We know Kobe Bryant will not be coaching after he retires. Now we know he will not be rapping, either.
With 23 games remaining on Bryant's farewell tour, he's been getting a million questions about what he'll be doing with his free time when his basketball career officially ends. Bryant ruled out coaching earlier this year, but before the Lakers game against the Grizzlies Wednesday he was asked if he'll pick up the mic and revive his dormant rap career.
Kobe's "rap career" was relatively short lived—friend of Complex Sports Thomas Golianopoulos did a long piece about it for Grantland back in 2013—and obviously unsuccessful. But Bryant did give it a legitimate shot back in 1998 when he wasn't training for the upcoming basketball season. From Grantland:
For three weeks during the summer of 1998, Kobe Bryant lived in the New Jersey mansion of hip-hop record executive Steve Stoute. Bryant was there to try on the role of rap star, but since he was also training to be the next Michael Jordan, basketball consumed most of his time. Every morning, he’d drive to nearby Ramapo College and shoot 2,000 jump shots. Sometimes, Stoute would shuttle in streetball players from New York to help Bryant brush up on his defense. By sundown every day, though, he was tasked with absorbing “the lifestyle,” a kind of initiation into the late-’90s world of rap royalty.
I mean, with lyrics like these, how did he not light up the charts?
"Uh, what I live for? Basketball, beats and broads
From Italy to the US, yes, it's raw
I'ma search for the one that make my wealth feel poor
Who can ignore the spotlight life of Grandma"
We're very thankful Kobe didn't quit his day job.
[h/t FTW]
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