David Banner Wants Unity?

David Banner is a rapper always willing to voice his opinion on current events. When asked about the ongoing Occupy Wall Street protests, the Mississippi native said that he thinks hip hop has gotten these types of events wrong. He says that young people can't afford to separate themselves any longer.

"One of my only criticisms of hip-hop right now is that we all -- like everybody -- we can't separate ourselves," he explained in an interview. "All of us have become so corporate that people don't even feel like we're a part of the people, especially rappers and punk rockers. People always felt like we were them. We were their voice."

"When their children are out there is when it becomes a movement," he added. "And I used to fight that and be mad at that, but what we got to understand is, in every movement, even in the '60s, young, white, middle-class people were a major part of the movement. We have to stop separating ourselves."

David Banner Impressed By Justin Bieber

David Banner produced the Chris Brown/Justin Bieber collaboration "Ladies Love Me" from Brown's "Boy In Detention" mixtape. Banner says he was 'floored' by Bieber's flow and was impressed by how seriously the young pop star took his rhymes.

“I’m very protective of hip-hop, and I would never produce a song if I didn’t think it was jamming," Banner said. "And Justin Bieber floored everybody in the studio. When I look at the blogs, people are trying to dust it like: ‘Did somebody write it? Was it pro-tools-ed together?’ That boy… I actually wanted the very first take. We ended up doing it again, but he spit the whole verse all the way down non-stop."

"He spit …. It made me feel good because it shows you the effect of [hip-hop] culture," Banner says. "And for him to study and dissect our culture that way… he really has a respect to spend that much time, because that takes practice to be able to spit and rap like that. And I was impressed.”

David Banner Almost Quit

David Banner recently revealed how close he was to walking away from music years ago. The rapper/producer/businessman says that this has been a year of huge successes for him that have confirmed his belief in what he's doing.

"This has actually been the best year of my life," Banner said in an interview. "Nobody really gave me a hand, played my records or helped me after I had done all the stuff that I did and it was really hard for me. [2005's Hurricane] Katrina was my recession. At one point, I was willing to give it all up. God forced me to find other ways of being successful. I said I would never be in that situation again, where music was the only thing, [where] rapping was the only thing that I was doing."