David Banner released a stellar album in 2017’s The God Box. Mississippi’s mainstream Rap pioneer involved Black Thought, Big K.R.I.T., CeeLo Green, Raheem DeVaughn, and Tito Lo were all involved in the Banner Vision/EMPIRE LP.

A focal point of the album (presently included on the official Ambrosia For Heads playlist) is “Magnolia.” Banner uses a tree to illustrate the ugly past the southern tree has with Black people.

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One of the highlights of the album features pointed and symbolic words like, “I’m so older but I’m young in my spirit / From the blood I’d hear it / From Mr. Malcom, Garvey and Marley / Then she started to tell me / How she was used in the lynching of Blacks / Branch cracked, broke her arms so his neck wouldn’t snap / And if I wouldn’t rap, I’d probably meet the same damn fate / From the same damn rope, I’m ’bout the same damn weight / I said, ‘Wait, man, wait’ / I still got the nooses just loose and they tighten that b*tch up / When I’m speakin’ the truth / They need proof that God exist / So, I gave The God Box.”

Now D.B. releases the video to “Magnolia,” complete with a dazzling CeeLo Rap display to follow David’s. With plenty of Hollywood experience, the visual is polished and powerful. It works as a dreamy vignette, with both tree and matriarch on display (showing the symbolism), and some of the other figures and iconography Banner references in this song’s lyrics. The footage is mixed with kaleidoscopic sequences to show the confusion that still lurks, regarding racism in the American South and beyond.

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CeeLo’s story verse of a Black officer killed by police is played out dramatically, supported with images of blood on the magnolia flowers. The video is jarring and poetic, just like The God Box.