David Banner's 'Story' Has Two Points of View

David Banner has always been driven by contradictory impulses.

He's a politically minded artist with misogynistic thoughts -- a conscious rapper who'd literally like to knock you unconscious: "K.O.," a song from the Mississippi rap star's new album, "The Greatest Story Ever Told," opens with an exhortation to "punch that [person] in the face."

In his art, Banner, 35, is ruminative and explosive, melancholy and sexually explicit. He raps about wanting to lead a good life; apparently, though, in his lyrics he can't help being drawn to the thug life.

(In real life, Banner -- born Levell Crump -- has testified eloquently at a congressional hearing on hip-hop lyrics, organized a massive Hurricane Katrina benefit concert and given away multiple $10,000 college scholarships to his fans.)

Banner's first two hits, from 2003, hinted at a split personality: "Cadillac on 22's" was a plaintive, prayerful Arrested Development-like song set to acoustic guitar (!), whereas "Like a Pimp" was a club banger full of unprintables about the fairer sex.

That duality continues on "The Greatest Story Ever Told," an overlong, mostly self-produced affair that opens with "So Long," a call to arms in which Banner decries black-on-black violence and rants about social injustice over a stuttering synthesizer line and low-boil beat.

It's a promising start for fans of Banner's better, more enlightened side. But the other David Banner quickly surfaces -- the menace-to-society version that's more akin to Dr. David Banner's raging alter ego on the 1970s TV series "The Incredible Hulk." On the back-to-back tracks "Suicide Doors" (with hard-core heroes UGK) and "9mm" (with Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg and alien-voiced hook singer Akon), that David Banner applies his gruff, fire-breathing voice to lyrics that are more or less about mayhem.

Here, for instance, is Banner on "9mm" (renamed "Speaker" when it was sent out as a radio single), barking about a shooting spree over hissing hi-hats, trunk-rattling drums, buzzing minor-key synths and squiggly keyboard stabs:

If I got nine slugs, nine bullets gonna fly

If I got a red beam, nine people gonna die

Nine mommas gonna cry

Nine spirits in the sky

Nine preachers preaching nine sermons, telling nine lies

'Cause each and every one of y'all nine [expletive] wasn't [expletive].

But he never explains the source of his rage, which makes for subpar storytelling, even if the rhyme scheme is fairly clever. Nor does Banner explain how he can complain about black-on-black crime and then commit some of it, in lyrics, just moments later.

The answer can probably be found in the bottom line: Banner, who says he holds a business degree from Southern University, has made no secret about his desire to craft a commercial smash. And the reality of the hip-hop marketplace is that sex and violence still sell. ("I get more chips if I call my mother a [expletive]," Banner notes during an a cappella rap.)

He's also betting that violent sex songs sell: "A Girl" is a grinding track with a disarmingly catchy beat on which the artist -- rapping in a near-whisper, just as he did on his biggest hit, 2005's "Play" -- wonders: "Do you like it when I grab your neck/And squeeze it till your face turn blue?/Could you please come and sign this waiver/If you pass out, girl, you can't sue."

This is the same guy who, in the stirring "Hold On," laments his role in the inevitable demise of a young hustler and sounds as if he's on the verge of tears before breaking into the Lord's Prayer?

In the lush, soulful "I Get By," Banner reflects on his childhood and wistfully wishes for a return to the days of "going to Grandma's house, little kids playing football in the streets." In the "Cadillac on 22's" sequel, he praises God and the people of Mississippi.

In "Faith," the album's most compelling story-song, he tells of being robbed in Birmingham and plotting his pistol-based revenge before God intervened, telling Banner to "stop, son, turn around/They took your possessions, but your soul's on safe ground." And then? "Two months later, I was riding through the 'Ham/I got a $10 million record deal, y'all/Damn."

This is Banner at his best. Too bad the tedious hard-core posturing is part of the package deal.

DOWNLOAD THESE:"Hold On," "Faith," "I Get By"