David Banner’s latest release, The Greatest Story Ever Told (Universal/SRC, 2008) goes beyond the realm of music as it dives deep into the rapper’s history, from being the first lyricist to hail from Mississippi to the trials and tribulations he’s faced for the past year and a half.

“I’ve been through so much in my career—more specifically the past year—that I wanted this album to really tell my story,” the 35-year-old rapper (born Lavell Crump) from Jackson, Mississippi says. “2006 was the worst for me. I faced depression, Katrina, high blood pressure…I literally almost died. Then, my dad died, Pimp C (one of my greatest allies) died, and I broke up with someone who was really important to me. I went from being all the way up to down, back to up again.”

Banner’s hip-hop story begins when his uncle first introduced him to the music. “My uncle used to be a hip-hop DJ early in the game, and he gave me all his old records,” Banner explains, who takes his hip-hop name from the ’70s TV series The Incredible Hulk. “I had a little record player and would rap along to the records. From there, I’d rap at school and talent shows. I knew I wanted to be a rapper since I was in the sixth grade.” But, Banner took his passion for the music one step further and decided to attend Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to major in business, where he was also president of the school’s Student Government Association. “I majored in business because I wanted to learn how to run my own record label,” he says. “Rap was always my motivation in life, and it is through rap that I’ve been able to do a lot of things.”

But, Banner’s education didn’t always come in handy in the beginning of his rap career. In 1999, Banner helped put Mississippi on the hip-hop map as one half of the rap duo Crooked Lettaz, but after getting screwed over with a record deal from Penalty Records after he moving to New York City, Banner was left homeless in the Big Apple. “Some nice lady let me sleep on her floor for a month,” he recalls. “I was then motivated to go home and start my own independent label. I pressed my own CDs and sold thousands of records on the street corners of my neighborhood. From there, everything just fell in to place.” Banner broke out nationally in 2003 with a pair of albums, Mississippi: The Album and MTA2: Baptized in Dirty Water, but neither gave him the mass recognition his lyrical prowess deserved, which is why he really placed his whole heart and soul into the his current release.