David Banner On Rev. Sharpton

*In this EURcast, our own Lee Bailey sits down with rapper David Banner to get to the bottom of his disgust with Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, Oprah Winfrey and others who have declared war against derogatory terms in hip hop.

      A particular beef with Rev. Sharpton started when Banner cursed him out during a conference call with DJs. During the tirade, Banner – among other choice words – said Sharpton can “suck my d**k.”  

      An official at Sharpton’s National Action Network responded by throwing a literal interpretation of the comment back in Banner’s face, suggesting he is gay and adding it “has not been a banner year” for his record sales.   

      Banner replied with an open letter to Sharpton, as well as Jackson and Winfrey, that was actually written before his initial comments toward Sharpton that sparked the entire drama. It was released by Banner in an attempt to address his concerns with the overall war on rap lyrics without the relaxed, inflammatory language used among his DJ peers.    

      Banner, still irate and frustrated with Sharpton, met with Bailey for about an hour at Sunset Plaza in West Hollywood Saturday (Aug. 18) to explain the reasons for his actions over the past weeks, and add context to his stand against those who are working to remove three words from hip hop – b**ch, ho and ni**a.

      Here are some excerpts from the EURcast with David Banner:

• None of us knew that a reporter was on the line because it was one of those open conference calls. I would never bite my tongue, and since it’s out there, I will stand for what I said, but I’m a whole lot more articulate and I have a lot more to offer the world. My qualms with Al Sharpton go so much further than him. He’s only a byproduct of a bigger problem.

• My assistant was a dope dealer; big time dope dealer. I came to him and said, ‘Bruh, I cannot give you as much money as you was making in the streets, but if you come with me, I’ll show you another way to feed your family. Now that boy is getting his Master’s degree. And he’s going on to run for City Council.  Without no cussing and gangsta rap, that wouldn’t have happened.

• You could do whatever you want to, Al Sharpton, with the old people because yall fooled them in the 60s. But don’t put this on our kids. You stop attacking our kids, and I’ll leave you and the dirt that you and Jesse Jackson do behind the wall.