When it comes to NBA basketball, LeBron James is one of the greatest figures in its history. In 20 seasons in the league, despite being 38 years old, he still became one of the elites in the league with his outstanding performance on the court.
Off the court, James is known for his appreciation of hip-hop/rap music. Whether it’s old-school hip-hop or current rap, James uploads videos or photos of him getting excited on Instagram and even raps along to the lyrics.
The Lakers star recently posted a new track between rappers Meek Mill and Rick Ross on his Instagram Story.
“The dynamic duo is back,” James said.
The collaborative song between the two rappers is titled “Shaq and Kobe” and was released in digital and music video formats. Additionally, the music video was uploaded to YouTube a few hours ago and has already received 491,000 views. The song also ranked No. 12 along with other music videos.
The music video was directed by Kid Art and executive produced by Andrew Goor and Cartier Brown.
LeBron James names his top five hip-hop albums
Ahead of his Instagram post, Lakers forward LeBron James listed his top five hip-hop albums on X.
“‘Chronic,’ ‘Doggy Style,’ ‘The Black Album,’ ‘Life After Death,’ and… ‘It Was Written,'” James said. “But I have a lot more real names!”
He listed albums from rappers Snoop Dogg, The Notorious BIG and Nas, including producer Dr. Dre. Interestingly, back in 2012, the NBA star also named his top five rappers in response to a fan query.
From his tweets, I picked The Notorious BIG, 2pac, Eminem and Nas.
Additionally, during an appearance on Uninterrupted’s “The Shop,” James mentioned DMX and classical musician Beethoven as artists he’s been listening to a lot lately:
“Yeah, when I get there, I go straight to the weight room and I listen to all the hip-hop music in the weight room,” James said. “Like, DMX, crazy. Like, I’ve been playing some DMX in the weight room lately. And then when I leave the weight room, I have to calm down. That’s when I’m listening to oldies — school jazz or I listen to A lot of Beethoven’s music…”
“Yeah, I love classical music too,” James added. “I listen to a lot of classical music, and then probably about 45 minutes before the game starts, I start to get my energy back.”
From LeBron James’ perspective, he uses music as part of his daily workout, especially when preparing to play basketball.