DAVID BANNER HAS A BEEF WITH THE MEDIA

Master P plans to open youth centers across the country. (Orig 10/2/2007)

Rapper, producer, and aspiring actor David Banner has a bone to pick with the media. The rapper isn’t happy that his fundraising efforts have failed to garner any media attention. His Heal the Hood Foundation has raised over $500,000 to aid Hurricane Katrina victims in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama but has barely got a mention in major periodicals.

The rapper told MTV.com, “It upset me because I felt like people should have seen more about it. Now if I was beefing with somebody or shot somebody, it would be all over the marquee everywhere.”

He added, “To be a young black male and be able to pull off something with 17 of the greatest (hip-hop) artists ever and then not really get the full (exposure) to really show other young black males what you can do for your own community, it was sort of blow.”

Banner is upset but he isn’t discouraged. He said, “I plan on doing more benefits. But one thing with me is I don’t want to take advantage of artists who donate their time, because you have to understand that artists who are at the caliber of Nelly are donating a lot of money out of their pocket on top of how much it costs for them to donate a show. They could be somewhere else getting big paper, so I (don’t want to) just use my organization to draw money from artists — I’m trying to find alternative ways, too.”