"At One Point, I Was Willing To Give It All Up"

According to Banner, there once was a time when he contemplated quitting music.

"This has actually been the best year of my life," Banner said in an interview. "Nobody really gave me a hand, played my records or helped me after I had done all the stuff that I did and it was really hard for me. [2005's Hurricane] Katrina was my recession. At one point, I was willing to give it all up. God forced me to find other ways of being successful. I said I would never be in that situation again, where music was the only thing, [where] rapping was the only thing that I was doing." (Billboard)

Last year, Banner talked about the rap game losing strength in its overall message and making quality music.

"People don't even mix and master records anymore," Banner said in a blog post. "They don't care about the quality of music anymore and it's turning it into sh*t and it's our fault. All these blog sites and magazines are doing the same thing with the bullsh*t politics. The media ain't sh*t, they only care about screwing each other. It ain't about how good you can rap anymore. Dope beats? What happened to that? Now it's all about what features a rapper is going to have or who he's having sex with. But we allowed it to happen and it's our fault. Don't blame it on no regions or anybody. Blame it on yourself for not liking better music, the magazines and blogs need to put out better information." (VIBE)