Sounding like it might be time for that full-length 9th and KRIT album. The duo link back up courtesy of Crown Royal for a track that’s inspired by NBA legend Julius Irving. For those in the States, it’s expected that will hear this song in some type of montage tonight during The Miami Heat-Oklahoma City Thunder game.
Most of you know I bleed orange and blue, but credit where credit is due to Queensbridge’s own Ron Artest aka Metta World Peace for his new posse cut. Been a minute since I’ve heard Big Noyd and I had no idea Devin Ebanks spit, too. How long before we get a track with Metta and Iman Shumpert? If you’re feeling this, cop it HERE.
All due respect to The Throne and the NBA’s heavy use of “Niggas In Paris” during All-Star Weekend, but the playoffs require a grittier soundtrack. It needs music that reflects the hard-nosed defense and high intensity seen in almost every game. Now what Hip-Hop songs can encapsulate all that? The NBA got it right last night with this short but highly effective commercial spot featuring Mobb Deep’s classic “Shook Ones, Part II.” Some might raise an eyebrow of the Spurs getting this love, but the obvious choice team (The Knicks) is currently on an extended vacation. Hopefully this is the start of a few more classic Hip-Hop spots as the playoffs roll on.
“I let my ring do my talking…”
Aubrey has some explaining to do. In this new commercial for the much-anticipated NBA 2K12, Drake names the current Miami Heat as the greatest NBA team of all time. His reasons? Well, they play “above the rim” and have “South Beach’s King” (except when it’s the fourth quarter). All jokes aside, it’s a funny commercial when you see how they show a head-shaking Marc Cuban holding the title trophy after hearing Drake’s script. As for Jordan himself, he deads the argument with one phrase and display at the end. NBA 2K12 hits stores on October 4.
“We got that air conditioner/ We ready for the Heat…”
Hail, hail! King James is dead! Those words sum up the consensus of a lot of basketball fans one day after the Dallas Mavericks defeated the Miami Heat to win the franchise’s first ever NBA title. Throughout the playoffs, rappers have been dropping tribute tracks to their hometown teams. Dorrough had some foresight last month in proclaiming his Dallas team would win the title. He specifically mentions the Heat matchup and his team’s resilience in coming back from double digit leads. You’ll find this track on Dorrough’s upcoming Gangsta Grillz miztape Silent Assassin. Someone tweet this to LeBron, Wade and Bosh and see what they think.
DORROUGH “DALLAS MAVS (BOUNCE DAT)”
Knicks team captain Amar’e Stoudemire is using this off-season to network with the Hip-Hop elite in hopes of starting a secondary career as a rapper.
According to the NY Daily News, the All-Star power forward began exploring the possibility of a Hip-Hop career due to his friendships with Swizz Beatz and Fabolous. Beatz recently completed a video remake of the well-known 90s Knicks’ theme “Go New York Go,” which featured Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony.
In addition to potential industry connections through girlfriend Ciara, sources with the newspaper indicate Stoudemire would also like to receive production from Lil Jon.
“He’s been telling people he’d love to work with [Lil Jon] although he hasn’t found the right time to sit down with him,” the unidentified source said.
Although NBA players such as Allen Iverson, Shaquille O’Neal and Cedric Cellabos have dabbled in Hip-Hop since the mid 90s, Amar’e Stoudemire would be the first prominent Knick player to do so.
At press time, Stoudemire could not be reached for comment.
Jay-Z is being investigated by the NBA for potential pre-draft violations for visiting the locker room of the Kentucky Wildcats earlier this week.
The Hip-Hop mogul and stake owner in the New Jersey Nets made a surprise visit to the Wildcats locker room after their Final Four clinching victory over North Carolina. He took time to pose for pictures and shake hands with the players.
The NBA prohibits team personnel from dealing with college players who have not made themselves eligible for the draft. Jay-Z would be subject to a fine if found guilty of violating any rules.
At press time, Jay-Z has not commented on the matter. He was in attendance last night in Newark for the Nets’ home game loss to the New York Knicks, 120-116.
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Draft-scouting, Hov! Considering LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony passed on Jay’s wooing attempts, maybe he’ll have better success in the college ranks.
I’m sure Jay went there more so as a fan than anything else. He’s made locker room appearances before, most noticeably for fellow Brooklynite Zab Judah. At the same time, it would be naive to think he didn’t at least mention in passing to a few top guys he’d love to have them with the Nets, or at the very least gave them available channels to contact him if there were any future interest.
It’ll be interesting to see how the NBA rules on this. It could set a precedent.
The 2011 NBA All Star game centered their half show around appearances from Rihanna, Drake and Kanye West. Rihanna was given a good 10 minutes to run through some of the bigger hits from her catalogue. Live singing is not this pop starlet’s forte, so there wasn’t much to write home in that regard. In fact, you can argue her vocals had the same tone throughout the entire performance. As a male colleague of mine mentioned, the quality of her set goes way up if you put it on mute. And while my female peers went on and on about the state of Rihanna’s mane, my simple counter was that her legs prevented me from making any further negative comments.
Drake and Kanye were mere supporting acts for this show. Having seen them all live, the NBA would have been better served switching the format and having ‘Ye in the lead spot.
“Ether is one of the best battle songs of all time..”
It’s the debate that’ll never die. 2011 marks 10 years since Nas and Jay-Z went at it in their legendary battle. Visit any message board today and you’ll find posters still arguing over which emcee won this contest, critiquing who has the better career/ personal life, and if the two all-time greats are still engaging in a cold war of sorts. The latest two to offer their opinions are NBA players, and Lakers teammates, Lamar Odom and Ron Artest.
Both players are from Queens, and grew up on Nas’s music. Artest acknowledges this connection and potential bias, but gives Nas the nod. However, he does state when viewing overall careers, Jay-Z came out ahead.
“From a business standpoint, career moves, and longevity, Jay-Z won,” Artest explains. “You look at it from that battle, Nas [delivered] a pretty strong death-blow. Nas won that battle.”
Odom has a similar opinion, praising “Ether” as a seminal diss record, and better than “Takeover.”
“It’s tough, but Ether is one of the best battle rap songs of all-time,” Odam says. “Even though Jay had an incredible career, but just the song, Nas might of got him.”
In November, Jay-Z visited the Juan Epstein show and discussed his personal opinion on “Ether” vs. “Takeover.” Both hosts, Peter Rosenberg and Cipha Sounds, believe “Takeover” to be the better record. Jay-Z agreed, concurring that Ron Brownz’s beat was one of “Ether’s” biggest weak points.
The Lakers defeated the Suns last night 99-95, and will face the Bobcats on Friday (January 7).
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I think it’s safe to say this battle gets discussed more than any other in Hip-Hop history. It even eclipses Pac and Biggie debates since B.I.G. never released full-fledged, non-subliminal records back at Pac to make their beef an on-wax competition.
Regarding who won, I go with Nas. Too often, I see both sides try to belittle or downplay the impact of the other to make their points. Make no mistake, “Ether” and “Takeover” are both all-time great diss records. Jay had some sharp lines for Nas, and however subjective those lines about Nas’s album quality after Illmatic, he brought to the forefront an argument that had previously been confined to corners and barber shops. It was witty deconstruction so thorough that many claimed Nas’s career was literally over.
On Nas’s end, “Ether” refuted literally everything Jay said on “Takeover” line by line. He flipped Jay’s barbs, but upped the ante. So my flow was garbage on “Oochie Wally?” That wasn’t even my song, but Eminem “murdered you on your own shit.” Nas also brought a murmured fan discussion to the glaring forefront, and that was Jay’s liberal use of Biggie lines. For those who pay attention to lyrics, seemingly juvenile cracks like “Tae Bo hoe,” and lines about Jay’s appearance (“Where you abused as a child/ Scared to smile/ They called you ugly?”), are actually clever flips from Jay’s own rhymes on Blueprint’s “Girls, Girls, Girls” and “Song Cry.”
The reason Jay-Z fell short with Nas is that he was the first one to “blink,” meaning the first emcee to drop a record that wasn’t great. “Takeover” was great, and then it was on Nas to come back equally as great, which he did with “Ether.” Then it was back on Jay, who dropped the “Supa Ugly” track. “Supa Ugly” was solid, but nowhere near the quality the battle had established with the disgustingly underrated “Stillmatic Freestyle,” ”Ether,” and “Takeover.” “Blueprint 2″ came a little too late, despite being a very good diss outside of the goofy chorus. By then, popular opinion was firmly behind Nas, and he ended matters with perhaps the best lines of the entire battle.
“I was Scarface/ Jay was Manolo/ It hurt me when I had to kill him/ And his whole squad for dolo,” Nas boasted on “Last Real Nigga Alive.”
You know what the best thing is? That perhaps Hip-Hop’s greatest battle ended with the below picture instead of someone in the grave.
Shane Mosley got his first boxing “win” following the Floyd Mayweather fight by defeating Shaquille O’Neal.
The exhibition aired as the main feature of last night’s (August 10) “Shaq Vs.” show.
O’Neal accounted well for himself by swarming Mosley and attempting to wear him out by leaning his massive 7’1, 335 pund frame on the former welterweight champion.
But the 5’9, 147 pound Mosley gave himself an edge by landing the cleaner, harder punches throughout the bout. Shane’s money combinations were flurries to body punctuacted by hard right hooks to the head.
Shaq’s cornerman for the bout was none other than Pacquiao trainer Freddie Roach, who correctly told Shaq to confuse Shane by working off the jab. In one humorous moment, Shaq fought Mosley off his knees to make the fight more even.
Final scores for the contest all read 48-47 for Mosley. The former welterweight champion will make his professional return bout on September 18th against Sergio Mora.
Shaquille O’Neal will return to the NBA later this year as a member of the Boston Celtics.
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Could Shaq have been a formidable heavyweight had he picked up boxing instead of basketball? It’s hard to say. He correctly tried to impose his size on a smaller man, but was of course sloppy and wide open for a lot of a shots.
If any of O’Neal’s NBA dominance from the late 90s and early 2000s translated, he’d definitely hold a title at some point. And with his personality, Shaq would be a natural at trash-talking and building up fights. I think he could’ve been the premier American heavyweight and the perfect rival for the Klitschkos.
