To me, hip-hop and sports are tightly intertwined. I’ve never really been able to put a finger on why, exactly, I have trouble separating my love for hip-hop from my love for sports at times. It’s not a race thing, either – I associate hip hop with sports, period, not just with basketball or football (oh, and I’m white…so, so white). From thinking of which song I’d come out to if I were a fighter or batter to which songs I would play during breaks in play at NBA or NHL games, this less than obvious duo has stumped me for a long time.
But it’s not just me, apparently. And 1 Mixtapes are set to hip hop music. Fighters and boxers come out to hip hop songs. I drafted Warrick Dunn in a fantasy league once because ESPN did a feature on him to the song “Fireman” by Lil’ Wayne. And on it goes. The basketball-hip-hop tag team combination may make sense on the surface, but it’s my opinion that sports and hip-hop are intertwined regardless of a game’s prominence in urban areas.
What makes me think this? Other than my own glaring self-serving bias, I have a body of evidence on the part of rappers and athletes alike supporting my claim. So, what follows is a collection of my favorite hip hop lyrics that are related to sports, whether they mention athletes, teams, or just sports in a topical manner.
The list is by no means a ranking and is by no means exhaustive. When it comes to hip-hop music, I like what I like and don’t listen to the rest, as I’m sure most people do. Thus, I’m imploring all of you to contribute to this list in the comments. I probably missed a lot, anyways. There’s a good chance I’ll re-release this piece down the line as a more comprehensive piece that includes your inputs (hence the ‘First Edition’ in the title). For now, have a chuckle at some of these gems and duds, and please play homage to the sport-lyric awesomeness that is Lil’ Wayne.
The Lil’ Wayne Division
“Weezy F Baby, for the team I rep daily / I come to the defense like Champ Bailey” – Lil’ Wayne, Shine On (by Baby)
“I’m like what it do, what it do / there’s a full court pressure, I’m just going for the two / if I’m open for the three, I’ma take it in a second / even if there’s one second, I’ma make it like it’s nothing” – Lil’ Wayne, Hustler Musik
“Now you know I play it, like a pro in the game / naw, better yet a veteran, a Hall of Fame” – Lil’ Wayne, Go DJ
“And I aint gettin Hitch / I’m gettin paid for, call me Money Mitch / ballin’ like Tony Gwynn” – Lil’ Wayne, I Took Her
“Then the style switch so quick / have you think the disc skipped / pimpin’ serious / make them bring it back like pass interference” – Lil’ Wayne, Diamonds & Girls
“I can play basketball with the moon, I got the whole world at my feet / playin’ touch football on Marijuana Street / or in a marijuana field, you are so beneath my cleats” – Lil’ Wayne, I Feel Like Dying
“N***a please, we on J-E-Ts / like Curtis Martin in white and green” – Lil’ Wayne, Kush
“Never talk to those that sit on the benches / I was in the game on 4th and inches” – Lil’ Wayne, Hard Body
“Still got Mami limp-oh / little bitty put his thang down like Mutumbo” – Lil’ Wayne, You Know What (by Avant)
“And when it’s cold, I turn into Wayne Gretzky” – Lil’ Wayne, I’m Raw
“And when it comes down to this recording / I must be LeBron James if he’s Jordan / no, I want rings for my performance / I’m more a Kobe Bryant of an artist” – Lil’ Wayne, Dough is What I Got
“You see me with my Marbury posture / I don’t play ball, I point-guard every dollar” – Lil’ Wayne (can’t find which song)
“I’m just headlinin’ the game / Won’t quit ‘till I’m A-Rod in the game” – Lil’ Wayne, Lightin’ Up My (La La La)
The Fabolous Divison
“I play them diamonds well like I get that jewellery on / they should call me Karat Jeter, or maybe Canary Bonds” – Fabolous, Diamonds on My Damn Chain
“They tried to put two nine’s on me, just like Gretzky / but my lawyer saw through it, just like wet T’s” – Fabolous, In My Hood
“In Houston I pass hoes in the Astros” – Fabolous, Throw Back
“I get the spirit in St. Louis, how could the God lose? I do back flips in the Ozzie Cardinals” – Fabolous, Throw Back
“I pitch game, you should see the change up I throw / aint gotta get ‘em a ring to get ‘em to swing” – Fabolous, Change Up
“And I’m a good player, I listen to the coach / she show me the playbook and said this is the approach / if you ever wanna score / ‘cuz some players rush they shot, and that’s why they’re never on the floor” – Fabolous, First Time
“They’ll throw it to you faster than Schilling and Clemens / but feelings aint the only thing that you can catch now” – Fabolous, Holla at Somebody Real
My Favorites
“I used to run bass like Juan Pierre / now I run bass high-hat with the snare” – Jay-Z, Deja Vu (by Beyonce)
“Bottom of the 9th and I really gotta score / if not I gotta move on to the next w**re” – J-Kwon, Tipsy
“When I get done it’s smooth sailing once I pull that ‘Lac out / next destination: I move forward like Jerry Stackhouse” – Ludacris, Woozy
“Life of a don, lights keep glowin, comin’ in the club with that fresh s*** on, with something crazy on my arm / and here’s another hit, Barry Bonds” – Kanye West, Barry Bonds
“You make me feel like I just hit the lotto / other girls, I give ‘em a shoulder colder than Chicago / but in your center I Heat it up in the Mourning like Alonzo” – Ludacris, Woozy
“When it comes to these women, dawg, aint no one f***in’ with me / they runnin’ back, you think I had a T.J. Duckett with me / that’s cause I throw it like Vick from the yard line / menage a trois, it’s safe to say I’m havin’ hard times” – Ludacris (f. Notorious B.I.G.), Living in Pain
“If you a thug or a rap artist, respect me like Pesci / and if rap was hockey, I be Gretzky” – Styles, N****s Done Started Something (by DMX)
“I got heart like John Starks” – Beastie Boys, Get it Together
“She ordered Kobe beef like Shaquille O’Neal / second I stepped in, the whole room gets still / I don’t know how to put this, but I’m kind of a big deal” – Kanye West, Back Like That Remix (by Ghostface Killah)
“I’ma Crip Walk to get Dre, and Blood Bounce back / Heat on the track, dribble rock like Wade and bounce like Shaq” – The Game, Bang
“You’re in a hurry, slow down, I don’t like how you’re actin’ / treat you like you from Milwaukee, send you Green Bay Packin’” – Nelly, Pimp Juice
The Not-So-Gangster, Not-So-Good Division
“We don’t think the same / I’m like Josh Howard, I need time out, but it’ll cost the game” – Joe Budden, Crazy Remix (by Gnarls Barkley)
“I leave ‘em shakin like the hands on Muhammad Ali / on the mic, I’m like the man Muhammad Ali” – Shawn Jay (of Field Mob), It’s Over
“You’re wicky wack with your ticky tack calls, didn’t touch you at all / I didn’t touch your hand, man, you know it’s all ball” – Beastie Boys, Hey F*** You
“You know how we do / we stay on your crew / like Mario Lemieux” – A Tribe Called Quest, Keep it Rollin’
“Focused on every word and line, like a young Cassius Clay in his prime” – Killer Mike, Flip Flop Rock (by Big Boi)
The “Full Song” Division
Halftime Show – Cam’ron (tonnes of sports references)
Right Thurr (NBA Live 2004 Remix) – Chingy
Flipside (NBA Live 2004 Remix) – Freeway
NBA Live 2004 – Twista (yes, that’s the song’s name)
Battlegrounds – T.I. (street basketball song)
Batter Up – Nelly (baseball song)
The Athlete-Cum-Rapper Division
Ron Artest (on his own record label, Tru Warrier Records) – decent, but crazy
Allen Iverson (aka Jewelz) – decent, but generic
Roy Jones Jr. – good on a Youngbloodz track (I Smoke, I Drink remix) but otherwise unimpressive
Master P – kind of the reverse, he had a try-out with the Raptors
Lil’ Romeo – son of Master P, rapper heading to USC as an 18th string point guard
Chris Webber – couldn’t find the song but allegedly he tried it
Shaquille O’Neal – Shaq Diesel, baby!
Kobe Bryant – appeared on a few mixtape tracks, debatable if it was actually him
Deion Sanders – ditto to Kobe
Tony Parker – raps in French, even had Fabolous on a track with a lame video
Cedric Ceballos – I have no proof, but I read about it before
Andre Rison – ditto to Ceballos
Gary Payton – ditto to Kobe and Neon Deion
Troy Hudson – weak, weak, weak
The illest ever!
Cut ya ears off and asked if you heard me/ Cuz your not worthy like James without the Laker jersey
C-Rayz Walz, “The Smackdown” (Apathy)
Nelly, E.I. -
I’m fast (uh) double takes when you walk past me
Nasty, don’t be scared boo, go ahead and ask me
I drive fasty, call me Jeff Gordon
in a black SS wit a navagation
“It’s A New Game And I’m The Coach Like Avery
Leave It To The Flow We Getting Doe Like A Bakery
I Don’t Really Want To But These Niggas Making Me
Put A Motherfucker On Ice Like The Maple leaves
That’s A Hockey Team And I Ain’t On No Hockey Team
But I’m A Champion Where’s The Fucking rocky theme?
Damn Rest In Peace Applo Creed” upgrade u by lil weezy
grab a lost rebound like Bo Outlaw/ I’m so outlaw- Jay-Z
“It’s gettin’ kinda tragic, and if you don’t believe me, then go ask Magic” – Coolio, ‘Too Hot’
“I’m like Gnarls Barkley meets Charles Barkley” – Kanye West, ‘The Glory’
“I wanna get you in the Georgia Dome, on the fifty yard line, while the Dirty Birds kick for three!” – Ludacris, ‘What’s Your Fantasy’
“Dane on a n**** like my name’s Zab Judah, the rap barricuda, 3XL kahuna!” – Wu-Tang Clan, ‘Uzi’
I’m pretty sure that this is the only Mark Lemke reference there is:
“Atlanta needs a title, let’s call Mark Lemke, I’m an underground king like Pimp C, if I’m wrong, then convince me.”
-Mars Ill, “Too Strong to Change”
“Where trends are set from ways to express the outfits
Friends get wet tryin’ to make ends connect
Avenues to check, boulevards to sweat
The smell of gunsmoke more common than cigarettes
WE GOT clicks for wreck
WE LIKE Pits for pets
WE GOT Giants and Jets, the Knicks, Yanks and Mets
WE LIKE much respect and sex extra wet
And High-Tech dialect you ain’t catch yet”
Rakim “New York (Ya Out There?)
Shots of Patron, now she’s in the zone
I ain’t talking about the two-trhee
Mami in the zone like the homie 2-3
Jordan or James, makes no difference
Boo I’m ballin the same
I am the Mike Jordan of recording
- Show me what u got, Kingdom Come
#1 is right. Pharaoh Monch kills all of these just with the Chief Nakahoma drop.
“…and to top it off, Starks got ejected.” – Tribe Called Quest, 8 Million Stories
Good stuff. Not a hip-hop fan by any stretch, my favorite music/sports piece is probably Phil Rizzuto’s call in Meat Loaf’s “Paradise tby he the Dashboard Light.”
Radio broadcast:
Ok here we go, we got a real pressure cooker going here, two down, nobody on, no score, bottom of the ninth,
there’s the wind-up, and there it is, a line shot up the middle, look at him go. This boy can really fly!
He’s rounding first and really turning it on now, he’s not letting up at all, he’s gonna try for second; the ball is bobbled out in center, and here comes the throw, and what a throw!
he’s gonna slide in head first, here he comes, he’s out! No, wait, safe – safe at second base, this kid really makes things happen out there.
Batter steps up to the plate heres the pitch – he’s going, and what a jump he’s got, he’s trying for third, heres the throw, it’s in the dirt – safe at third! Holy cow, stolen base!
He’s taking a pretty big lead out there, almost daring him to try and pick him off. The pitcher glances over, winds up, and it bunted, bunted down the third base line, the suicide squeeze is on!
here he comes, squeeze play, its gonna be close, heres the throw, heres the play at the plate, holy cow, I think he’s gonna make it!
Here is a classic one:
“I’ll throw it down your throat like Barkley” -Chuck D, Public Enemy – Rebel without a Pause
“Analyze the strength of my game/like Lee Corso
Call me a lost soul/with a vest on my torso”
Hellbound – Eminem ft. J-Black and Masta Ace
One of the funnier ones
you niggaz fightin over airtime?
its my fault he pushed your album back farther than clyde drexlers hairline(The Game Soundscan)
i also just remembered the best hockey reference ive heard in a rap song
The Los Angeles King, no hockey mask
Cause when you try to hide your face
You get shot in tha ass! (The Game-Why you smell like dat)
i love alot of rappers but i have to say the game would probably win in this category he has dozens more im just too lazy to post em now.
i’ll give you 5 shots when the 38 blow
leave a hole in your chest.. the size of a bagel
we can do it when you say so
wait till the Lakers on the road, shoot it out at the staples (The Game-240 bars)
I’m from Compton where niggaz used to bleed for barkley’s
Drive lo-lo’s and we ain’t need keys to start ‘em
Just a little information for your summer vacation
Bring your chain cuz every nigga in L.A. waitin
Mad cuz Detroit beat the shit out the Lakers
And they’ll kill you cuz they can’t find Gary Payton (The Game-200 bars)
a couple of old school ones:
YOU BE ILLIN’ (Run DMC – 1986)
(To)day you won a ticket to see Doctor J
Front row seat (in free!) no pay
Radio in hand, snacks by feet
Game’s about to start, you kickin’ popcorn to the beat
You finally wake up, Doc’s gone to town
Round his back, through the hoop, then you scream “Touchdown!”
You be illin’
JUST A FRIENDLY GAME OF BASEBALL (Main Source – 1991)
[blam] Aww sh*t, another young brother hit
I better go over my man’s crib and get the pump
Cause to the cops, shootin brothers is like playin baseball
And they’re never in a slump
I guess when they shoot up a crew, it’s a grand slam
And when it’s one, it’s a home run
But I’ma be ready with a wild pitch
My finger got a bad twitch, plus I’m on the switch –
– side, and step up to the batter’s box
F*ck red and white, I got on Black Sox
But let him shoot a person from the White Sox
What’s the call? Foul ball!
Babe Ruth woulda made a good cop, but he didn’t
Instead he was a bigot, dig it
My life is valuable and I protect it like a gem
Instead of cops gettin me I’m goin out gettin them
And let em cough up blood like phlegm
It’s grim [blam blam] but dead is my antonym
And legally they can’t take a fall
Yo check it out it’s just a friendly game of baseball
R.B.I. — real bad injury
But don’t get happy you’re in jail for a century
Just as bad as bein shot in the groin
To see who’ll shoot ya, they’ll flip a coin
And watch him run for the stretch
But you don’t know the man is at home waitin to make the catch
So the outfielder guns you down
You’re out, off to the dugout, underground
I know a cop that’s savage, his pockets stay green like cabbage
Cause he has a good batting average
No questions, just pulls out the flamer
[blam] And his excuses get lamer
Once a brother tried to take a lead
But they shot him in his face sayin he was tryin to steal a base
And people watch the news for coverage on the game
Hmm, and got the nerve to complain
They need to get themselves a front row seat
Or sink a baseline for a beat
Cause television just ain’t designed for precision y’all
It’s just a friendly game of baseball
A kid caught on, but I don’t know where the brother went
The umpires are the government
I guess they took him out the game, and replace him
with a pinch-hitter, in the scam he was a quitter
So the cops usually torment, I mean tournament
Win em I was sayin
You can’t let the umpires, hear ya speak and battle
like the other kid you won’t be playin
Cause they’ll beat you til your @ss drop
A walking gun with a shell in his hand is their mascot
And when they walk around let it be known to step lightly
The bases are loaded
My man got out from three strikes
In the skull but the knife he was carrying was dull
Instead of innings, we have endings
What a fine way to win things
And hot-dog vendors have fun
Sellin you the cat rat and dog on a bun
And when you ask what is all of this called?
It’s just a friendly game of baseball
B-Ball’s Best Kept Secret
This was the album that featured Gary Payton, Cedric Ceballos, and others.
Here is Webber’s album: C. Webb – 2 Much Drama (the single was “Gangsta! Gangsta!” ft. Kurupt)
I’m don’t know if Kobe Bryant’s album ever came out, but he definitely recorded a song with Tyra Banks called K.O.B.E. I’m pretty sure there was a video and it was an (unplayed) radio single. Here is a YouTube video of him performing it during NBA All-Star Weekend: Kobe Bryant ft. Tyra Banks – K.O.B.E. Also: Brian McKnight ft. Kobe Bryant – Hold Me (Trackmasters Remix)
Joe Buddens is the king of sports related punchlines. I can’t believe he’s in the Not So Good division.
“What’s the deal with the Nets though? Like being in the East ain’t enough hell for ‘em, two Carters, I thought it get better but, they gettin rid of Kidd, like a miscarriage”- Wale, “The Opening Title Sequence”
“Get burned, spit game like Chick Kearns”- Pharoahe Monch
“Whatup, hello, smooth type fellow, go hard in the paint like a young Carmelo”- Joe Scudda, “Bring Ya’ll Back” (Pete Rock)
“Lyrically I’m Penny before the injury”- Cormega
“Corey about making money, no doubt, only time I chase the past is when Jordans come out”- Cormega
You know Duke got a shooter like J.J. Reddick!
-Fabolous