He'll get you that shit that Gretzky skate on...
Compared to basketball, football, and baseball (and golf...and soccer...and NASCAR), ice hockey doesn't get that much love in rap lyrics—you know: it's cold, there's crazy white people with masks and sticks, etc. etc. (word to Nat X). That's why it always catches our attention when an MC drops a hockey reference in a verse. Most recently, it was the homie Mibbs from Pac Div (on "Knuckleheadz" from the group's new Complex-co-signed mixtape) who got icey with it: "It get colder than a polar, or Ovechkin with the puck."
The Ovie reference got us thinking about our favorite hip-hop hockey moments of the past. (Ed. note: Sorry Kardi, Saukrates, Maestro Fresh Wes, et. al.—we excluded all Canadian rappers. Y'all supposed to be talking about hockey!) So then, get your puck on and enjoy rap's greatest lyrical nods to hockey. Skate, skate, skate, skate!
"I skate on your crew, like Mario Lemieux"
Phife from A Tribe Called Quest's "Keep It Rollin'"
COMPLEX SAYS: ...and take out your knees, dun, like Ulf Samuelsson.
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"I think they mad we from the turf and we dangerous/And my whole team on ice, we play rough like the Rangers"
Jim Jones, "Bright Lights, Big City"
COMPLEX SAYS: Uh, that means you suck though.
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"I stand out like a nigga on a hockey team/I got goals and I can, like a pop machine"
— Common, "Watermelon"
COMPLEX SAYS: Punchline Com >>>> Acting Com.
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"I do it for the Capital, Wale Ovechkin... More or less Lindros/Flyer than the rest of them... sideways talk'll make your neck like Zednick"
Wale, "Back in the Go-Go"
COMPLEX SAYS: Somebody's been playing a little too much NHL on the Xbox.
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"Ayo, crash through, break the glass, Tony with the goalie mask"
Ghostface, "One"
COMPLEX SAYS: Not really a great hockey quote, but Ghost in a goalie mask? We couldn't resist.
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"My style starts more fights than hockey/I Wayne Gretzky, on any MC"
Erick Sermon, "Freestyle" from Funkmaster Flex The Mixtape Volume 1
COMPLEX SAYS: Just avoid him in the locker room, yeah?
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"Put a motherfucker on ice like the Maple Leafs/That's a hockey team but I ain't on no hockey team/But I'm a champion, where's the fucking Rocky theme?"
Lil Wayne, "Upgrade" freestyle
COMPLEX SAYS: Word to Romany Malco.
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"I'm skating on blades like Sidney Crosby (that's hot)"
Lil Wayne, from Busta Rhymes' "Throw It Up"
COMPLEX SAYS: And they both grow facial hair that looks like prepubescent pubes!
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"Rap's Wayne Gretzky, yes I'm the best and/Only 22, more like Alex Ovechkin"
Asher Roth, "A Milli" freestyle
COMPLEX SAYS: But Ovie's got MVP trophies, son! What you got???
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"They tried to put two 9's on me, just like Gretzky"
Fabolous, "Ghetto"
COMPLEX SAYS: Pause?
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"And I done slipped more shots in then Gretzky's stick"
Fabolous, "Sickalicious"
COMPLEX SAYS: Pause?
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"I'll get you that shit that Gretzky skate on"
Cam'ron, "Horse & Carriage"
COMPLEX SAYS: "What you mean 'Gretzky' be on?" "Ice. Hockey." "Oh you gonna buy me diamonds?" "Bitch, shut the fuck up!"
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"And if rap was hockey, I be Gretzky, puffing nestle"
Styles from DMX's "Niggaz Done Started Somethin'"
COMPLEX SAYS: The mental image of The Great One toasting an L = priceless.
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"I bring flows more rare than black hockey cats/I never got checked due to lack of respect"
Evidence from from Dilated Peoples' "The Platform" (remix)
COMPLEX SAYS: There are more "black hockey cats" than "dope white rappers" homie.
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BONUS HOCKEY VIDEO! "React," Onyx feat. 50 Cent
GoGoRocka July 22nd, 2009 at 12:01 PM
Wale also has-"fuckin wit that ice-Landover niggas check ya"
Metatron July 22nd, 2009 at 12:58 PM
that evidence lyric is from the platform (remix). in the original he makes a football reference, not a hockey one.
Laky July 22nd, 2009 at 02:32 PM
Where's Ghostface's "sippin rum out of Stanley cups"?
chester89 July 22nd, 2009 at 03:11 PM
MAGNUM 357 had a dope line too "when its beef, y'all pussies turn holy quick, i hope u can block shots like a goalie's stick"
Henny "Halfcourt" Hardaway July 22nd, 2009 at 06:47 PM
What what a fail. Remember when Big L said "H.E. double hockey sticks..." And you want to put a Jim jones reference up there... entitled "greatest"... someone call colombia
kage July 22nd, 2009 at 07:14 PM
Knew these dudes wouldn't put the Big L in here. BIG L - The Big Picture Intro: "What's this motherfuckin rap game without L? Yo, that's like jewels without ice That's like china without rice or the Holy Bible without Christ or the Bulls without Mike or crackheads without pipes The Village without dykes or hockey games without fights Don't touch the mic if you unable to spit Flamboyant is the label I'm wit, motherfucker"
zac November 18th, 2009 at 11:25 AM
A T L double hockey sticks
japanesse beaver July 22nd, 2009 at 07:44 PM
"And if you comin' from Lex, Lewis, Rich Liberace Fetus style and block your goals like hockey...." Rae from Fish off Ironman
Kobi With The Goalie Mask July 22nd, 2009 at 07:47 PM
Cam on Halftime Show off the advance Purple Haze: "Cocky, don't play hockey, but have your mom in goalie gear See the ice, grab the stick, hit the brake pads Get her knee pads, penalty, face mask..."
dj July 22nd, 2009 at 10:02 PM
Doesn't Wayne say “I’m skating on blades like Sidney Crosby (that’s HOCKEY)”?
R.L July 23rd, 2009 at 01:41 AM
haha Kobi caught the illest one, Cam killed that shit there's even more after that, "her face grabbed, the don's enter, the don's in her / the don of don's, play the dugout like Don Zimmer" he also has "and all this ice man well I should get the Stanley Cup" and "I'm the hockey goalie, y'all Axel Folies / wanna treat me like Billy Joel, rock & roll me" Cam is the King of hockey lines IMHO