The Often Forgotten Rap Careers of Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson and Shaquille O'Neal
Looking into the brief music careers of some of the best the NBA had to offer.
In the 90s and early 2000s, three of the NBA’s best ventured into the world of hip hop to mixed results.
We’ll start off with Allen Iverson. Iverson was known for his style on and off the court being an early fashion trailblazer with his tattoos, shooting sleeves and headbands often resembling a rapper.
Iverson’s dreams almost became a reality in the 2000 off-season where he signed to Universal Records under the stage name ‘Jewels’.
While on Universal, Iverson recorded his album ‘Misunderstood’ but due to poor reception of the single ’40 Bars’ for homophobic lyrics, the project was ultimately shelved.
Next on the list is the late, great Kobe Bryant. In his youth, he was in an underground rap group called ‘Cheizaw’. Sony Entertainment signed Kobe around 1999 in hopes of capitalising on his NBA fame.
Bryant recorded his debut album ‘Visions’ and it featured appearances from a young 50 Cent, Nas and model Tyra Banks.
In a similar fate to Iverson’s album, Bryant’s album was shelved after the poor performance of the lead single ‘K.O.B.E’. The song and album are now considered to be a rare collector’s item.
Kobe also made prominent guest appearances on fellow basketballer Shaquille O’Neal’s album as well as R&B singer Brian McKnight’s single ‘Hold Me’.
Finally, the most successful case of basketballer-turned-rapper is Shaquille O'Neal. Shaq started rapping around 1993 and went on to release over four albums and receiving Platinum status on his LP ‘Shaq Diesel’.
Shaq recorded songs with music legends like Michael Jackson and The Notorious B.I.G, the latter caused Shaq to rewrite his verses on the song ‘You Can’t Stop the Reign’ multiple times after being outshined by Biggie.
To keep with the trend of unreleased albums, Shaq’s fifth and final album called ‘Shaquille O'Neal Presents His Superfriends, Vol. 1’ was left on the cutting room floor. The album was set to be released on September 11th, 2001 but was abruptly cancelled for obvious reasons and failed to set a new release date.
The album can be seen as a potential hip hop lost gem with production and features from Dr Dre, The Roots, Nate Dogg and Mos Def.
