After referring to 2006 as the “worst year of my life,” Mississippi native David Banner is gearing up to release his next album, The Greatest Story Ever Told.

The socially active emcee spent last year working out issues for everyone else while his career was taking a turn downward.

“My father had brain and lung cancer, and I had high blood pressure because I was working 18-hour days,” he explained to Billboard. “I took on too much responsibility. I did volunteer work for six months for Hurricane Katrina but my own business wasn’t right.”

Slated for a late Summer release the set will feature Banner’s usual mix of club, cruising and rock tinged tracks.

In addition, Banner’s animated series, That Crook’d Sipp, recently debuted on the Cartoon Network. He offers the voice of the main character, a young progressive black man named Virgil who tells the story of the Beauregards, a white family trapped in the 1800’s in Mississippi but living in 2007.