In this episode of Best Albums, Unique Access’s Soren Baker sits down with rapper and activist David Banner to discuss Goodie Mob’s Soul Food album.
“It literally changed my life,” David Banner explains, adding that he was at a point in his life where he could go right or way left.
Banner goes into a story about how Goodie Mob used to be a robbery crew. “For me to hear this album, I knew that it wasn’t some guys who were holier than thou talking down to the streets,” Banner recalls. “These were guys who lived one way, but chose to give their people something else. This showed me that I could do that. I had already gone back to the streets and was sleeping on couches and homeless in a lot of cases. It was real stuff that they were saying and I mean real old school grandfather shit coming from young men who could have chosen to do something else and it changed my whole life.”
Soren Baker agrees with Banner. “I think to your point it kicks off right that way with the first song ‘Free,'” Baker says. “You hear the Soul Food is so appropriate on so many levels, but the soul part of it with the singing and it has somewhat of a sermon feel to kick the album off’ and that was so striking because in 1995 a rap album from the south didn’t sound like that.”
Banner agrees. “The whole album had a spirit about it and OutKast was my favorite group, but Soul Food was my favorite album…I felt that I would look at the world through hip-hop now, I feel like I am looking at hip-hop. If Soul Food was gumbo, you felt like you were in the pot while listening to this album.
“It’s okay to be you,” David Banner adds regarding the impact of Soul Food. “I really think Soul Food brought the spirit and OutKast was the mind, but Goodie Mob was the heart and soul I think that’s the legacy.”