Breaking New Artists
Imagine my delight this morning when Billups blessed the collective Freedarko inbox with this here gem, a 14-second intro from the DJ Whoo Kid G-Unit Radio#24 joint, hosted by Young Buck and LeBron James. For those without downloading capabilities, I will transcribe:
[Police Siren]
LeBron James: Ayo for all you haters out there, why don't you check out this new Young Buck. He takin over the game so watch out. He got something coming...FOR YOUR MOTHERFUCKING MOUTHS
[Police Siren]
Although this recording sounds like Bron was literally shoved into a booth and spent about 53 seconds de-phlegming his throat to deepen his voice, this is further indication that LeBron's PR Game is slipping. Or, as Billups was quick to formulate the tagline:
DJ Whoo Kid- Jeopardizing endorsement deals since the '03 All-Star Game.
Maybe Bron's just trying to keep cred pace with his Team USA mates. The unity is serious. Melo already got to get his Karlton Hines on in the Stop Snitching video. Even D-Wade is doing Converse commercials with Rick Ross-as-Raffi singalong jingles.
Ok...I'll stop now. If this wasn't 'Face of The League' this bit would barely even be blogworthy. (On the other hand, if this was Melo it would be front page news and Big Easy would have even less of a chance of getting the all-star game).
Perhaps the compromise here is that Lebron's lack of self-awareness is oddly refreshing.
posted by Dr. Lawyer IndianChief @ 3/02/2007 11:43:00 AM
8 comments
8 Comments:
the real LBJ is starting to come out... the less that seems like everything he does is scripted by Nike the more I like him.
Smart move not doing what Kobe did and waiting 8 or 9 years before being himself.
This is kind of off-topic but kind of not... I'm just really enraged right now by this latest Bill Simmons blog post. In it he takes Scoop Jackson to task for attributing the "Las Vegas was insane during All-Star Weekend" meme to racism. What drives me absolutely bonkers is that Simmons says (you guessed it) that Jackson was just "playing the race card." It makes me very angry that a black writer can't attribute anything in our culture to racism without being accused of "playing the race card." I mean I think that's literally all that term means anymore-- a person with minority status complaining about racism.
Whats particularly enraging about it is that all this comes in a blog post where Simmons writers paragraph after paragraph about race. He, the white writer, can with confidence say that other sportswriters have a racist grudge against the NBA. But for Jackson to think that the selfsame sports media made a bigger deal out of Vegas than it was because of race, that's the worst in identity politics, apparently. Simmons is doing exactly what he complains about Jackson doing, hiding behind his racial identity for protection in making a claim of racism.
I'm on record saying that I really don't like Bill Simmons, but look, if it's just more Boston-area nostalgia and lame Pearl Jam references, no big deal. But watching the man try to sift out an argument about race... wow.
Smart move not doing what Kobe did and waiting 8 or 9 years before being himself.
I actually think Kobe was being himself all those years. I think he's only "opening up" now because being himself made the whole world hate him and he realized he had to be this way if he didn't want to continue to be the league's pariah. I also don't think he was ever a "bad guy" per say, he just was closed off from everyone (including the media), and when the media didn't get the access to him that they wanted they made ripping him to shreds a full time job.
As far as LeBron goes, I think he's been much more a marketing by-product because the world was fixated on him at a much younger age, and because (unlike Kobe) LeBron was hailed as the savior of basketball from the time he was in high school (when Kobe was in HS Jordan was still winning titles). LeBron is probably more of a "regular guy" than Kobe is underneath both of their public images though. People have always ripped Kobe for not being "real" enough, but I think the truth there is that the "real" Kobe is the one that was distant and a loner; the same one who grew up an English-speaking African-American kid in Italy who spent most of his developmental years playing basketball by himself.
Must have been Biz Lebron on the track b/c Young Buck sucks.
Freddie, I had the same reaction.
As much as I hate Simmons' fratboy style, I admire him for being one of the few white mainstream sportswriters who 1) acknowledges the race class and generation biases that pervade the sportswriting profession and 2) avoids the self-righteousness of other sports writers.
The piece in question is a fine rebuttal to Jackson's article until you get to the "race card" bullshit.
all you lebron haters are just hatin cause your hometown players cant play for shit, and you know hes the shit taking a shitty team to the finals after stomping all over the bitch ass pistons
all you lebron haters are just hatin cause your hometown players cant play for shit, and you know hes the shit taking a shitty team to the finals after stomping all over the bitch ass pistons
Let me fill all you non-hip-hop heads in on something: this is about FOUR YEARS OLD. It was on a Whoo Kid mixtape when G-Unit was real hot, which was actually around the time LBJ came in the league, 2003. So, it's funny you say, based on this that his "PR game is slippin' " Do your research. And YES, I am from C-Town.
Post a Comment
<< Home