Music

David Banner - Certified review

The man has the same name as the character who becomes The Incredible Hulk. That's meant to mean something, apparently.

Here we have more shouty rap, with lots of bad words about women, and more goddam mutherf***in' cussing than you could find in an army barracks where everyone from the colonel down is called "muthaf***a".

In fairness, unlike the sad lumps that are Three 6 Mafia, Banner at least has his tongue wedged occasionally in the side of his mouth with some of his songs, along with a sense of humour; shock, horror.

There is a grinding, no-nonsense approach that also occasionally marks this album out. Plus anyone who, as the press blurb puts it, can "single-handedly carry a depressed state (Mississippi, Banner's home) known as the epitome of Southern racism and poverty into a respected source of hip-hop music" deserves a pat on the back, surely.

But hey, I still get bored of the incessant "motherf***er" this and "motherf***er" that, and the unpleasant references to women as "bitches". Perhaps I'm just being old-fashioned, but it's this kind of "message" that will likely find young, impressionable male minds to ferment in, like so much flesh-eating mould smeared onto a science lab's petri dish, with nasty results some time hence.

Rating:
Released: 20th May 2006
Label: Universal

30-01-2007