David Banner recently spoke Billboard about his recent venture into the world of advertising. Banner already has two commercials under his belt, providing the original music for commercials from companies like Gatorade and Motorola. The Mississippi rapper talked about what pushed him into advertising. He also discussed how advertising gives him the liberty to pursue other musical interests because it assures him a paycheck in case his own musical experimentation does not prove as financially viable.
“My experience was unique because it was a vision that I had a while back,” he explains. “I was watching TV, and I honestly didn’t like the [music] that I was hearing on TV…it’s funny because now, I even tell brands to this day that when you make a commercial that sucks, people are not going to stop buying your product…but if you make a great commercial, people will buy more…for me, it was just about putting myself in a position to make better music and not just make jingles, [but] make songs… songs that people want to download [and] want to be a part of, regardless of whether they like the product or not. I wanted the songs to be actually bigger than the product, and it seems to be working.”
He later added, “[Advertising] is something I can do for the rest of my life. The thing that people don’t understand as far as [being] an artist is that I can’t continue making the songs that I made five, six years ago. I’m a grown man now, so this gives me the opportunity to be free as I possibly can be because I’m going to be very honest with you, the money that I’m making from advertising is so much more than what I make in the music industry, unless I’m on tour every day, all day. That gives me the opportunity to make the kind of music that comes from my heart, and if people accept it, it’s cool. If they don’t, I’ll just go do another Gatorade commercial.”
Banner also discussed the making of his critically acclaimed Gatorade “Evolution” commercial, seen here. He says that the song he and singer Kermit Quinn made for the ad came out of a group meeting with the company. Banner also revealed that the lyrics to the song were essentially written on the spot during a Skype session.
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“That [commercial] was an idea that [the Gatorade advertising team] came up with,” he said. “They gave me the principles, and I had done the music already and they were so impressed they said, ‘Why don’t you do something like, if you want a revolution, evolve.’ And I was like, ‘Hey, that’s actually it!’ What’s amazing is, and a lot of people haven’t heard this story before, but I actually penned the song in front of the G-Team…we were on Skype, back and forth with [Kermit Quinn], the artist that was singing, and I was writing the lyrics and beaming it to [the G-Team], so they were actually a part of the process.”
The full interview with David Banner can be seen below.
