As a fitting addition to Black History Month, recording artist, actor and philanthropist David Banner, discussed the topic "Black on Black Crime," at South Carolina State University's 2nd annual Hip-Hop Symposium on Feb. 16.
Banner, whose real name is Levell Crump, spoke about his experience in the music business, his time in college and the work he is doing to educate African Americans about the hate we spread among each other.
Banner also lamented the treatment of Chris Brown by the media and by black people in general. "Why do we allow young black men to be crucified the way that we do and we do not stand up for each other," he said.
"The same thing happens in hood, all the rappers are talking about Chris Brown, but they do not stand up when all these kids in the hood are getting murdered every day."
Eminem, he said, can sing about beating his wife or even do it, and nobody will pull his records of the radio station. He went on to say that rock groups are perpetuating violence every day, but do not face the same consequences. "I remember when they took Ludacris off the Pepsi commercial and replaced him with who…..Ozzy Osbourn, the man who bit the head off a bat and smothered feces all over himself."
According to press reports, Ludacris lost an endorsement deal with Pepsi in 2002 when The O'Reilly Factor host Bill O'Reilly attacked the soft drink manufacturer for supporting an artist whom O'Reilly described to have socially irresponsible lyrics.
The blame, Banner says, lies with us, the consumers, who support music with violent lyrics. "Do you know why rappers beef?" he said. "Rappers beef, because yall buy it, and yall go on the internet and read it."
Despite this, Banner,who was the Student Government Association President when he attended Southern University Baton Rouge, definitely considers himself an advocate of hip-hop, and plans to continue with his music career. He also is eager to begin creating his own films.
Banner has released five albums with hits like "Crank It Up" and "Ain't Got Nothing." He starred in the 2007 film Black Snake Moan and in the Adult Swim cartoon show "That Crook'd 'Sipp" in 2007.
Sherman Pyatt, chairperson of the symposium, said the event was organized to bring awareness to a very important social issue in our community. "We hope to encourage our students, faculty, staff and the Orangeburg community to identify problems, search for answers, and discuss these issues in a critical manner."
Dervedia Thomas and Alicia Dowdy write for The Collegian, the South Carolina State University student newspaper, which originally published this article.