Bryn Coates-Davies – The Concordian

These lyrical flaunts are anything but good

“I got so much money / I should start a bank!” – Wiz Khalifa

Unlike most rappers, Wiz is thinking long-term. Nowadays, very few new banks are popping up so this is an untapped market, and Wiz is getting into it on the ground floor. This may seem like a bad line now, but just you wait.

“Got so many whips / they call me whipalicious” – Yung Joc

Poor Yung Joc. Not everyone has an entourage that is creative enough to come up with great nicknames. It’s unfortunate, but this is something I believe Joc has come to terms with.

“Rock star / I’m flyer than an ostrich” – Juelz Santana

We’re onto number three, and I still have yet to see a bad brag. Juelz Santana is a man of the people, therefore he is flyer than an ostrich. Every time I hear this line, it makes me feel like I too am flyer than an ostrich. Plus it’s about time these cocky ostriches were knocked down a peg.

“That gun automatic / My car automatic” – French Montana

This is a great brag; automatic cars are the new thing. French Montana is not living that stick shift life. #AUTOBOYZ

“Follow me, follow me I’m the leader / And when I park cars I don’t pay for the metre” – Chiddy Bang

Nothing makes you look like a leader more than repeatedly saying, “Follow me.” And not paying for the metre is a legitimate badass move. Those fines add up, but he’s still parking his car and never paying. And I bet that car is an automatic #AUTOBOYZ4EVA

“Big house, long hallways, got 10 bathrooms / I could shit all day” – Lil Wayne

I am merely a humble #AUTOBOY, but I can aspire to someday live in a house with extra long hallways. Lil Wayne now gets to shit all day in all of his bathrooms. Can you say the same for yourself?

“I know how to rip thongs and I’m pretty good at beer pong” – Joey Bada$$

No one wants to be amazing at beer pong. That means you spend way too much time practicing a game in which success means drinking less. All you want is to be pretty good. You will win some games and you will lose some games, but you will be forever and ever pretty good.

“I got so many clothes I keep them at my aunt’s house” – Tinie Tempah

I don’t know about your family, but my Aunt Jan has a very large house. I bet your family could fit all of their clothes in her basement easily, because it turns out running a curling rink pays pretty well. Having this on the list is a direct insult to my aunt.

“Bitch I’m cooler than a cooler” – Chief Keef

This is a classic brag by a classic man. On a camping trip in the summer, nothing is cooler than a cooler. Chief Keef making this claim is a very bold statement, and it takes guts. Respect to the Chief.

“I spit tighter, I’m not like all the rest / I’m not a playa but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express” – KRS-One

One night at a Montreal Holiday Inn Express can cost up to $130 a night. KRS-One is not an idiot who will stay at a regular Holiday Inn. He doesn’t need that fancy continental breakfast. All he needs is some bread and those weird small containers of peanut butter and jam, which are very hard to scoop out with a knife.

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin

The culture of rap music is felt, even in sport

Basketball has always had a strong connection to the hip hop community, beginning all the way back in 1979, when Big Bank Hank of the Sugarhill Gang bragged about watching the New York Knicks on his colour TV in “Rapper’s Delight.”

From then on, the connection strengthened as hip hop’s popularity grew in the 1990s. That era saw the “Fab Five” Michigan Wolverines basketball team adopt personas similar to rappers for the first time, wearing loose and baggy basketball shorts and black socks. Allegedly, they would end timeouts by quoting the Geto Boys’s “Gotta Let Your Nuts Hang.” This era also saw basketball players such as Shaquille O’Neal making rap albums.

Today, both the rap and hip hop communities are highly intertwined, with players like Damian Lillard being recognized for their musical abilities. Lonzo Ball also releases music inspired by the artists he listens to and enjoys the most, namely Migos and Drake. Jay-Z became the first rapper to co-own an NBA team, the Brooklyn Nets, and Drake is currently the Toronto Raptors’s “Global Ambassador.”

Countless NBA players and teams have been referenced in rap songs. Today, the influence of hip hop culture in the NBA is more widely accepted, but this was not always the case. In the dark ages of former NBA commissioner David Stern’s seemingly endless tenure, there was an attempt to majorly distance the league from this hip hop image, as he believed it tarnished the league’s reputation.

As the era of gangster rap led to the rap industry growing even more popular, NBA players followed the inspiration of prominent rappers of the time. As baggy pants, oversized T-shirts, chains and do-rags became the style in rap, players followed suit. This was not well-received by most NBA league management, owners or coaches.

Legendary coach Phil Jackson commented in 2005: “The players have been dressing in prison garb for the last five or six years.” Opinions like this caused the NBA to throw the hammer down on Dec. 17, 2005, and completely overhaul the NBA dress code. Headgear, T-shirts, sunglasses, chains and many more hip hop related items were banned in favour of “business casual” attire.

Just like that, the NBA was the first professional sports league to have a dress code. This was largely used to target one player in particular, Allen Iverson, especially during his prominence in the early 2000s. He was an NBA superstar who was seen by many as the first person to bring this style to the league. As a player, Iverson was exceptional, but off the court, Stern did not like the way he dressed, his tattoos and especially his attempted gangster rap career under the name Jewelz. Stern described his music as “coarse, offensive and anti-social.”

It is apparent now that the dress code backfired on Stern, because in the years since, players such as Russell Westbrook have taken style to a level unimaginable by Stern back in the early 2000s. Westbrook mixes and matches business attire with more traditional hip-hop street wear, a style several NBA players have adopted since. The NBA dress code administered by Stern still stands today, but the rules apply to an outdated era of hip hop style.

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin