Idolator Celebrates The NBA: Our Favorite Rapping Basketball Stars

noah | November 2, 2006 12:03 pm

We’re still a bit gunshy about the sports/music convergence after enduring Trace Adkins’ national anthem during the World Series, but we’d be remiss if we didn’t note two basketball-related happenings this week: the opening of the 2006-07 NBA season and the long-awaited release of Sacramento King Ron Artest’s album, My World. To honor the confluence of these two events, we present our five favorite basketball-playing rappers, and video clips that show off their mic skills.

1) Shaquille O’Neal, “No Hook” (featuring Method Man and RZA): In 1994, Shaq was already on his third album, and he was savvy enough–these were the pre-Kazaam years, remember–to let his guests pick up an assist or two. He gets extra points for bringing two members of the Wu-Tang Clan along for the ride, even though they rap circles around him.

2) Kobe Bryant, untitled freestyle on NBA TV (featuring Tyra Banks): Kobe tries to emulate his ex-teammate’s strategy of letting his guests do the heavy lifting here, although picking the America’s Next Top Model host as his shrieking foil–and not as, say, arm candy–was a grave mistake.

3) Ron Artest, Chicago concert, 2006: This video, which Artest is proudly featuring on his MySpace page, is vertigo-inducing in its blurriness, but we have to ask: Didn’t he warn his pals about the pitfalls of jumping into crowds?

4) Tony Parker freestyling–in French–after the San Antonio Spurs win the 2005 NBA championship: Foreign nationals, take note: Eva Longoria’s ex has come up with a way to get middle America to love you once again. Just put anything you might have to say in the context of the crowd’s favorite team winning it all.

5) Kurtis Blow, “Basketball”: Okay, this is a gimme. Just think of it as a palate-cleanser for those of you who actually made it all the way through Tyra Banks’ attempts to “harmonize.”

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