When you think about Southern hip-hop, politics isn't the first thing that comes to mind. In fact, there are very few rappers in general that have the guts and gumption to come out and make a political statement, especially when they're given the privileged opportunity to voice their opinion and speak for the people. Back in the '80s, songs like Grandmaster Flash and the Furious 5's "The Message" and Public Enemy's "Don't Believe the Hype" addressed issues like poverty and political injustice, and rappers were clearly adamant about putting these problems at the forefront of social consciousness.

So it comes with relief that there are still a few emcees out there that wax political on their tracks, and no one has done this more than Mississippi-based rapper David Banner. The sharp-tongued Banner recently visited Congress to speak at a hearing on African American Media Stereotypes in the wake of Don Imus' infamous statement, just one of his many political ventures in the struggle for racial and social equality.

Technically his fifth album (even though he states it's his fourth at the start of the record), The Greatest Story Ever Told shows Banner airing his frustrations about this generation's indifference and, in its true essence, making his album a certified news report on what's going on in the hood.