The Hurricane Katrina disaster has kept David Banner busy these days. With the help of some of hip-hop’s brightest stars, Banner brought his Heal the Hood benefit show to the big apple.
Much like the previous show in Atlanta, an all star cast of east coast talent gathered at B.B. King’s to show support and raise funds for the victims. M-1, one half of dead prez organized the event, which featured performances by Banner, Memphis Bleek, Remy Ma, dead prez, Saigon and others.
It was Banner’s second benefit show in four days. At Saturday’s benefit at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, he urged displaced people to return to their native homes.
“I wanna speak to my people in New Orleans for a few seconds,” he told the crowd. “I want to speak for my people in the Gulf of Mississippi and Alabama. I need y’all to do something for me. I need y’all to make sure that you go back home. I’mma tell you why. These people are about to build casinos around the French Quarter … they been waiting to tear our ghettos down and get our people away from our land … they about to spend billions of dollars in our ‘hoods, and we ain’t getting a cent of it. Watch Mississippi — it’s about to turn into the next Las Vegas.”
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Never one to bite his tongue, Banner also had words for our government.
“They call us good-for-nothing gangsta rappers,” he also told the Atlanta crowd. “And we ain’t supposed to be cursing ’cause there’s kids in here. But I just want to say it’s a damn shame that a gangsta rapper can stand up for the United States before our own government.”
After the curtains closed and both benefits concluded, Mississippi’s Native Son took time out to chat with MTV.com about the experience.
I know people are hurting right now, but we have to be proud of ourselves. To say that we are urban artists and we pulled something together with no help from corporations — come on, that’s something to be proud of.”
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Source: MTV.com
