Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James and Golden State Warrior forward Kevin Durant are arguably the two biggest stars in this year’s NBA Finals. Earlier this week, rumors surfaced that the duo recorded a rap song in 2011, the same year the NBA had a lockout. The rumors were later confirmed as a Cleveland studio leaked a 23-second snippet of the track.
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Durant’s rapping career has been public for a few years, but James’ has been on the more private side over the same time span. The collaboration brings up an interesting look at some other rappers in the NBA. Portland Trailblazers guard Damian Lillard is arguably the greatest rapper in the league’s history. Last year, he released his album The Letter O under his rap name of Dame Dolla. The album featured Jamie Foxx, Raphael Saadiq, and Lil Wayne. Lillard’s bars are filled with the story of his life and uplifting his community.
“There [have] been times when an athlete might want to be respected and they try to take a different route with their music,” Lillard said in an interview with SLAM magazine. “Trying to completely take on the rapper persona. I would say that was the one thing that I didn’t want to do. I know that I was never in the streets. I was never a bad person. A lot of my music I’m talking about where I’ve lived and the way I feel about stuff and the way I see it.”
When Houston Rockets guard Lou Williams tore his ACL in 2013, he used his free time to create a mixtape titled Here Goes Nothin. The mixtape featured Meek Mill and 2 Chainz. Williams’ flow resembles a lot of other NBA rappers, as a simple line-after-line rhythm fit for the party scene.
In his post-game interview of the 2010 NBA Finals Game 7, former Los Angeles Lakers forward Metta World Peace said that he once created a song named “Champion” and the single was going to be released soon. That same summer, the song was released and became a part of the NBA 2K11 soundtrack.
James’ teammate Iman Shumpert is also one of the more impressive rappers in the league. His delivery and voice fit in with the rest of the hip-hop world. In November 2015, he released a music video for his song “Build Em,” which not only showed off his music abilities but his acting skills as well. In the music video, Shumpert is simulating a day just like one in the popular video game series “Grand Theft Auto” while roaming the streets of Cleveland, Ohio.
The newest inductee of the NBA rap family is Lonzo Ball, who participated in the “#SoGoneChallenge” last summer and recently spit a verse over Drake’s “Free Smoke” beat. Ball uses most of the new school flows from Drake to Kanye West-influenced rhythms.
The 1990s/00s era saw the league’s biggest stars not only rap but come out with entire albums. Hall of Famers Shaquille O’Neal and Allen Iverson came out with albums. Shaq’s style was more on the old-school side, while Iverson’s side was definitely on the more gangsta rap side. Iverson, also known as the rapper Jewels, rapped about mostly guns and violence for nearly three minutes on “40 Bars” and even dissed Jay Z at one point in time.The beef was surrounding drama about a woman that Iverson, Jay Z, and Nas all had relations with allegedly around the same time period. Future Hall of Famer Kobe Bryant also released a rap album. Bryant’s rap career included features with Brian McKnight and Tyra Banks.
The narrative of ballers want to be rappers and vice versa is certainly evident, but the culture of NBA rappers is in a world of its own.
