David Banner - Certified

Certificate of Mediocrity

Crunk. It’s what’s hot in the streets right now. Or it was about two years ago. It seems that David Banner gained recognition during the “A-Town Revolution” back when it was cool to yell on the verses and scream on the hooks. Excuse me sir, but I think it is time to move on. To his credit, he has dispensed some of the hottest beats of this very young century. But for an artist like Banner, I expect more from his solo efforts. Banner comes off as one of the few artists of the Crunk Era that mixes in actual substance with his style. This album is half and half. Half of that good ol’ down south, homegrown ignorance and the other half is good, but still not what I expect from David David David Banner.

Certified opens with the unfamiliar: a rock guitar in a southern hip hop track. Lost Souls provides what to look for in a David Banner album; His ability to talk shit about what’s going on with his people. Treat Me Like is the classic rumble in the club song, a niche carved out by the south. Banner also gets a little help from the L.O.X.’s front man Jadakiss. On Everything mixes with one of Chi-town’s finest to create, what I think, is the hottest track on the record. Westside is an ode to his hip hop heroes out West in which he employs the West Coast sound to compliment his dirty south flow. The pimp mentality on record, created and perfected by none other than Too Short is on display with Take Your featuring Bun B.

Banner gathers the help of many different artists on his latest LP. Jada, Too Short, Dead Prez, Kweli and Bun B just to name a few. But what is special about these collaborations is that, with their styles, they find a way to meet in the middle, creating a hybrid geographical mix. And Banner is never afraid to let you know where he is from. But the weakness of the album lies in the chanty and repetitive hooks in which he (or someone else) yells the same thing over and over again. It may slide for a few songs but more than half the album is way too much. Other than that, Certified is tolerable. It’s not one of those records that’s going to jump out at you when you put it on. But it’s good, and nothing more.

Hot Trax: Lost Souls, On Everything, Take Your, Ridin