The 4th Dimension of Banner

When most people think of music, they think of the auditory value, and how they can interpret it sonically. Many times they do not consider the picture it paints in your head. Similar to how a good novel with no illustrations can still conjure up your imagination to tailor fit vivid visuals of the content of the book, music has an intense magical ability to do the same if not to an even greater extent. Many people neglect that “4th dimension” to the music, the real of aesthetic value. Bell Hooks describes this in great detail in her Black Aesthetics article, and I will illustrate with my words how David Banner’s album Mississippi paints a colorful world interpreted through the senses more than it is through simple literate competency of reading the black and white lyrics of a printed page. Do you ever wonder why Hip-Hop music is so huge outside of the U.S. in foreign countries where the don’t even understand the lyrics of the song? It is because they can still to a great extent experience this alternate dimension of aesthetic value the music delivers. Just like you having to stop and carefully listen to a beat to identify each magical instrument separately bouncing on it’s on rhythm beautifully on it’s own yet still complimenting the overall harmonic beauty of the “whole” production

Just examining the cover of the album you see a photographic indication of what the rest of the album holds. You see David Banner’s face unapologetically bold and saturated with emotion that you know is waiting to spontaneously erupt on you the second you tap play on your Ipod. This depiction alone arouses curiosity, why is his facial expression so extreme? Just like a nicely decorated cake’s alluring luscious frosting it makes you want to not waste a second to start digging into the disc to find out it’s underlying and quite possibly rich content. After listening to the album in it’s rollercoaster of an experience entirety I must say it does a great job in aesthetically of painting a picture of Mississippi and all the visual, emotional, and physical beauty which coexists with the harsh realities in Banner’s hometown of Jackson, Mississippi. “We from a Place where my soul still don’t feel free/ where a flag means more than me!” Banner stresses on the album’s self- titled track. Many may argue this line as well as others on this album are too extreme but I feel John Berger from Bell Hooks article has a good interpretation of this when he says “ when an experience is ‘offered up’ it is not expected to be in any way transformed. It’s apotheosis should be instant”.

One thing is sure, Banner does a hell of a job painting a picture for my senses to indulge into. “Pinky ring on my hand, peanut butter top (lovin wood)……..and we still eating chicken in the club bitch!” I marinate my senses in lines like this because it provides the rich visual of his environment yet leaves the intellectual interpretation and emotional conclusion to be reached by the listener. Banner pours the aesthetics to you in such a consistency that you would think your were trying to drink the whole Mississippi river through a kitchen funnel, overwhelming I tell you! I can almost feel the dirt of the delta filling my nostrils and see the acres of cotton fields, the “crackaz” banner describes regulating the crack trade and of course the delicious fried chicken being eaten in the club as the bass probably bumps so hard that it probably knocks the crispy skin right off the southern poultry. Bell Hooks stresses how “art was also a way to escape one’s plight” and you see this in Banner’s work. He seems to thrust the emotionally charged harsh experience at you so hard that it seems it gives him a certain extent of relief to be able to have an outlet to channel this pain. Then when the club bangers such as like a pimp come on you see the art which depicts the activity used to escape the plight. Watching the video in class I recognized the visual aesthetics of a packed parking lot signifying the intensity of the community, the confederate flag which my mind took as a illustration centerpiece and quickly drew in the surrounding racially tense environment which probably exists in Jackson. It seems after examining Bells Hooks statement of “Art was necessary to bring delight, pleasure, and beauty into lives that were hard, that were materially deprived” is when I understand why Banner had such a strong and over the top like demeanor in expressing himself with such rich aesthetic. It was because the harsher the environment the stronger the emotion accumulated and ultimately the more potent the expression in the music.