ever. So imagine having to navigate through all of those spaces, nine times out of 10 alone. I remember the women that I used to date. They used to always tell me this besides one young lady, I was with two young ladies, There's one young lady from St. Louis, from U City, and it was one lady, one young lady from here. She was from Hollis, Queens. Those were the only two ladies that I ever dealt with that pushed my activism, the activism side of me. Most women would say, you got all this money, what you worried about that for? I've always, like, it's funny.
27:30I was telling I was talking to my publicist team yesterday. We had a slight little tiff. And I asked them, I was like, what's the only time that I act a donkey? Tell me the only time I ever get upset is about the liberation of black people. You never had no problems with me about nothing. So if people are treating my people right, you never got to worry about me. So then think about that, too. being an activist in Mississippi. Imagine hearing brand newbie and it's the dot X. I stopped eating pork in 11th grade in Mississippi. They go with my mom and dad. They thought about me. Oh, you ain't gonna eat this pork chop.
28:10You ain't gonna eat Jack. But watch this though. I'm gonna tell y 'all how much my mom and dad loved me. Once they found out that I was serious about not eating pork, my whole family stopped eating pork. I didn't notice that till I was a grown man. Turkey bacon. Mama cooked breakfast with no hope. Yeah, that was a moment. Even for us, like I stopped too. Yeah. That's crazy. So what made you stop, Ian Porter? I was listening to my brother, he was listening to Brand Newbian. Obviously I'm listening to it because he's listening to it. And I was like, all right, if he's gonna stop, then I'm gonna stop.
28:43Like this is like, I'm like eight, nine years old. Let me tell y 'all what's amazing about hip hop, man. Imagine this, bro. I was actually able to tell Sadat X. that's because like a lot of times people still look at me as david banner a lot of people that i look up to actually look up to me and i never thought that would ever be the case bro like i'm looking up to them and they coming they asking me like damn banner what did you learn this what book and how did you do this but i was actually able to tell sadat like bro you the reason why i stopped eating pork bro you changed my whole life that's ill that's fire let me ask you this on the independent side, Snoop, I only met Snoop one time and it was crazy because he gave a lot of game just in a very short period of time.
29:29One of the things that he said was extremely insightful, he was saying that, we're talking about Beats by Dre and you know everybody know that I think Apple bought it for 800 million dollars, something like that. And he was like sometimes they'll buy you to shelf you. Meaning like Beats by Dre was lit. They had everybody, they had all the rappers, but they had athletes there. You don't really see too much about Beats by Dre now. Apple, Apple bought them. Apple bought them. So his thing was like, as soon as Apple buys Beats by Dre, all you hear is iPod, the AirPods. So they essentially brought the competition to kill the competition so they could push their product, which is AirPods, as opposed to Beats by Dre.
30:09Where have you heard that before, though? Well, that's where I'm tying it in with the music, because Slim Thug is my guy. That's a personal friend of ours. and he was saying like how he kind of regretted going to a label because it's like the label the allure of a label like i got a deal now i got i got my own label under a label but he was like looking back on it it was better to just stay the independent route yeah you think that that that the music business has done that like of course that's what i was alluding to earlier i even take it a step further. Okay, then. All right. See y 'all starting with me now.
30:47I'm trying to stay on business. All right. So peep this. Watch this. Watch this. Don't blow your mind. Um, it's funny because I saw part of it here. What was the big, the Virgin Megastore? That was when I knew they won. Watch this. So they sucked up all of the independent artists first, gave us more money than we ever seen before. But what that is to them is a tax write-off, right? Because they make sure in most cases that we fail. And then the other rappers who are like me, unlike, you know what I'm saying, if, let's say Manny Fresh decided that he wanted to leave, right? I don't have that problem because I produce also.
31:32If Baby decided to leave, then they don't have to worry about that because I run my business. I understand my business. If Wayne decided to leave, well, they rapper left or Juvie decided to leave or BG decided to leave. Well, I do the rappers. I do the rapping. So what ended up happening is, is after they gave all this money and we thought we had all of this money. And then the first thing that you all know, I didn't understand is what 40, 45 percent of it is gone just in tax. Right. Then you catching up for all of the borrowing that you did and not having or getting your first house and car. getting your mom straight what celo green said that money be gone so they did that that was easy didn't watch what they did i myself got a 70 000 check from southwest distribution we didn't need the majors we had gonzalez we had southwest we had distribution companies real solid distribution companies they soaked them up and bought them out then guess what they did black people learn how to get mom-and-pop stores even though a lot of them was burning CDs in the back and bootlegging but that was we even learned how to we actually learn how to press CDs right and our homes then they sucked up the mom-and-pop stores I don't know if y 'all remember when they would put on the feds started going to the mom-and-pop stores like they were really like they were selling drugs bro right so then they sucked up the mom-and-pop stores then after they sucked up the mom-and-pop stores then they went for the major stores.
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33:07Sam Goody. Bro, we at Virgin, all we gotta do is say the Virgin Megastore. Bro, literally. And I know, I know, Jordan, but I gotta say it. Bro, like the Virgin Megastore was one of the few times besides walking into a strip club where I think I slightly had an orgasm when I was walking to the store. Allegedly. I mean, just being a, I mean, just being a, bro, one thing that people don't understand about me, bro, is I really loved hip hop. I really loved it. I really thought it was this real thing, bro. Like, bro, and I peeped what they did to the game, bro. And then we were okay with streaming after that.
33:48Bro, like we, it's just like, bro, we are addicted to following our oppressors. No matter how they treat us, no matter how bad they do us, we run behind them, bro. I just left Forbes. And what I was telling them over there at Forbes was like one of the sad things is that we get caught in the trends No matter how detrimental those trends may be to us Like I told him there's nothing from a business standpoint That you can tell me that was positive about streaming and you all are on your business Acumen bro as at least at y 'all age, I don't know too many people y 'all ages That beat y 'all on that side.
34:28Tell me one positive thing about streaming You were getting, I just told you I was getting$10 a CD, two fractions of pennies to just allow somebody to play my music over and over again on their site. That's all streaming is. They just play up perpetually play your shit over and over again. And then people tap into their site. What's smart about that? It's the psychological, even Swiss, Swiss beats has said something that was insightful also with, you know, he went to Harvard like that program that they have. And he was like, one of the things that he picked up is that in business, you don't have to give somebody ownership, but you just make them feel like they have ownership in their work.
35:06So he equated that to labels. He's like, so when they started giving everybody a label, they felt empowered because now you're under a power structure that you psychologically want to be under anyway. And they make, you're still a worker, but you have a title of a CEO. So now everybody got a label, but nobody has distribution. Nobody has real ownership but that's a way to keep everybody happy and satisfied it's so crazy bro i i wrote this thesis paper that directly correlated and connected slavery and the plantation to record labels you know and and through me doing my re and through me doing my research I found that there was something that was called yard niggas.
35:58So you look at - That's like field? Well, no, the field niggas are the rappers, right? The yard niggas are the A &Rs. The house niggas are the, like the label execs, right? And so, bro, this, you know, I had a partner that helped me in it, but it was genius and I may turn it into a book one day, bro, whether we know it or not, bro, people act just like slaves and don't know it. I do like. If you look at just getting a deal. Usually when you look at getting hot in the hood as a rapper or as a beat producer, all that is is accruing power, right? And what's the first thing you do when you go get power?
36:47You don't believe that you can wield that power. So you go find you a white dude to do it for you Why couldn't a black person do it? Why couldn't you do it? Like what what is it? What is a what is it about us? That we can't create our own internet dog Why you can't create your own store, bro? And then as soon as we start figuring it out and be like, oh We can do this shit and I'll give you all a great example and I blow people mind every time I tell them this you remember when shooting a video, a rap video was just like science. Like everybody was afraid to do it and nobody thought that it could be done.
37:27And somebody somewhere just went and got a fucking camera and shot that bitch. Everybody started shooting the music video and it's starting to happen in movies now. Black folks are starting to say like, oh damn, we can use this iPhone and shoot a movie and put it up on Tubi, which you can do Tubi yourself. So what ends up happening, bro, is like people won't admit that they still have slave mindsets, bro. And the crazy thing is I tell black people this all the time is we talk about Jesus all the time. Black folks get on a Jesus kick, Jesus, Jesus. But when anybody start acting like Jesus, we usually crucify ourselves.
38:10Fair. Anytime somebody said, well, I'm going to run this myself, or I'm going to do this, or I'm going to... Because I believe that why would God allow us to be thinking beings, thinking sentient beings, if it wasn't meant for us to challenge things? And so all of those people that ever challenged anything, they usually ended up dead or in jail. That's a fact. Language is important, and you use the word thought. when you thought hip-hop was. It almost feels like you don't recognize it now. No, hip-hop is imperialism. Have you fallen out of love with it? I have. I have. I have. Let's talk about that.
38:52Yes, I have. But let me tell you why I think God allowed me to. So watch this. Just like they created that feeling of hip-hop that made us think that it was real, we can do that on the other end of spec on the other end of the spectrum me and Jordan that's from my publicist team we talked about it today imagine if I created a company that gate cuz all you gotta do is create a company and get all our friends and all I thought about that going to get Snoop going to get Raheem Devon getting all get crit and all us put a company together and just make the splits equitable and then give other artists what they deserve what we know that we want.
39:34Maybe God put us through what we're going through so we can be the person to do it. I don't think the story of Jesus was about a man coming down to bear a cross for you. I think it was about God coming in a physical form to show you how to bear your own cross. If I can come down here and be a man and do it, you can too. You remember the story of Jesus when he was walking on water and he had other people walking with him until they started doing what? Doubting. You are made out of the same stuff God is made out of. You think it, you do it. So why are we so scared? This is why it's the greatest time in history as businessmen, because you all know this.
40:10They thought we were crazy. They thought you all were crazy until you did it. Think about bro, me doing hip hop in Mississippi, bro. They thought I was crazy till they saw like a pimp. Bro, all God has to do is give you vision. People perish because of a lack of vision, but we see it. And I want to tell you all this. This is very important. You must listen to me on this, bro. Bro, we have to stop getting mad when people don't see our vision. If people see your vision, then it's general knowledge, then you are no longer blessed. My mother always said you are blessed. Being a visionary is a curse and a blessing.
40:51You're blessed to see other things that people can't see, but you're cursed to sit in them alone. I'm grateful for this deficit. I am grateful for this experience that we are having with Trump because now we know that America cares nothing about the black man and woman. I was speaking at a female reproductive summit and I think I scared a couple of people, but I told them the truth. I said, the first thing that you have to understand as a black woman is they don't want you to reproduce black kids anyway. So when you're wondering why we are dying at this rape you got to first understand that you keep going to their hospitals you keep going to their mothers and fathers and when they don't want you to have black children in the first place so until you admit that and i know it's scary i know it's hard to digest but until we understand that if we don't come back and save us no one will ain't nobody coming out the sky because if the way that i think about jesus is true jesus already came down and showed you what to do what he she or it gotta come back for bro that's the reason why i want to be a billionaire most people want to be a billionaire so they can live in abundance i want to be a billionaire because i want to free the people bro i don't want nobody to have to go to warner brothers no more if they don't want to i don't want kids to ever see a time where there's not a black superman because they can come to a banner vision and ain't it crazy speaking to superman how are you energized by the sun and you're actually practically you know you're actually a battery incarnate when white people their skin does what to the sun it rejects the sun they run from the sun how can superman be white when his superpower is the sun and y 'all can't sit out in the sun five minutes without dad deep thought there no no actually a white scientist i read an article white scientist there's no way possible that superman is white knowing what you know yeah and what you study we had this conversation with william first thing we asked him was how do you sleep knowing that all this but the other do you feel as a threat to the opposition um all right so i've i've grown spiritually where i don't hate anybody anymore um one thing that i realized is first of all You have to understand that these people came from Europe.
43:18They came from a cold climate where, you know, there's not many resources. There's not much time. You know, if you don't plant at the right time in the right place and harvest and collect, it's cold seven, you're like, what, seven to eight, nine months? So it's a scarcity mindset. Yes. So like, it's not just that the fact that they're bigots or they're racists or they're survival on this planet, period. And they are the recessive gene. So I'm not emotional about it. So what I realized is, and be honest, guys, if it was a rattlesnake over there in that corner, and you went and kissed that rattlesnake, and a rattlesnake bit you in the mouth, would you be mad?
44:05No. Why not? You asked for it. Yeah, why would I be biting the rattlesnake? Because they're rattlesnakes. Yeah, right. And historically, over and over again, and you kiss a rattlesnake in the mouth, your ass gonna get bit, right? So historically, as black people, why we keep going over there by the rattlesnake? So that brings up a good point because you from Mississippi, so civil rights is different. We all have different struggles in America. Racism, no matter where you have it, but the history of the South is different from the history of the North. I was just watching the movie Till for the first time.
44:35Story of Emmett Till, if anybody hasn't seen it, should watch it. So being that you come from the South, right? You know, Dr. Claude Anderson? Yes. So he brought up a good point where he was saying that he thought the civil rights movement was misguided because integration took out a lot of black businesses and it gave us an illusion of inclusion. Integration was worse than slavery. Talk about that. Okay. Well, if you look at slavery for what it is, we just lost a war that we didn't know that we were in. I mean, that just happens. Really, if you really look at it for what it is, it's just, whether it would have been Native Americans, whether it would have been the Irish people, whoever it would have been, the reason why we ended up being who we were in the pecking order is because we survived.
45:29And because we are children in the sun, so we are children of the sun, so we can last in the sun. We were more durable as just human beings, period. Right. So the problem is, is that in the mechanism of slavery, if you have the chains on, you always know that you have to escape. Integration gave us the illusion of winning. It's the same way that I feel about the devil. People get mad at me because I say, I don't believe the devil exists. I believe that white people gave you the devil so that you won't realize that you are the problem if you always think it's something outside of yourself you will never correct yourself you will always put it on an external entity and if you really do believe in God in one God why would you ever compare anything to the most high why would you even have it in the same sentence right You are the problem.
46:25We are our own problems in business and spirituality and everything. So for me, I just realized bro that this is so powerful. Watch this. Y 'all gonna love this. What is the name of y 'all company? Earn your leisure. Gotta fucking earn it. It ain't coming from nowhere unless you earn it. You will never have the leisure that you are looking for. Hold on for a second. Let's pause. This is a message brought to you by. That was dope as fuck. I wish it had like the spinning numbers that be in the movies with some black and white shit. Bro, I thought about that in my head and I was like, yo, that's dope as fuck.
47:03This is a message brought to you by.
47:09David Banner. No, but I'm serious though, bro. I thought of like, I was thinking about like, damn, that's dope. Like we have to earn our leisure. We have to earn our freedom, bro. And the thing is, is bro, the real truth is that we're going to have to suffer for a while. You know, if you think about most people that come to America, bro, like they'll sleep 10, 12 to a house. One person that gets successful, he'll go buy a house, bring five people over there. And it's not integration. We a few blocks away from Chinatown right now. There's no integration in Chinatown. You go to Chinatown and it is only Mandarin that's spoken.
47:43And you go to like different parts. They've integrated in the greater society of America, but they're very integrated. intentional about maintaining and they're not, they're unapologetic. It's crazy. Indian culture. I went to, we went to London. We stayed in the W hotel in Soho. Now we didn't know that that was Chinatown. So the Uber driver was taking us there and he was like, why are you staying in W? I'm like, it's a W. They're like, well, only Chinese people stay there, but the W is not a Chinese hotel. So I'm like, why? Well, he's like, well, the owner of that W is Chinese. So that's not even a Chinese brand but they they when they come to london they know what they people know and they don't they don't got to be told to do that it's natural right so it's like that's something that we can't wait to go away from everything like i know some guys that are doing some work in africa that's going to i do my research too we're not gonna go there this is a message brought to you
48:46I appreciate the reason. No, bro. I appreciate that. Yeah. No, no. I was actually doing some similar business. Okay. And, and just, I was doing some similar business and that's what I'm saying, bro. People are looking to help us. We just have to find them. We just have to travel, bro. And when you start traveling and looking, bro, I'm saying from a spiritual standpoint, you, what they always say, like you take a step to God, God, God, you know, you're take a you know eight nine ten to you but is that marketing to like even with the label right is that marketing what we just feel is that white supremacy where we feel like if we get included in white power structure that's the ultimate goal so we'll run away from black inclusion so i'll tell you something and i hope that by me giving you this example it'll make it a little bit clearer.
49:37So have you all ever heard in football when they say that white quarterbacks are smarter? Okay. So white quarterbacks are not smarter. They just are not as physical as black people are. I think it was Bill Burr. He said it like if a white quarterback could jump over a linebacker, he would, but he can't. A white quarterback, like as an animal, you're gonna run first, you're gonna jump first, you're gonna fight first. But if you can't run, you're gonna have to think. So I mean, there wasn't no need for Mike Vick to think about nothing, he would just outrun you, what animals do. You understand what I'm saying?
50:21So I think what ends up happening is because white people are not, as a whole, I'm not saying that there's not individuals, as talented as we are, they have to think of mechanisms. I watch the NBA do it all the time. Since they can't play the game no more, then they find a way to always change the rules. That's when the play-in tournaments and all that kind of stuff because they have to find a way to be involved in the game because they can't jump. Or coach the game. Yeah. But even now, we're getting close because there's no way that Mark Jackson is not coaching somewhere, bro. Come on. but but for me bro i realize that that is all well and fine because i truly believe this bro i believe that a very wise man from out of philadelphia told me this bro he said that all these things that are happening are just to bring us closer to god that's all all this is for is that if we would take the lesson and earn our leisure then at the end of the day bro like with all of this stuff going on with Trump, if we would take the message that people are not going to help us, we keep looking for DEI.
51:29Like, why would you want to be around somebody that don't want to help you? I don't understand this, bro. Like, there's a restaurant in Atlanta that Tip and Ernestine,
51:45they boycotted. And I know for sure because my ex-girlfriend spent$78 ,000 a year because when she didn't want to have meetings in her office, she would go there. I know the story she told me as much money as she spent in there, how racist those people were. I have not been in that restaurant in 10 years. I'm never going back. When people show you who they are if a company doesn't believe that DEI is the thing that they're supposed to do because it's the right thing to do I don't want you to do it because somebody is pressuring you that means that we shouldn't buy them. And the thing about it is is whenever you remove your money and your attention they'll get right.
52:29My opinion. You brought up a big grit and shout out to big crit. historic run, man. Legendary, felt like that was a pathway for him. And it's kind of been like a hiatus for him in music for the past few years. And you said something important. He very intentionally did that and helped you. How so? Big Crit, when I was going through my depression, Big Crit was actually the person that told me, you know, to look at your environment. Sometimes in a spiritual way, it's the environment also the house that you in you don't know who lived in it before you don't know if it's the people that you brought into your house if their spirits are still lingering like it's all of these things that our grandmothers understood and it's the things that i think they were trying to hint on as sinners that because of conventional religion and one thing that i hate i just got to say this and jordan i'm not gonna go too far into this but like we we always jump on these spiritual boats about what other religions do but we have not like really made people stand on what they did to us under the guise of the conventional religions that we believe in in america if you look at the continent of africa it's not chopped up for because of who believed in what God.
53:53It's chopped up because of the oppressors who won those and won the wars in those places. In most cases, people were not Christian because they wanted to be Christian. It was Christian because their Christian conquerors conquered that land or Muslim conquerors conquered that land. If they're not believing in the indigenous religion of that land, and it really wasn't a religion, it was a way of life. If you look at most African people, you look at most native people, anywhere you go, they believe that God was in everything. And if you look at the indigenous Asian people, it was very similar to African people.
54:29You understand what I'm saying, bro? Like everywhere we go. And so we get into these religious things, bro, and not understand how we are controlled. Bro, I love the implications of sinners. And I understood what they meant by us tapping back into what our grandmothers believed in. You know, I don't mind, you know, you believing in the religion you believed in, but if you haven't tested it, if you haven't done the research, if you haven't translated, because they've lied about everything on this planet, bro. And how that transfers into business, I'll answer a question that you asked me earlier that I sort of got away from.
55:11I believe that the reason why black people continue to forgive people is because Jesus looked like them. If Jesus looked like us, maybe we would forgive us. Or the black bank that made one mistake. When the white bank makes a thousand mistakes and you forget them every day. Heinz Ketchup makes... The portrayal of Jesus. The white Jesus with blue eyes and blonde hair. one of the most dangerous things. That's ever happened on this planet. I had a dude, we were building out in front of a store in Atlanta. And dude said something so powerful to me, bro, that it still shakes me to this day. He says that, he said that Jesus exists, whether Jesus existed or not.
56:05The most powerful person on this planet is Jesus. The most powerful book on this planet is the Bible. Whether it's right or wrong, we're not going to argue that. That's not my place. So if you believe that they hold the key to God, then you always going to forget them. Yeah, no, for sure. And you always going to think their water is wetter. or you're always going to think that they're superior. Yeah. It's natural. Like I read a book one time, this guy who's a refugee from this - Hold on, let me ask you a question about him real quick. Bro, he says the coldest shit in the world, right? And doesn't break face ever.
56:47No. Hey bro, I just saw your mama with the principal at the school. Deal with that information. Deal with that information, do what you want. That's him, huh? That's him. Bro, he just said the coldest shit and looked me in my eye and didn't break character. Usually when I say shit, I'd be like, that shit dope. That shit. He was like, no, no, they control your mind. You think they're superior. Let's continue on. Five, four, three, two. No, but so the guy was from the Sudan and he had never saw a white person before ever. And so he was like 10 years old and then like a missionary, somebody from the UN.
57:24So a white person came into his village and he said when he saw him, the first thing that he thought of that he had died because he thought that this was God, Jesus. And the only reason why he thought that is because up until that point, the only portrait that he's ever seen of white people was Jesus, a white Jesus. So he automatically connected the first white person that he saw to God. That's a bar in the hand. So imagine the grace that you're going to give somebody psychologically, right? The grace that you're going to give somebody psychologically if you think that they're God or the equivalent to God.
58:00And then imagine the disdain that you'll have for somebody who would think is a direct opposite of that. And then the deep part to that is even when they're, when even though their book tells you his skin was like burnt copper. Hair like wool. Yeah. That sounds like a Rastafarian to me, bro. No, I'm dead serious. But it also, it also shows you how, how powerful art is. That's what that is, is art, right? that's a portrait of seizure bourgeois son and so the art is more important than the text because like you said you can read the text but that visual painting over overrides what's actually in the text so we play one one word game just me and me just me and you let's do it the council of nacea yes i can't even have that conversation like that's what i'm telling you about the stuff that i I can't even have these conversations with my friend or with my mother, bro.
59:00Like, you just got to sit on that, bro. And that's where your relationship with God is so important, man, because, but my grandmother died thinking she was free. My grandmother actually died happy. And bro, like for me, man, like I am so grateful that if nothing else, bro, is that I know. And I'm also grateful that people consider me. That's one thing that I can say about my relationship with hip hop that I don't know if anybody else in hip hop has. People at least consider me, bro. I don't know why. I don't know what I've done to earn it, man. But I am so grateful to God, bro. I speak this in Christian churches in Mississippi and not get strung up.
59:46And black people be like, you might not let you come back here no more, but at least you get to walk out. But no, bro. Somebody get a preacher boy out of here. No, but I'm serious. Like, black people consider me, bro. And I am so grateful, man, to be that. You know, I don't know what to do with it. Yeah. I try, bro, but, like, I'll tell y 'all something only because I'm enjoying this interview so much, bro. But, like, bro, it's hard on me, bro. I done lost over$12 million, bro, because of my activism. My opportunities. Well, not just opportunities, bro, but you got to think, man, like, let's just be honest, bro.
1:00:28I get my money from Disney, bro. I get my money from PepsiCo, bro. Like I'm just being honest with you. And like black people, for some reason, think that money comes from some imaginary place when you're an activist. It don't, bro. If it don't come from you, it don't happen. That's why, again, I'm going to sing you all's praises, bro. you found you all found a way to galvanize the people and make them excited about spending money with other black people that's powerful g that is powerful how have you responded when your faith been tested i think that's that's when you really find out who you are spiritually right so like in the moments especially dealing with the music industry and just dealing with life over the course of time, how has that been for you?
1:01:22Okay. Ask the question in a more direct way with one sentence because this is very important and I want to make sure that I answer it in the right way. I'll say it like this. How about this? Have you always been this devout? Have you grown to it? And in times of questioning your faith or challenging your faith, how has that shaped who you are? That's actually worse. No, but I got it.
1:01:54Man. So the amazing thing to me about God is it's sort of like your dad, bro. Like fathers, bro. Like you think about the teachers that really loved you now that we grown. I had this new thing. You have to make a choice as a parent and I'm not even a parent yet. your children can like you when they're young and not respect you when they grown. Because they be like, that's some bullshit. You should have stayed on my ass. Like, or you cannot spare the rod. They said spare the rod, quicken the child to the grave. Right? So your kids cannot like you when they're children and then respect you when they grownups.
1:02:31I remember Benny the Butcher said that on my podcast. He said he went back to his hood and checked his OGs. Can I say nigga? He was like, nigga, how y 'all had a selling dope at 10? Y 'all was supposed to be fathers, bro. How y 'all let us take those penitentiary chances at 14, bro? What was their response? I don't know. He didn't tell me what the response was, but I thought that was so brave. He said he really went back and checked his OGs, bro. So what I'm saying is, is that since God loves us, sometimes I can equate my struggle to the amount of love and how much God trust me with that mantle bro or with that responsibility excuse me so like what I'm learning now and this is just my opinion y 'all faith in God is not jumping off of the mountain because you can just be a fucking fool and jump off the mountain mm-hmm the real test is you jumping off the mountain God letting you fall face first on the concrete and number one you didn't understand that you survived, number one, but waiting to see if you was going to curse his or her or its name and then give you wings to fly.
1:03:44That's what I'm learning that real faith is not just jumping off the mountain. No, when stuff don't work your way, when you don't get it exactly when you want to, and then realize that when you, if you would have got it when you wanted to, you would have wrecked it anyway. So what I am learning about it is to stop asking God why and ask God what? let me ask you that's I just while you said it I mean but did it click it clicked cause it it made me think of when Lupe says struggle another sign that God loves you ooh that's a bar yeah that's his bar that's a penitentiary yeah that ain't just a bar that's a whole penitentiary you can build a penitentiary off that one yeah yeah you was about to say something mental health because you talk I'm a fucking wreck dog I know I just said I didn't want to say it I'm a fucking wreck dog you spoke about you know work in progress language is important I just wanted to let it go one time bro you spoke about you know depression but there's a lot of people especially men right that are going through things that they A can't identify what it is and B they're going through things and they don't know how to seek help so my question is how did you identify you was in that place and how did you seek the help to get out of that place Well, one, truthfully, I'm not a wreck, man.
1:05:02I'm actually very proud of the man that I'm becoming. And I am grateful also that the blessings that I did think that I wanted, bro, if I would have got them earlier, I would have messed it up, bro. Like, I honestly think, and I'm not just saying this because I'm on y 'all's show. I really believe this. I believe why should God bless me with the financial opulence that I believe that I deserve when I would have just gave it to them through not paying my taxes anyway. Like some things we want, we're not ready for them. Maybe God didn't bless us with him because he sure didn't knew that it would be a nightmare.
1:05:43So that we have to be prepared to receive it. Because if not, then you're just a conduit to bless your enemy. because they just gonna take it away from you from not being prepared not being well read not understanding accounting not understanding taxes all of these things we want all of this money bro but we don't do the things to earn our leisure down that's dope but um what was the question more directly like how did you know you was depressed okay how did you seek help to get out of that depression so I found out from my um my therapist that sometimes not all the time that your the brain protects you from all the trauma that we've been through and you wonder why because this is one of the things that I tripped on and I never said this in public either but I'm having such a great time bro y 'all doing a great job um bro I was tripping because I was depressed and I was like bro I've been in shootouts I've been homeless and happy and all this stuff Like, why am I tripping now?
1:06:45Bro, I got a Bentley outside. What am I tripping? Like I'm dating models and bro, if I want to go to Japan right now. Matter of fact, I knew a way if I wanted to go out of space, I can afford to go out of space. Literally, maybe not 12 times, but I go out of space one time. I got that kind of brain, right? But what I realized is that the human brain protected us until we got in a space where we could handle it. And then the brain was like, OK, now you got a little bit of bread. deal with that that happened to you when you were nine. Deal with your mama leaving you outside, you know, and you being adopted.
1:07:20This didn't happen to me, but I'm just saying. And so I just started getting to the point, man, where I think I had the mental space. When you in the streets, bro, like we was in the streets, you didn't have no time to worry because other stuff was happening daily all the time. You know what I'm saying? and so i started realizing man that i was in the space i had the means to and then the other side of this i have talked about this in other places um i am realizing and i'm not a therapist so y 'all go and talk to your therapist don't put this on david banner i also found that that one of the things that we think is depression that's not always depressing depression is us breaking the programming like bro we have been lied to not just by white people not just by America but by parents who was giving us the best stuff that they possibly could but a lot of that stuff is lies bro and so a lot of times bro if you have been and I talked about this today movies and television are what television programming we are being programmed every day and this is one thing that as much knowledge itself as much social and financial literacy that you all may be giving people you can't beat Fox Network.
1:08:41Not yet. We on our way. But they're getting programmed they can tell but at Christopher Columbus discovered America. That's a damn lie. So a lot of times bro, we are breaking. It's actually what we feel is depression is actually us healing the same way I realized when I fast a lot of the times when I think I need to go eat it's actually the impurities coming out of my body I don't need to put any more in there I just need to wait for a minute so I started realizing man that you know I had to break myself I had to allow the most high to totally run his her or its course with me bro and that I'm all right and that you all are doing a good job bro just for us to wake up every day and get at it again.
1:09:30Y 'all doing a good job. You know what I'm saying? Sweetie, as much as you peek over here and look at me because I do smell good and that I'm handsome, the fact that you can restrain yourself and not totally, no, I'm just joking. That might be somebody girl, but I'm just joking. But no, like we are surviving, man. And to be honest with you, bro, I don't know how I made it through. I had a assistant once, he told me, he said, David, if I knew for a fact that I could make it and all of my dreams could come true, but I had to go through what you went through, he said, I wouldn't do it. Bro, I've been through it, dog.
1:10:08But I'm here, bro. Bro, I look better than I did when I was 27 years old, bro. I am stronger than I've ever been in my life. Bro, I'm making so much fucking money, dog. Like, it's coming to me, bro. it's so crazy bro because a lot of people about finances and opulence and say that it's evil it is not bro it is what you allow it to be and bro when I started vibrating on the right level getting around the right people reading the right information and I just want to say this I don't know if you all disagree with me or not but as I'm moving to that next level of life most people who deal in money at the level that we're dealing with now, then people will never give you the secrets, the real secrets to allow you to be their competition.
1:10:57They won't. If you look at most of the financial books, it's usually never written by the person that's on the cover. They will give you enough to be successful so you can continue reading their books and consuming their information. But the real truth, bro, you got to get around people that know stuff, or you got to try and fail over and over again until you can piece the equation together, bro. That's what I'm learning, bro. You just, you got to get out there and make the mistakes or go and find people. Bro, I invested in a cold fusion company. And my friends was like, what the fuck? What you know about cold fusion?
1:11:36Nothing. But that did buy me the opportunity to get into our generation's Einstein. I met that guy. The people that I was around. And I'll tell you all this too. A lot of times, because people will never tell you all this. When you're dealing with people who are in money at that level, they're usually going to try to make you do something, to sacrifice something to make sure that you're worthy of being around them, bro. It's like, dude told me, he was like, bro, you got to get a ticket to Australia you if you want this opportunity and it's like a 14-day turnaround I had never been in Australia before I was straight out the hood bro I can't lie I was scared I ain't know nobody over there but what made me do it was I had thrown that amount of money that they were asking for the initial investment bro I had thrown that in the club in Magic City in Atlanta and bro show enough as soon as I made that sacrifice bro they open up that's what I learned about the law of attraction that's what I learned bro like them people if you vibrate on the right level you walk into like let's say if I brought you they know how I they know that I know how they are about the circle right and they'll come over there and they'll ask you they'll be like what you do for a living you know how in a company they earn your leisure we're trying to you you know, this is that.
1:13:00They'll be like, all right. Next thing you know, they'll hand you a phone. And it'll be the CEO of the biggest company in the world. And what they told me is that they don't want it back from me. They get it back from the universe. If you a right person. Like, the only thing they didn't like about me was my music. It's like, you got to stop doing that music. It's negative. Like, we don't really do negative, but you so special. And they were the ones that taught me that I came back to America and started doing my black friends the way that they taught me. Like, bro, if you writing a movie, I got a house in Mississippi that I never go to, bro.
1:13:35Why don't you go down there and just go down there and write your movie? Here go my keys. The only thing I ask is whatever money that you was going to pay to rent a car or whatever, get that to this organization. That's the type of people that I started being around, bro. And when I started living that kind of life, bro, money and opportunity just came to me. That's perfect. We got to meet them. Yeah. They're hard to meet. They are hard to meet. But let me tell you one other thing that they do that I think is dope. Bro, they'll get together and we don't think like this. They all get together and be like, yo, let's go to Europe.
1:14:09Maybe like bet. All right, man, what you would have paid for the W. Let's all put our money together and rent a castle. That's the kind of shit that is genius. And in actuality, when you really look at it and put it together, the castle will probably end up being cheaper if it's 12 of us. Yeah. And they, when we balling in the castle, bro. Facts. Yeah, but we want to keep it to ourselves. And that's slavery. Stunt as a habit. Get like me. Well, there is one book. Okay. That kind of debunks what you just said. You deserve to be rich. Written by Troy Millings and Rashad Bilal. You're a times bestseller.
1:14:49For the record. You deserve to be rich. Boys buy it. For sure. But y 'all the one that's doing it, though. So you all are the exception to the rule, and that's the only reason why I'm here. Just love, my brother. I appreciate you. David Banner, ladies and gentlemen, always a pleasure every time we get to chop it up. I mean, we got to speak more often, man. Bro, this is special. I can't wait to see this. All right. Ask one more question before we leave. One more. Because it's something that I'm missing. I feel like I'm missing. Well, I was trying to get the crit story out. We kind of went around it.
1:15:23We really didn't answer none of the questions. And I brought it back up because we were having the conversation before we started. And I was like, stop. I want the people to hear that because it was important for a couple of reasons. Number one, brotherhood. But the other one was introspection and retrospect. Like, I'm looking at this differently because a contemporary has showed me something I didn't know. Well, bro, I honestly think that K.R.I.T. is one of the dopest artists on this planet. And I've told him this to his face so I can say it on camera. I had to tell Crit that you are a generational talent.
1:16:04You know, he reminds me of B.B. King. He reminds me of just, bro, just just some artists that take a minute, bro. You know, but they're going to be here for the rest of their life. if crit chose to rap at 80 i think he would be just fine bro and so i told crit man like you got to stop competing bro you ain't got to compete with them they are not you they'll have this moment think about all those artists that was so much more successful than me when i came out but they couldn't give away an album they would pay y 'all to get on here and couldn't get on here bro and so that's the type of artist that crit is and so me and crit talk a lot bro and crit told me he was like i'll tell you the most important thing he told me and i didn't even know that crit thought about me this way crit was like banner no matter what you do you are a threat to america he said whether you, he said, whether you were revolutionary or not, whether you spoke your mind or not, you are six foot two, articulate, thoughtful black man.
1:17:24That's a problem, you know? And when I was going through my depression, Crit was the one that told me that I probably need to move out of my house. I probably would have still been in that house depressed. He said like, bro, like it was a big house bro like a big beautiful house and he was like bro you don't know what spirits are in there and it may be the house and i think he was right because i went back to the house after i moved out of it bro this house is clearly some people's dream house bro it was in the north georgia mountains and it was on top of the mountain bro and i've never seen this nowhere in the world i've gone in the morning right at about 5 36 o 'clock when the sun hits the top of the mountains the whole sky turns red dog like it's mars or something such a beautiful house and it just spiritually wasn't right and crit was like bro you gotta you may have to get out of that house and i moved out of that house because of crit and between you know some of the stuff crit said my mentor and the stories i've told about method man bro um and i'd like to give a shout out to to styles p um sp i'd like to give a shout out to uh jazzy jeff jazzy jeff brought me to his house y 'all i told him to his face i ain't doing no fucking music i ain't no artist no more i'm a fucking actor i ain't doing no verses i ain't doing no beats and he just looked at me and like yeah i ended up doing two verses a beat but jazzy told me something that was so dope he said banner music hasn't done anything but bless you now the the the business of music is something well let Let me ask you this before, because I know you got to go, but my last question is sinners.
1:19:03You talked about sinners. One of the underlying themes in that, to me at least, was that the music attracted the devil. And that's why his father didn't want him to play music. Do you think that the music, especially the music that we're listening to now, is a gateway to negativity, devil activity? Or like you think that is a light for that? But no, but bro, it wasn't. But see, that's the thing about it. It wasn't the type of music he was doing, because if you look at the dance, when everybody came together, it was all types of music. It wasn't just rap music. It was it was the Native American music.
1:19:39It was all of these different types of music. So what it is, is that first of all, people forget. If you think if the devil existed in the way that they say that it did, what was the devil? In that movie? No, in general. Oh, a fallen angel. The angel of what? Music. of music exactly so that's some people say like that so not that music it's music in general and the fact that in actuality bro i don't like saying this a lot but i will only because you asked me bro if you go back and research music music was never meant for public consumption music was meant for spiritual for communication during times of war it was it was spiritual and And I have a friend who actually is a chiropractor and he can manipulate your bones by using certain frequencies.
1:20:32So what we got to understand, bro, we don't even know because we don't study, bro, the frequencies that we're dealing with a lot of times, bro, and what it actually does to the human body. Right. So I think when it came to sinners, bro, it wasn't the type of music that we do because honestly, we are at war. And this is war music. The problem that I have with music is music was supposed to to to to represent the time that we in Like during the time when bad boy and stuff was out. We were the first generation in america in recent times That had disposable money. We was that first generation our parents got the jobs But they really hadn't got the residual effects of that bread yet.
1:21:15So Bad boy at the time was necessary nwa saying fuck the police nobody else had ever done that we needed that at the time but when you see it being commercialized and it being used by the same system that it was meant to fight right and it became and it was mechanized i honestly think and i don't say this much that music is actually for the right hand of the government now bro if you really think about it bro, like 90 % if you really look at it from because I know that you are men of numbers, right? Bro, niggas and bitches. Well, let's say niggas and bitches are probably no, this is important.
1:21:59You heard all this stuff? No, seriously. Niggas and bitches are only about at the most 10 to 20 % of our culture. Let's think about it seriously. Right? But we talk talk about that form of people 90 % of the time. Yeah, right. You understand what I'm saying? So the problem isn't that is the fact that it's being weaponized. And then the fact that people see that we can make money off of the weaponization of our music, they gonna go get the bread, bro. That's what I saw. So when I saw a preacher boy, this is the specific scene when they're like, just give us him and we'll leave everybody else because he had the purest form of music.
1:22:47Even though it was perceived as secular to his parents, it was the purest form. Hold on one second. And Jordan, just so you know, they're not worried about me saying niggas and bitches. They're worried about me saying cracker. So you ain't got to worry about it. Who's that? No, just people in general. Oh, okay, okay. We can call ourselves niggas and bitches. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're not worried about that. So don't worry about when I say niggas and bitches. Yeah, which is why at the end, that scene where Michael B. Jordan's in the Coogee, right? And it was very intentional how he was styled.
1:23:16It was like, oh, they've got it. They took it from us. Right? Because I left him alone. He's still pure, but he's been dumbed down now to, now he's just doing nightclubs, right? Which isn't the most popular form, but the guy we're in the Coogee, oh, wait, it's in hip hop. Well, watch this. Yeah, go ahead. I didn't see that, but I did see, what do you call the things in the movies where you give away the secrets? What do you call those? Come on, bro, help me. The little special things that's in movies that's hitting the Easter eggs. The little Easter eggs. Bro, they said something that was so dope that I didn't realize, which makes your theory probably right.
1:24:00They said if you look in the mirror on that scene, his reflection was gone too. Whose reflection? Preacher Boy. Preacher Boy. Because you remember it was him, the white girl, and Preacher Boy. And they were sitting in front of the big long mirror in front of the bar, right? Yeah. If you look, everybody's. Right. But what they say happened was that you remember the scene after that? We're giving away the movie. Go see it. But yeah. But you remember when he was in the church, you saw that? Yeah. If you remember, he looked up. And they were saying that it was a spirit in the sky. And that was when he gave his spirit away.
1:24:41But what I'm saying is, is that either way, what I'll tell you is that that same music that we're talking about can be what leads us to revolution. It can be helpful. Yeah, it can be what leads somebody to God. That's all that they were saying. They want you so we can use your music for what we want to use it for. Right. And so it's powerful within itself. It's the same way that and I'm glad that we can end it like this. I believe it's the same thing with money. Money ain't a net and is it negative? It's the spirit in which you put into it and how you get it. It's a frequency. It's a currency, you know, and you have to earn your leisure.
1:25:22Amen. That's it, ladies and gentlemen. Amen. Another Legend Day episode. David, I'm so proud of y 'all. I appreciate you. Thank you guys for rocking with us. We'll see you next week. Peace. An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child in Massachusetts. An MS-13 gang member from El Salvador accused of murdering a Texas man. A Venezuelan charged with filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Kristi Noem, the United States Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over 100 ,000 illegal aliens have been arrested.
1:26:08If you are here illegally, you're next. You will be fined nearly$1 ,000 a day, imprisoned and deported. You will never return. But if you register using our CBP Home app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally. Do what's right. Leave now. Now, under President Trump, America's laws, border, and families will be protected. Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security. Hey, it's Joel. And Matt. From HowToMoney. If your New Year's resolution is to finally get your finances in shape, we've got your back. Prices, they're still high, and the economy is all over the place.
1:26:45But 2026 is the year for you to get intentional and make real progress. That's right. Each week, we break down what's happening with your money, the most important issues to focus on, and the small moves that make a big difference. Kick off the year with confidence. Listen to How to Money on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What if mind control is real? If you could control the behavior of anybody around you, what kind of life would you have? Can you hypnotically persuade someone to buy a car? When you look at your car, you're going to become overwhelmed with such good feelings.
1:27:18Can you hypnotize someone into sleeping with you? I gave her some suggestions to be sexually aroused. Can you get someone to join your cult? NLP was used on me to access my subconscious. Mind Games, a new podcast exploring NLP, a.k.a. neurolinguistic programming. Is it a self-help miracle, a shady hypnosis scam, or both? Listen to Mind Games on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is Dr. Jesse Mills, host of the Mailroom Podcast. Each January, men promise to get stronger, work harder, and fix what's broken. But what if the real work isn't physical at all?
1:27:55I sat down with psychologist Dr. Steve Poulter to unpack shame, anxiety, and the emotional pain men were never taught how to name. Part of the way through the valley of despair is realizing this has happened, and you have to make a choice whether you're going to stay in it or move forward. Our two-part conversation is available now. Listen to The Mailroom on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed human.
From the publisher
This week on Earn Your Leisure, we sit down with the legendary David Banner for one of the most raw, thought-provoking, and inspiring conversations we’ve ever had.
From building a studio in his van while homeless to negotiating Gatorade deals and launching a three-state distribution network, Banner breaks down his journey from Mississippi to mogul. He opens up about writing his first contract, navigating taxes, battling depression, and losing millions as an activist — all while staying true to his vision and purpose.
We also dive deep into race, culture, and responsibility. From comparing the music industry to the plantation system, to his controversial views on integration, to the influence of modern music on our communities — this episode is a masterclass in business, leadership, and self-awareness. Plus, we hear powerful moments about fatherhood, faith, and the high cost of being a visionary.
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