When Hip-Hop Meets Sports Vol 1
Rap and sports have gone hand and hand since the beginning of Hip-Hop. When we combine those two elements we get some of the best bars of all time. Here are some of my favorite (don’t confuse it with the best) sports bars in Hip-Hop of all time.
“Yeah I’m ballin Toni Kukoc” -Lil Uzi & Future “Baby Sasuke“
A very straightforward bar. I like it better with the chorus of both Future and Lil Uzi interpreting the call and repeat between the two. One of my personal favorite to be honest, just so simple but so powerful. Plus, Toni Kukoc was a baller.
“Bang like T-Mac, ski mask air it out. Gotta kill witnesses ’cause Free’s beards sticking out” – Jay-z “What We Do”
This is my personal favorite. Jay-Z is an absolute mad man for this bar. This was Jay-Z at his best, and you can’t tell me differently. The coolest part about this entire verse was that it wasn’t even planned. Jay was there in the booth just to say “keep going” in Freeway’s verse and was vibing out to the beat so much he dropped this masterpiece. The ski mask part talking about Free’s beard makes this bar. T-Mac was an absolute dog on the court.
“King Hov I’m exactly what the fuck you think, 11 in a row, Bill Russell rings. Michael Jordan Swag, y’all think Michale Jordan bad? N***a I got 5 more rings than Michael Jordan had”- Jay-Z “Illest Motherfucka alive”
We’re coming with another Hov bar at number 3. No one drops bars about sports and MJ quite like Jay-Z. The only other rapper that shouts out athletes as much in my recollection is Phife Dawg. Jay-Z had 11 albums by “Watch the Throne” thus telling us his dominance in the rap game is Bill Russell like. Bill Russell was very ahead of his time as a basketball player and Hov is saying the same thing here. He dominates the game like these two great winners (Jordan and Russell). Kanye’s bar about super hoes (Kanyes first bar in his verse) at the beginning of the song is the only bar that overshadows this in my opinion. Shoutout to the Only-Fan girls though, I feel like they have a lot to say about that.
“I’ve been ballin so damn hard that’s why I think that I’m Kobe.”- Chief Keef “Kobe”
Honestly, the entire chorus of “Kobe” could have been on here, it just would have been too long. Chief Keef is a legend for this song and this entire album. He really changed the game forever with this album and he was only 17 at the time. So many great lines in this like “I’m dunkin on these hoes while these n****s are free throwing”. This song is the epitome of “I’m the shit” songs. Most importantly RIP to the greatest Laker of all time and a top 5 basketball player ever.
“Sit back and learn, come now watch the birdie. Your styles are incomplete same as Vinny Testaverde.” -Phife Dawg “The Chase Pt.II” & “Hip hop scholar since being knee high to a duck. The height of Mugsy Bouges, complexion of a hockey puck” -“Steve Biko (Stir It Up)
Phife Dawg may be the king of sports lyrics. No one quite does it like the “5 foot assassin”. In all honesty, I could have just done a whole article on sports lyrics by Phife he has that many. These are my 2 personal favorites. The Vinny Testaverde bar is nasty. Vinny had a career completion percentage of 56% and had a career total of 267 interceptions with his most in a year being 35. He’s saying that the rest of his competition isn’t as reliable to drop hot music like he is. The second is just Phife being himself. That one is self explicit in what it means, but my favorite one. R.I.P Phife Dawg.
Come back next Thursday for Volume 2!!!!
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