I think for the most part, our generation is filled with a bunch of fucking cowards and I say that man, because we beef amongst each other, we kill and we shooting each other in our own hoods, and bang eachother, we won't bang cops, ya know I'm saying? And one thing that these motherfuckers in America know, they know we-they know we ain't gonna do shit
The Greatest Story Ever Told is an album from David Banner. It's an album that walks the line of wanting to ball out and enjoy all the money he's made, but noticing more and more injustice in America. It's the reason two songs about promiscuous sex can be followed by questioning if we become stereotypes by being constantly bombarded with images of them. I'd be lying to you if I told you this was a great album all the way through because there are tracks like A Girl that I don't even play. That's not to say there aren't a lot of thought provoking tracks.The first track on the album isn't the introduction, it's a song called So Long, from which the opening quote comes from. The song has David Banner voicing his disgust with Generation X and Y when it comes to making less social progress than previous generations when it comes to social issues surround black people. Later in the album he expresses that he's disappointed in younger generations like other people his age often do, the difference is David Banner feels that his generation is at least partially responsible.
In the track So Long he makes reference to the murders of Sean Bell and Kathryn Johnston. He feels that his generation is partly responsible because they became comfortable and never took a stand against police brutality going as far as to state "they acquit, because they know that our generation won't do shit." He finishes the song by stating:
I wanna see a nigga riot or something dog, fight for something, fight anybody but'cho motherfuckin self, nigga, we sell drugs, but we gon' sell drugs to our self, we bang, but we only bang on our self, we do every fuckin negative thing and niggas is so hard. Niggas on radio, on cd's, on tapes, and on movies, they got guns, they got pistols, but ain't nobody shootin it at nothin but they selfIn this David Banner acknowledges that all these things we do, are only to other black people. Black gangs kill black gangs. Black drug dealers sell to black drug addicts. When he states we're not doing anything but shooting at ourselves he's bringing up the fact that instead of working together to progress, we're basically sabotaging each other. We're taking each other out, and it might just be sending a message to people like the police that it's okay, similar to Kendrick Lamar's Blacker The Berry.
FEAR is the only thing these people respect. We fear everybody but ourselves. These cops gonna have to FEAR something, something have to HAPPEN. Nigga if y'all gon' march, march to the motherfuckin cops house, my nigga, make these motherfuckas FEAR something, dude. Cause they make- they got us scared! They got niggas scared to go to strip clubs, nigga, you know. Shit, my nigga, like...something gotta happen. I'll say it my nigga, cause I ain't scared. I ain't scared of shit, I'm scared of God...I'm scared of God first and I'm scared of taking the blessing that God has given me and leading somebody down the wrong path
The next thing I want to look at is the track called Syrup Sipping. It's one of the beat breaks on the album where he talks briefly and lets the beat play on loop for a few minutes afterward. He stated this was his way of letting any rapper get a free David Banner beat by just buying the album. On the Syrup Sipping break he speaks over the beat he made of Lil Wayne, Briscoe and Rick Ross's song Pill Popping Animal. Over the beat he states:
See what's crazy to me, is we done subliminally became, what they think we are anyway. It's like we just some ol' country ass dumb niggas, and we not that! We so much fucking more than that, dude!It's an interesting idea. I don't believe stereotypes are always created based on actions. Sometimes I think they're just flat out fictional and racist. Yet, if a person is bombarded with it every day they start to imitate it. Do black people really love grape soda, chicken, watermelon and kool-aid more than other races? I highly doubt it, but when it's repeated so often it begins to take root in a person's brain.
The next track is a song called Hold On which tells the story of exactly what David Banner stated he feared earlier, taking his blessing and leading someone down the wrong path. In this instance David knew a kid named Timmy who was infatuated with the street life. Instead of stopping him, David told him to keep at it and later Timmy died. It's at this point David realized that Timmy had come to him for advice and he led him down the wrong path. He even mentions "I could have told him to stay in school [...] I realize I was a small part of his demise."
In the song David considers killing an entire family for revenge, but he's stopped because he can't get in contact with the friend who has the guns. This is a reoccurring theme as the same thing happened on his song Faith later in the album. In the end he breaks down and prays. The next track is Cadillac on 22s Pt 2. The sequel to a song that helped move him into the spotlight. During this song he decides he'll be a better person and try to lead people down the right path. He also comes to the conclusion that the cars, women and money he bragged about earlier in the album aren't as important as he thought.
The last thing on this album I want to look at is the interlude called Freedom. Initially the track has David questioning his faith in God, something that he's said has kept him strong throughout the album. He questions his belief in God because:
The same people in the year 1606, enslaved black folks in the name of the crucifix, and gave us a Jesus with light blue eyes, Hell on Earth, but heaven in the skies, while they eat they pie now, Native Americans got slaughtered, they land passed out
It's a good question, he's been told that God will keep him safe his whole life. Yet, at the same time people have used God to justify slavery and the genocide of Native Americans. Yet, he's supposed to be strong and wait until he dies and goes to Heaven to have a good life, while he watches white people live happily and eat their piece of the American pie.
The most important line in the poem for me is "African-American but Africa she ain't our home." Like David Banner and Smokey Robinson I don't like being called African American. I've never been to Africa, and I can't trace any of my roots back that far. On the song Be a Nigger Too, Nas stated "We all black within, okay, we all African, okay, but some Africans don't like us no way." I've been able to experience that and see black Americans put down by Africans, so I know it's true. I still don't have anything against Africans, and I love learning about different African cultures, but I'm black. Africa, just is not my home. I don't have a real spiritual connection to it.
He goes on to mention how America is built on hate and he feels discouraged and has lost hope of us ever overcoming it. Then he sums up America simply:
The greatest story ever told, what if I said I didn't want to tell stories no more? What if I wanted to tell the truth? We fucked up!You can hear Darrell on the CP Time and Powerbomb Jutsu podcasts. He also plays classic arcade games on The Cabinet
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