David Banner once picked out what made Lil Wayne different: “The fact that he calls himself a martian may be the truth”
Lil Wayne is one of the biggest rappers of his generation. His skills and versatility as a lyricist have seen collaborators shower him with praise, and David Banner is one of the lucky ones who have been able to witness it first-hand.
The producer has credited the New Orleans rapper as someone who thinks outside the box and raps over unconventional beats. Unlike others in the industry, Banner said Lil Wayne has never been afraid to take on his instrumentals.
“Wayne is the one of the only rappers in this generation who doesn’t mind breaking out of the everyday mold of what people think records should be,” he told XXL. “A lot of rappers like my beats but they’re afraid to be creative. Wayne is not that type of artist and that’s why I enjoy working with him the most. The fact that he calls himself a martian may be the truth, because musically, he wants to push paths of what rappers are doing.”
David Banner collaborated with Lil Wayne on ‘La La’ from Tha Carter III, with the song also featuring Busta Rhymes and Brisco. Banner actually made the beat for the Shrek the Third movie, but Weezy felt like tasking himself with the obscure instrumental.
“I got a call at the last moment by my movie agent and they were having a problem with one of the tracks on Shrek 3 and needed a track,” he said. “It was going to be an instrumental or a song, but either way, it wasn’t designed for a rapper. So that within itself shows the dexterity and what [Wayne] was doing.”
He continued, “What’s crazy is, Wayne would be in the studio with Nelly or somebody, and I’ll see them in the streets and they’ll be like, ‘Man, this song [with] Wayne got through you is so crazy. I don’t believe this shit.’ Then I was going through one of my beat CDs with Busta, and Busta heard the ‘La La’ beat and was like, ‘Man! I peeped this shit with Wayne! Shit’s fucking crazy, dog! It’s the second coming!'”
‘La La’ isn’t the only track David Banner produced on Tha Carter III; he was also behind ‘Pussy Monster’, which replaced ‘Playing with Fire’ on a new version of the album. A lawsuit was filed against Lil Wayne by Abkco Music Inc., alleging copyright infringement and unfair competition regarding ‘Playing with Fire’. The label claimed the song derived from The Rolling Stones’ ‘Play with Fire’, forcing Wayne to remove it from the project completely.
Lil Wayne and David Banner have teamed up many times over the years, including two songs from his 2008 album The Greatest Story Ever Told: ‘Shawty Say’ and ‘9MM’ with Snoop Dogg and Akon.
Despite their longtime relationship, Banner sued Wayne for around $138,000 in 2015 for missing royalties on ‘Pussy Monster’ and ‘Streets Is Watchin’ from the Young Money album, We Are Young Money. A couple of years later, Weezy ended up paying roughly $164,000 due to interest.