Athletes You Didn't Know Had Rap Careers

NBA Players Who Tried The Rap Game 

Every rapper wants to be an athlete, and every athlete wants to be rapper. Some of the NBA's best players have dabbled in the rap game including Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Damien Lillard, and Lonzo Ball. In today's blog we will be highlighting the careers of some rappers who had more buzz than most ballers in the rap game.

Shaquille O'neal 

Shaq is one of the most talented athletes of our time. The 4x NBA champion is not your typical athlete, he is a real estate guy, an actor, a police officer, and a former rapper. The NBA rapper released a total of 6 studio albums. In 1993, Shaq signed a record deal with Jive, and officially released his first album Shaq Diesel. The album went platinum. The project included the hit single "What's up Doc?(Can We Rock)" and "(I Know I Got) Skillz, which both debuted on the Top 40 singles.  Following the debut album the former MVP, released his second album Shaq Fu: Da Return, the album went gold. Although O'Neal's third album You Can't Stop The Reign did not reach the same level of success as his first two albums, he managed to get features from two of the most iconic rappers ever, Jay Z and The Notrious B.I.G. The Pepsi spokesman also featured on a song with the one and only king of pop, Micheal Jackson on his "2 Bad" record. One of the most memorable moments of Shaq's rap career is his bashing of his former teammate Kobe Bryant on a freestyle back in 2010. Although the rappers career started out promising, it quickly started fading due to lack of content and other opportunities in the entertainment world. O'Neal also released Respect, Steel, The Best of Shaquille O'Neal, Superfriends, The Essential New School Vs. Old School. 

Kobe Bryant

Kobe is a five time NBA champ and a former MVP in 2008. His on the court success in basketball did not follow him in his rap career. Unlike Shaq, Bryant's rap career was brief and not nearly as successful. The young ambitious Kobe, was following in the footsteps of his teammate at the time Shaquille O'neal. The 18x all-star signed his record deal with Sony Records back in 1999. Bryant released his most successful single "K.O.B.E." featuring the supermodel Tyra Banks. The two performed the record during the 2000 NBA All-star weekend.  In his brief rap career Kobe was able to get on songs with some well known artist like 50 Cent on his song Thug's Poet. Other memorable songs include the Destiny Child remix of "Say My Name", he also featured on "Hold Me" by Brian McKnight. Kobe was also on Shaq's record "3x Dope", but was not an official feature due to clearance reasons. 

Allen Iverson

Allen Iverson (Jewelz) is considered one of basketball most prolific players. He earned the MVP title back in 2001. Allen Iverson's rap career had a lot more negative feedback then positive. In the summer of 2000, the 11x NBA all-star released his debut single "40 Bars". The single was considered violent, misogynistic and homophobic, the content was pretty similar to his upcoming album Non Fiction. Due to complaints from the NBA and the 76ers organization, Iverson decided to change the name of his debut album from Non Fiction to Misunderstood, He also had to change some of the lyrics to make them more NBA friendly. The album was never officially released into stores.