When it comes to rap, I usually stay away from it. Nowadays it’s cliche, full of recycled beats and made up words in an attempt to appear better than it actually is. Hip-hop is much more my thing. I appreciate the live instruments, the soul beats, and rhymes that make a thesaurus jealous. So after putting on the first song “So Long,” on David Banner’s “Fourth muthafuckin’ album: The Greatest Story Ever Told,” it should be a big deal that I got excited. A very fresh beat, on top of good rhymes with a positive message, set this album up to be something more than ordinary.

The third song on this CD, entitled “9mm,” is a song with 4 different artists, who have a unique style that blend nicely with the song, with the chorus by Akon, and verses from Lil Wayne, Banner and Snoop. This is just another song on the album that gives Banner credibility. The song “Cadillacs on 22s Part 2,” is a song with a rap beat and acoustic guitars and piano over it, making it one of the most different songs I’ve ever heard. About half the songs on this album are about modified cars – a topic even I can relate to.

With 21 tracks (around an hour and twenty minutes) this CD becomes the never-ending story rather than the greatest. It seems like he was just so proud of everything that got made, nothing got cut. The integrity of the first song is lost more and more as the CD goes along. Some of the songs are quite good, and the time and effort put into them does show. But this CD suffers from most of the things that make modern rap so cliche like violence, drug use and gangs. It’s not even so much that these things are negative, it’s just played out. It’s become a pissing contest between rappers to determine who’s the most badass. The main thing that makes this album stand out is definitely the beats. They’re different and not all electronic, and then there are some that are so electronic and different, they may have taken cues from Radiohead. Wrapping the CD up is a “Bonus Drum Beat,” which is just a jazz song that puts a good end to the whole thing. With guest appearances from many top 40 artists, this is for fans of any of Banner’s previous work, or anyone who finds typical radio rap good. The greatest story ever told? Hardly. The greatest rap CD to come out this month? Yeah, probably.