My favorite memory from high school basketball (and believe me, there were few) was a tradition that we partook in on the bus ride home after away game victories. This tradition was known as “roll call” and was a mix of comedic roast and rap battle, and anybody on the bus (coaches included) was eligible to be made fun of. The entire team would begin with a chant, which acted as a filler/chorus of sorts, until someone had come up with a rhyme to roast another teammate. In the rhyme, the speaker would always identify themselves as another teammate, then proceed to make fun of that person. The lyrics were immature and simplistic, but damn – they could be really funny. This might make very little sense – so I’ll give an example.
First the chant (always the same):
Shabooyah, ah, ah, Shabooyah Roll Call,
Shabooyah, ah, ah, Shabooyah Roll Call,
Then the diss:
My name is Tre, I get no girls,
Only thing worse than my game, is my Jerry Curl
Followed again by the chant:
Shabooyah, ah, ah, Shabooyah Roll Call,
Shabooyah, ah, ah, Shabooyah Roll Call
This process would be repeated again and again the entire bus ride back, with various teammates exchanging blows to one another. So what’s the point of this long, drawn-out intro? Basketball and hip-hop are connected in numerous ways – probably more so than any other genre / hobby / sport combination.
The culture of the two (basketball and hip-hop) are so inextricably linked, it would be nearly impossible to identify all the examples of their cross-over into one another’s history. ”The hip-hop culture” has constantly been the target of basketball purists who feel the NBA has turned “too thug” after the brawl in Detroit and likely led to the controversial NBA dress code. I’d like to make a start in identifying the linkages between the two in this blog post. Being a huge Carolina fan – yes, I am a Duke student – most of my anecdotal references will stem from UNC, so I am sure I’ll miss countless examples of linkages between the two.
Reference to Basketball in Hip-Hop Lyrics
It would be silly for anyone to try to identify all the times a rapper references basketball in lyrics. Luckily – one website has already started to: Every NBA Lyric Project. The site is awesome to scroll through and look at the various inclusions of NBA players in hip-hop lyrics. See something missing? Add it to the comments section and the website will update it.
My favorite reference would have to come from Wale. This is not because I’m a huge fanboy for him – when I heard the line, I literally geeked out and felt the need to tell everyone around me.
Wale – “Whole Time (Clean)” ft Young Chris
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Stop listening for a second and you missed it.
Tell them hos to bounce, like I am throwing an oop
Yeaaaah, my ode to Ed Cota…
Being short, I’ve always valued point guards more than any other player – and I grew up watching one of the best distributors of the basketball in college basketball history, Ed Cota. Ed Cota never played a game in the NBA due to a lack of scoring prowess – but teamed up with Vince Carter and Antawn Jamison, he delivered some incredible passes. The most famous of these – and what the line likely references – wasn’t even a completed dunk, but likely the greatest missed dunk in Carolina history.
Vince Carter – “The Almost Dunk”
The fact that a rapper has the ability to allude to a player who hasn’t been publicly relevant in 8 years is incredible to me. My second favorite reference comes from Jay-Z’s “Hola Hovito”.
I ball for real, y’all ni**as is Sam Bowie,
And with the 3rd pick – I made the earth sick,
M.J., him Jay, fade away – perfect
I don’t know what it is about that line, maybe its because I have it on a t-shirt – I’m not sure, but I love it.
The most blatant anthem to basketball was created for Bow Wow’s movie Like Mike. The song is kind of corny – but an underrated Fabolous makes up for it.
Bow Wow – “Basketball” featuring Jermaine Dupri, Fabolous, & Fundisha
Not every song glorifies the relationship between the two. Off of Talib Kweli’s Right About Now – The Official Sucka Free Mixtape, “Drugs, Basketball, & Rap” is a song professing the ability for young, black males to be successful in something other than drugs, basketball, or rap. Unfortunately, the verses of the song aren’t as relevant to the song title as the chorus.
Talib Kweli – “Drugs, Basketball & Rap” featuring Phil Da Agony & Planet Asia
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More recently, Lil Wayne recorded a tribute song to Kobe Bryant for the NBA playoffs.
Lil Wayne – “Kobe Bryant”
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Not sure you want the song to start with monologue from Stephen A. Smith – was there no Skip Bayless audio available? But seriously, Wayne does a real good job with track.
Citing examples like these could go on forever, so lets move on to the next section.
The Cross-Over
As long as professional basketball players have been making more money than they know what to do with – they’ve thought they had the ability to release rap records. The most famous example of this is Shaquille O’Neal – and his “hit” “Shoot, Pass, Slam”.
Shaq Diesel – “Shoot, Pass, Slam”
With lyrics like – “alli, alli, bama, go tell your pops and your mama, that Shaq is the man, period, comma” – its amazing he didn’t achieve more commercial success. That was sarcasm, hope it translates via the internet. Ron Artest has also sought out a rap career – owning his own record label, Tru Warier (no joke – that’s how its spelled). Artest is also better off sticking with basketball, his recently released MJ tribute is more comedic entertainment than respected tribute song.
Ron Artest – “Michael Michael”
This website looks at the 10 Most Notable NBA Rappers of All-Time, with appearances from Jason Kidd, Gary Payton, Tony Parker, Allen Iverson, and Kobe Bryant. More NBA players have pursued rap than you would think, so check it out.
One NBA player not mentioned on the site is Carolina alum, Rashad McCants. Rashad goes by the name Soze Permenente and has been pushing his rap career relentlessly via his twitter account – but hasn’t gotten much publicity to date. None of his tracks are available for download, but you can check them out on his myspace. If I didn’t know it was Rashad, I’d probably think it was pretty decent – but there is just something funny about Rashad rapping.
Soze Permenente – “D.O.A. (Remix)”
This track isn’t one of his better ones – so really do check out his myspace. In the meantime, Rashad should focus on getting signed for next season.
Now for the ace in the hole – Carolina’s Quentin Thomas. Quentin Thomas, commonly known as QT to fans, goes by the name GQ in the rapping world, a nickname given to him by Mike Copeland.
"He is an MC who can ball" - 9th Wonder
When I first heard of Quentin having a rap career, I was doubtful it was worth anything – but dude can rhyme. He allegedly spent hours upon hours in the studio at one of UNC’s libraries, and the hard work has payed off – recently linking him up with 9th Wonder. Like Rashad, Q doesn’t have any tracks to download yet – but him and 9th are in the process of releasing a mixtape. GQ’s myspace can be found here. Unlike the other ballers turned rappers Quentin is likely at a disadvantage because of his popularity, because unlike everyone else – his rap career is legitimate. Check this slideshow of Q in the studio with commentary from 9th.
But what about the flipside? MCs who can ball – in the words of 9th. While many rappers undoubtedly play basketball and were likely successful in high school, only one comes to mind who made it professionally – Masta P. Masta P has had two NBA contracts – both for preseason play – but thats pretty damn impressive for someone with a “successful” rap career. P’s biggest contribution to basketball is likely the ridiculously over-the-top video for “Make Em Say Uhh”. I mean, who else can put a tank on a basketball court? Masta P’s son, Lil Romeo, plays basketball for USC – though it was likely part of a ploy to generate star power for the basketball program.
Last Word
Going to lots of basketball camps when I was younger, I heard a lot of motivational speakers. The best one I ever heard was Kenny “The Jet” Smith. Kenny was long retired, and a regular on Inside the NBA on TNT and told us of his comeup as a basketball player. Being a motivational speaker, Kenny’s goal was to tell us to stay out of trouble, and keep working at what we wanted. He shared with us a pretty awesome story, and one that I’m going to end this post with. Growing up in New York – Kenny had a lot of friends who weren’t necessarily on the right track and involved with things that would certainly derail his basketball career. Knowing they were involved in things that weren’t necessarily beneficial to his future – Kenny needed a way to stay in touch without partaking in any illicit activities himself. Where Kenny found this common ground was hip-hop. Kenny didn’t take to freestyling or rapping, but as his friends would stand out on the corner in a freestyle cypher – Kenny would take two basketballs and lay down a beat for them through dribbling. I might have gotten some of the details in that story wrong – but being an impressionable youth at the time, that story has always stuck with me.
Posted by the Groove
i definitely LOLed at Shaq rapping, I remember back when that was the big thing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpbXl5Sp-Wc
I feel like this is the time to remind people of the other famous basketball rap hit…it was big on Radio Disney, back in the day…*shudder*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oITCug7v7Q