David Banner isn’t the sort of person who checks his cell phone at dinner. The Mississippi-born rapper-actor-producer makes a point of being a true Southern gentleman; he’ll tell you that two of his top priorities are honesty and punctuality.

But tonight at a West Village cafe, he just can’t contain himself. He tilts the screen of his iPhone in my direction to reveal a series of PayPal notifications—increments of $2, $5, $20—all headed straight to his account, payments for his new album Sex, Drugs & Video Games. A smile erupts across his face.

“I have one of the dopest albums that’s gonna come out this year, period,” he declares. “We’re going to show you how dope this album is by every two weeks dropping a new single … By the time the fans get to May 22, they’re [going to be] like, ‘Damn, this is worth at least a dollar, but we may give him $100 on the effort!’”

For his latest release, Banner is applying a novel business model: Fans donate what they can via his website, and he’ll release the entire 16-song album as soon as he reaches his goal of 2 million donations. Unlike a Kickstarter project, though, he’ll release his regardless on May 22nd. And with a guest list that includes Lil Wayne, Snoop Dogg, Chris Brown and others, he certainly has a chance of reaching the 2 million mark sooner than later.

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