Image via Complex Original
Fifty years after some Liverpudlians named The Beatles arrived in America to signal the start of the British rock ’n’ roll invasion, the city's soccer team landed in the United States last week to kick-off their summer tour. Over 150,000 North American Liverpool fans are expected to turn Fenway Park, Soldier Field and Charlotte's Bank of America Stadium into a sea of red over the coming weeks, with the highlight of the tour being a showpiece game against reigning Premiership champions Manchester City at Yankee Stadium on July 30th.
Liverpool aren't the only European soccer team hitting the States this summer, and while some of the other clubs may boast bigger bank balances or more household names, when it comes to hip-hop credentials, Liverpool takes the throne. From the club's players recording Top 10 hip-hop hits as early as 1988 toDr. Dre's stated support, here are 10 Reasons Why Liverpool is the World's Most Hip-Hop Soccer Club.
They released a rap record in 1988.
In the same year as BDP dropped the seminal “By All Means Necessary,” Liverpool’s players recorded and released a record. In April 1988, the club teamed up with the now-deceased British rapper Derek B to record “Anfield Rap (Red Machine in Full Effect).” It ended up as a Top 3 hit on the U.K. pop charts and was merely a novelty rap for fans, but as the club would go on to prove, it wouldn't be the last time they'd merge hip-hop sensibilities with soccer.
One of their former players is a hip-hop producer and label owner.
Liverpool's former Dutch forward Ryan Babel may not fulfilled his early potential in the game, but football is only one part of his life. Whilst at Liverpool, the Holland international spent his free time by turning himself into a rapper and producer, and even set up his own hip-hop label, Spacetrak.
They used Naughty by Nature's beat for a new song in 2012.
26 years after releasing “The Anfield Rap,” Liverpool produced another hip-hop track to mark their appearance in the 2012 FA Cup semi-final against local rivals Everton at Wembley Stadium. This time, however, they ditched the players and employed a young local rapper called Jamie Broad to spit his rhymes over Naughty By Nature's “Feel Me Flow.”
Star player John Barnes once rapped his way to No. 1.
Having first picked up a mic on "The Anfield Rap" in 1986, Liverpool star John Barnes was drafted by legendary electronic band New Order to provide the rap on their World Cup single "World in Motion." The Jamaican-born Barnes' cameo appearance helped propel the song to No. 1 in the British charts.
LeBron James is a minority owner of the club.
LeBron may "own" whatever NBA team he plays for in a metaphorical sense. In terms of literal ownership, the only professional sports team he has a financial stake in is Liverpool. He received a small slice of the club when he agreed to let Fenway Sports Group, Liverpool's majority ownership consortium, handle his international marketing deals. He visited Anfield in 2011 to take in a home match against Manchester United, and later called the trip "one of the single best experiences of my life."
Liverpool fans rocked the Adidas Superstar way before “My Adidas.”
Regular visitors to Germany throughout the late Seventies as the team swept all before them to become European champions three times in five years, Liverpool supporters had unique access to the rarest Adidas sneakers unavailable back home in England. By 1977, much to the bemusement of the German sports brand, thousands of fashion-conscious Liverpool fans had taken to wearing the three-stripe trainers not for sporting activities but as a bold fashion statement. Nearly a decade before Run D.M.C.'s "My Adidas" imported the brand into hip-hop's consciousness, LFC's young fans were sporting skinny jeans and shelltoes over 3,000 miles away.
They announced their U.S. tour with Run D.M.C.-style graphics.
When it came to announcing this summer's U.S. tour, the club adopted their own version of Run D.M.C.'s signature logo to break the news to their 25 million social media followers. Over 20 million fans on Facebook and 3 million followers on Twitter saw and subsequently shared the three different hip-hop infused images.
They traveled to the Bronx for a Q&A with school children.
Why subject your star players to yet another boring interview with the traditional sports media when you could travel to hip-hop's birthplace and find out what the kids really want to ask? That's exactly what LFC TV, the club's in-house television channel, did earlier this year when they travelled into the Bronx to film kids for their "Small Talk" show. One fan asked Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge who his favorite rappers are, and unsurprisingly, he didn't give a whack answer: “It’s very close between Drake, Kendrick Lemar, J. Cole and Jay Z."
Daniel Sturridge is a body-poppin' superstar.
Liverpool's star striker Daniel Sturridge isn't just a goal-scoring phenomenon on the pitch—he's a kid with a SoHo sense of urban taste. The Reds forward is famous for his body-poppin' trademark goal celebration. Whilst away from the game, he attends fashion shows, hands out BET awards to Pharrell, and has been known to hang out with Drake.
Dr. Dre and The Game are Liverpool fans.
When it comes to celebrity fans from this side of the pond, Liverpool can certainly boast a few big hitters. As far back as 2001, Dr. Dre went on record claiming he was a Liverpool fan, and followed that fandom up years later by releasing a special Liverpool edition of his headphones. More recently, both Snoop Dogg and The Game have taken to the stage, mic in hand, sporting the famous red Liverpool shirt.
