LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers may be down 0-2 in this year’s NBA Finals, but that didn’t stop a track recorded between him and Warrior star Kevin Durant from 2011 being released this week.
The King and KD linking up on a track may have been the first time we've heard LeBron drop bars but definitely not the first time artists have dropped bars about him.
From Drake to Lil’ Wayne to Kendrick Lamar to Future, LeBron has a heavy following within musical circles. That’s even before mentioning that he is basically best friends with hip-hop mogul Jay Z.
In Drake’s 2010 song "Thank Me Now" he drops the line, “I swear sports and music are so synonymous. Cause we wanna be them, and they wanna be us,” accurately describing the love and respect that athletes like James and prominent artists have for each other's craft.
The unity between the two different worlds is not something that has happened recently, with the likes of Allen Iverson, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal dropping bars during their time in the NBA before James’ arrival on the scene. However, in this current era of the sport, no athlete gets more love from artists and shoutouts on songs than the reigning Finals MVP.
Ever since bursting onto the scene as a teenage phenom some 16 years ago, James has been in the national spotlight and has arguably had more name-drops than anyone in the NBA during the same time period.
Hot on the heels of his leaked collab with KD, here are LeBron’s top 10 hip hop moments.
2008 - Jay Z Records Diss Track for LeBron
![During the Cavs’ series against the Washington Wizards in the 2008 Playoffs, LeBron got into a back-and-forth with Wizards forward DeShawn Stevenson.
Stevenson referred to James as “overrated” to which the All-Star had this response:
“With DeShawn Stevenson, it’s kind of funny. It’s almost like Jay Z [responding to a negative comment] made by Soulja Boy. It doesn’t make sense.”
Jay Z took the beef into the night clubs by rhyming over Too $hort’s “Blow the Whistle”, with some choice words for Stevenson.
It was one of the first times where James flexed his muscle beyond the basketball court.](https://img.youtube.com/vi/pWdluT_DOxw/mqdefault.jpg)
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During the Cavs’ series against the Washington Wizards in the 2008 Playoffs, LeBron got into a back-and-forth with Wizards forward DeShawn Stevenson.
Stevenson referred to James as “overrated” to which the All-Star had this response:
“With DeShawn Stevenson, it’s kind of funny. It’s almost like Jay Z [responding to a negative comment] made by Soulja Boy. It doesn’t make sense.”
Jay Z took the beef into the night clubs by rhyming over Too $hort’s “Blow the Whistle”, with some choice words for Stevenson.
It was one of the first times where James flexed his muscle beyond the basketball court.
2009 – LeBron cameos in a Drake music video
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In 2009 LeBron was just starting to hit the peak of his powers. It was his first MVP season and his Cleveland Cavaliers won a franchise-record 66 wins during the regular season.
In February of the same year, Drake dropped the music video to his hit single “Forever”, a collab with Eminem, Lil Wayne, and Kanye West. James appears at the start of the video, playing poker on his Beats by Dre laptop in the back of a luxury car.
2010 – LeBron raps in-game to Eminem verse
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Later on in 2009, a documentary about James’ early years playing basketball in Akron, Ohio called More Than A Game was released and Drake’s “Forever” featured on the soundtrack.
The song being on the soundtrack as well as James’ appearance in the official video for the song already let you know that he was a massive fan of the song, but he went one step further during a National TV game against the Los Angeles Lakers in 2010.
With 23.4 seconds left in the game and the Cavs holding onto a two-point lead, James is seen rapping to Eminem’s verse in “Forever”, literally nailing every word as the song played in the arena following a timeout.
2011 – LeBron uses Jay Z and Kanye lines as inspiration
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During a pick-up game in October 2011, while James was waiting for Dwyane Wade to take a free-throw, he was seen rapping along to Jay-Z and Kanye West’s “Niggas in Paris”.
After nailing his verse word for word, James received the ball after an inbound pass and calmly slotted a half-court shot, causing the crowd to go nuts.
2012 – LeBron and D-Wade Party with Rick Ross
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By 2012, James had already spent two seasons as a member of the Miami Heat and was rubbing shoulders with Miami’s own Rick Ross.
At a 30th birthday party for team-mate Dwyane Wade, James is seen dancing and rapping along with Wade as Rozay takes centre-stage. Also present is MMG artist Stalley.
2013 – ESPN The Magazine Cover Appearance with Dr. Dre
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Over the the course of his career, James has grown to be much more than an athlete. Along with three of his friends, LeBron owns a very successful marketing company LRMR Marketing. LRMR has facilitated some of James’ most successful off-court endorsement deals, one of them being his partnership with Dr. Dre’s Beats by Dre.
One part of LeBron’s LRMR team, Rich Paul, is also fast becoming one of the NBA’s most powerful player agents, brokering career-contracts for Cavaliers’ team mate Tristan Thompson and Phoenix’s Eric Bledsoe in the past few years.
Here, James appears on the cover with the legendary producer Dr. Dre, both dressed in business attire, and signifies his place among the league’s highest echelon of superstars.
2014 – Freestyle over Jay Z beat
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In 2014, James was the reigning back to back MVP and back to back World Champion with the Miami Heat and at the peak of his powers.
This freestyle was the first time that many fans heard LeBron dropping his own bars and what better way to do it than to close friend Jay Z’s “FuckWithMeYouKnowIGotIt”.
One of James’ former high school teammates, Sian Cotton, is also a rapper and this was recorded during a studio session with Cotton.
2015-2017 – Future x LeBron
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Other than Jay-Z and maybe Kendrick Lamar, there’s no other artist that has become more synonymous with LeBron over the past few years than Future.
If Future is the artist that is synonymous with James, then his “March Madness” is the song that has become synonymous with the four-time MVP.
James not only rapped it on stage with Future at the 2015 ESPYs after-party, he has also been seen rapping it in layup lines during the NBA Finals, on boats at beach parties, and most recently at a Future concert, a week out from the 2017 NBA Finals.
However, James’ most memorable Future moment may have come this year in the regular season where he was vibing to Future’s “I’m So Groovy” in his driveway while sipping wine and rocking a Do-rag.
James was then a late scratch for the Cavs’ home showdown against the Chicago Bulls the very next day due to “strep throat”.
2016 – Drake x LeBron in Columbus
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During one of Drake’s shows in Columbus, Ohio, he made the salute to James as the hometown hero who kept his promise and delivered a title to Cleveland.
LeBron and Drake then rocked it on the stage together as the Canadian-born singer performed “Pop Style”. The result? MVP chants from the raucous crowd for the King.
2015-2017 – Kendrick x LeBron
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The King has also grown incredibly close with Kendrick Lamar over the past few years. As mentioned in the above clip, James feels he can relate to Kendrick’s rough upbringing in Compton to his own upbringing in Akron, Ohio.
James also makes a point to tell people that he received Kendrick’s DAMN album a couple of weeks before it released, and gave it rave reviews on his Instagram account, something that he has done with a few albums lately.
Last December, when James was named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year, it was Kendrick who performed and James was seen turning up to “Levitate” from Kendrick’s untitled unmastered album.
