5 Best NBA Live Tracks

A great thing about hip hop is it's influence on the NBA, and vice versa. You can get on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter and see your favorite NBA players posing and taking pictures with your favorite rappers any and every day. But when it comes to rap and basketball colliding at it's absolute finest, you can't do much better than some exclusive NBA Live tracks. This is one thing that you just don't see in gaming anymore, does anybody else remember when rappers used to write exclusive songs for NBA video games about playing ball and how awesome basketball is?  No?  Anyways, in case you don't remember, here's 5 tracks from the greatest video game franchise ever ("ever" meaning "of my childhood"), NBA Live.

Chingy - Right Thurr (NBA Live Remix)(NBA Live 2004)

WHO REMEMBERS CHINGY THOUGH?! NBA Live fans would not only remember Chingy, but they'd also remember that Chingy took his greatest hit and remade it into an exclusive NBA Live 2004 track with all new lyrics about basketball!  The hook was legendary; "I'm bout to shake and bake ya right thurr (right thurr), from the 3 point line, I don't curr (don't curr), I'm bout to shake and bake ya right thurr (right thurr), cross over, make the whole crowd stir (crowd stir)". Chingy and his lyrics were made famous by the early 2000s trend of slurred words and accents, but if you were to ask me about how wrong his English were back in the day, I'd respond simply; "I don't curr."

Fabolous - It's In The Game (NBA Live 2003)

My absolute favorite NBA Live exclusive track goes to Fabolous. Is there a more cool rapper in the game, even to this day?  12 years later and the guy is still rocking the freshest NBA throwback jerseys (check his Instagram) and making them seem as in style as ever. Fabo set the tone for NBA Live 2003 with this perfect intro (which might also be my favorite NBA Live intro video ever). What better song to use for the NBA Live franchise when it was at it's peak?  E-A Sports... IT'S IN THE GAME!

Nomb ft. Anthony Hamilton (NBA Live 2005)

Now I'm unsure if this track is actually an NBA Live exclusive, but given the impact this song had on my NBA Live experience (life), I could not care less. Being born in Carolina and taking pride in it growing up wanting to ball like Jordan, this song had special meaning. I mean, whose more known for basketball than those Chapel Hill boys?  Nobody I tell ya! Favorite lyrics; brand new sweater, brand new leather, everything brand new no matter the weather, DVD play-a, CD change-a, spinnin through the kac', dudes kickin in the back, fresh white tee, pinky ring gold blow, fresh white sneaks, whole team gettin dough, who hot as this, the (?) is kit, I rock my wrist, the block is lit." When people ask you who came up with "it's lit"... you better tell 'em Nomb did it first!

Chamillionaire - Grind Time (NBA Live 2006)

Seems like more often than not, some of the bigger one hits wonders of this era ended up making their way onto an NBA Live soundtrack. Chamillionaire was known obviously for his ginormous 2005 hit "Ridin Dirty", but I suppose after that old Chamillionaire seemed to blend his way into the crowd of rappers that didn't last. Chamillionaire's short lived reign aside, "Grind Time" was certainly a jam you could use to pump yourself up on the court, or in the weight room.

Joell Ortiz - Mean Business (NBA Live 2005)

                                         (*I do not own these songs, or the rights to them*)

Okay, so probably another track that wasn't exactly made exclusively for an NBA Live soundtrack, but is still one of the harder tracks to make a soundtrack, and is definitely a funny throwback if you look at Joell Ortiz's career then and now. The then solo emcee was probably just looking to make a name for himself rising out of the underground scene around this era, what better way to get your name out there than have a song make an NBA Live soundtrack?  There weren't many back then, that's for sure. I stumbled upon this gem playing NBA Live 2005 not long ago (yeah I still play it, judge me if you want) and couldn't help but marvel how Joell went from that, to Slaughterhouse. Crazy thought.

So there's a list of some NBA Live songs that were a part of my life growing up with the now struggling to sell NBA Live franchise (it's sad to see honestly, considering how they reigned over NBA 2K in the late 1990s/early 2000s). NBA Live for 90s kids is what NBA 2K is for kids today, though I believe people appreciated games more back then. We didn't appreciate it then, but looking back for NBA Live players, it was always amazing to see rappers and artists make exclusive tracks for these video games every year. NBA Live was rounded out every year with some sweet new dribble moves, new and updated dunks, Franchise modes, and most of all; some of the greatest video game soundtracks ever made. Don't sleep NBA 2K players, don't sleep!  


 

    




















      

The Trillest O.G.: Bun B's Influence On Rap

I certainly got into Big K.R.I.T a lot later than I could have hoped. My first listen of him being his 2013 mix tape King Remembered In Time, and as I listened on to a mix tape that had every type of song, and sounded like he definitely could have sold in stores based on the quality of the songs, one of my select favorites from the tape was one by the name of "Shine On", featuring fellow Houston emcee Bun B. Now I've always been one to get into those heavily slept on rappers very late (probably because they're so heavily slept on), but this K.R.I.T tape led me to buy his debut album Live From The Underground, and I noticed another Bun feature on a song by the name of "Pull Up", also featuring Big SANT. I had never heard a rapper with such a distinguishable voice before, and by that I mean I had never heard someone demand such a presence on a microphone, I was almost sensing the power through the speakers, it was like Bun was in my house rapping along to the beat of these songs, and his style demanded just as much attention as his voice did. After hearing these tracks, I knew I had to hear more, and was moved by what I had found.

Bun B is his name. I really hope you already know, but it's okay if you don't because I can do my best to give the proper introduction. The only way you can properly describe Bernard Freeman is that he is the absolute trillest of them all. He is so trill in fact that he even had the word copyrighted (that's right, the word "trill" has been copyrighted by Bun himself, does it get more trill than that?). Many have debated what the word "trill" means, or who it represents, but the idea behind it has always been a sort of cool and laid back style, and when Rolling Stone magazine asked Bun what it means to be trill, Bun replied "just look at me." It's debatable that southern rap is almost nothing without it's originator, and his influence on rap is just about unmatched, you can hear it almost anywhere you turn on a radio to your local rap station. Bun's influence on not just southern rap, but rap as a whole is clear when you listen to big names like B.o.B, Big K.R.I.T, Trae Tha Truth, Paul Wall, Chamillionaire, Ludacris, T.I., Slim Thug, Nelly, and one of the biggest being Toronto's very own (also, October's) Drake (I mention his being from Toronto because even being from an entirely different country you can hear the influence and the homage paid to Bun in his music).

(Seems to be the most Houston-influenced song in Drake's catalog even to this day, especially when you hear him detail a night in Houston towards the end of the track.)(*I do not own this song or the rights to it*)

So what has Bun B really done for hip hop?  How has one man defined an entire subgenre inside a genre that is getting more and more broad every day (if you say rap isn't expanding, you're either hating, or you don't listen to it, period.)?  While the best place to start to explain this is in the influence you hear in the rappers I listed above, a certain style has been originated by Houston rap as a whole (and many would probably argue that Bun was indeed the originator), and it's called "chopped and screwed". If you haven't heard of this style it's done very heavily by DJ's and most commonly found on remakes of mix tapes. To "chop and screw" a song or a project is to slow it down, make the bass line bump just a little more than it did before, and make it proper for those who "sip on sizzurp" and "lean", and to put it in layman's terms, the people who like to move "just as slowly as the music".

Yes indeed Houston's brand of hip hop is one of the most known yet different types of hip hop there is out there, and Bun B and Pimp C were at the helm of it before Pimp C's unfortunate passing in 2007. That certainly hasn't stopped Bun's hustle though, as he has released 3 albums since then, II Trill in 2008, Trill OG in 2010, and Trill OG: The Epilogue in 2013. Oh yes lots of research went into this, how could I do an entire article on Bun without listening to any more of his music?  I certainly enjoyed everything I found. His first album Trill in 2005 was a huge blast from the past listening to, and reminded me of when I first had gotten into hip hop and some of the first artists I remembered hearing on the radio. Yes this album came at a time when southern hip hop reigned supreme, and boasted features from big names like Jeezy, T.I., Ludacris, Ying Yang Twins, Chamillionaire, Mike Jones, and basically every southern rapper you could imagine was at the top in 2005.

Overall, Trill OG has to be my favorite Bun album. His hard sound really shines through, and the features fit very well on every track, it's basically Bun's version of The Chronic 2001. A couple of stand out cuts are the Drake features "It's Been A Pleasure" and 'Shut It Down", with Drake doing hooks on both songs and even giving a verse on "Shut It Down," very interesting to hear these tracks as they were right around Drake's come up in 2010 right after his debut album Thank Me Later. Those aren't the only stand out features on the album though, Bun also got an unreleased Tupac verse for the song "Right Now", which also features Trey Songz and Pimp C. Every featured rapper sounds good in perspective of the album, but Bun is no slouch on songs without features, and he proves it on bangers like "Lights, Camera, Action" and "I Git Down 4 Mine". The production is banging in proper Bun fashion as well, perfect to bump in the trunk of your car, and even features a DJ Premier beat on the song "Let Em Know". (Wow, certainly didn't expect to basically just give you an album review there, but if I had to recommend any albums for new Bun fans, Trill OG would certainly be it.)

So needless to say, Bun B makes some pretty great music and his influence on today's generation of rap still shines through strong. Listening to him brings me back, especially his first album, because his style was basically what epitomized rap in the early 2000s, and the younger side of me gets all nostalgic, but saying Bun has made the same music since his debut would be unfair, and pretty inaccurate. Though the concept of his Trill O.G. (which I'm also just realizing means trilogy, clever work Bun) series remained the same throughout all 3 albums, his growth as a rapper and as a person can't be denied, and how could you not change after the death of a close friend, and former Scottie Pippen to his Michael Jordan?  No, Bun certainly hasn't been one dimensional at all throughout his career, but I believe there is only one word that could describe him, and I believe we all already know what it is.