So, David Banner is obviously not a bad artist or musician. He doesn't even have that bad content in his music, especially when compared to his peers and contemporaries. He's very thoughtful about what he says in his music, even if it seems abrasive or provocative in it's delivery. That's where the dilemma begins for me.The music isn't bad, the lyrics aren't trash... In fact, The God Box is HIGHLY ambitious and aspirational. That may be what rubs me the wrong way about it. It tries too hard. It tries to cover too many bases at one time. As an artist myself with a set of artists of my own whom I've always looked to for inspiration creatively, there's some things about this album that just didn't feel right musically and lyrically.Case in point: Early in the project, there's a song featuring Black Thought called "Who Want It". Hands down, my favorite song on the album and not just because Black Thought is on it! The whole thing sounds like Stone Cold Steve Austin is about to stomp down to the ring and deliver Stunners all around. As a B-side, you have a song like "Marry Me". Not a favorite. Not a bad song. Not a bad message. It's just trying to hard to be what it is. As the wise Peter Griffin might say, "It INSISTS on itself." That dichotomy pretty much encompasses how the whole album feels.The song "My Uzi" itself tries to cram SO MUCH creativity into one track that you pretty much lose the point by the time you get to the end. That's about as much as I can actually remember from the whole album as I only listened to it twice other than "Who Want It".So, why do I give it 5 stars? I'll admit, I was rooting for David Banner leading up to it's release and watching his Facebook live streams. I became much more enamored with his character than his music. There's an ultimate goal behind what he does that I believe in and I see it translated into this work. I respect it A LOT. I wouldn't punch anybody in the face for playing it around me; but I wouldn't go out of my way to rewind the majority of the album's tracks other than for analysis' sake. Again, not even that the songs are bad. They're GOOD. They're what music sounds like. David Banner is no hack who doesn't know what he's doing. The man scores movies! There's just a certain cohesion missing that would make each track tie to one another (most people don't seem to care about that in the streaming age) and each song tries so hard to show what it's about and insist on it's own premise to the point of... Predictability? Am I one of those snobby rap connoisseurs who only gets off on songs with an M. Night Shymalan plot twist and a hidden message? Not quite. I enjoy plenty of more straight forward artists of a similar vein to David Banner. But they don't seem to be trying as hard to get their point across. It just is what it is when they say it. End of discussion.I couldn't bring myself to tell anybody this album is bad. I will definitely say it's not for ME. It's musically as good as anything you'd get out of any top tier artist today (J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, etc.) but it lacks their subtlety and poetic value. They HAND you the flowers where David Banner kinda "Hulk Smashes" them into your chest. But I absolutely respect the effort! Listen for yourself! Maybe you'll get something out of it that I didn't.