Posted July 9, 20232 yr comment_6006917 Recently, I caught wind that Lil Uzi Vert's latest release, Pink Tape, features a song entitled "Nakamura" that is dedicated to the King of Strong Style, Shinsuke Nakamura. I checked out the lyrics and there really isn't any reference to professional wrestling aside Uzi declaring himself, "the king of the ring". Then you have Travis Scott referring to himself as Cactus Jack and Drake photographed in a Razor Ramon shirt. Snoop enshrined in the WWE Hall of Fame. The recent success of Bad Bunny. This got me thinking about how pro wrestling friendly rap has always been dating back to Run DMC's appearance at WrestleMania 5 (and later on remixing DX's theme). From Master P, to Wu-Tang Clan, to "Ric Flair Drip" there's always been a link between rap with it's heavy emphasis on fashion/beefs/battles and professional wrestling promos. Currently, we have R-Truth, Hook, Hit Row and The Acclaimed as hip-hop tribute acts. Of course, John Cena made his name off a rap persona inspired by Vanilla Ice. Funkasaurus and the Hip-Hop Hippo.There was the Def Jam wrestling game. In the 90's, you have Public Enemy, The Gangstas, ICP, PN News, PG-13, K-Dawg, and Kid Kash. Since we have a thread covering the connection between rock and wrestling, I figured I'd start one about rap and hip-hop because there's so much history and representation in both genres with a lot of crossover appeal.
July 9, 20232 yr comment_6006920 I'm a 49 year-old middle-class white Australian male. Can I play? I like Boom Box Brock and the rap stylings of Randy Savage. That shit be def, yo. Peace out.
July 9, 20232 yr comment_6006922 My favorite will always be GZA's "I slayed MC's back in the rec room era/My style broke motherfuckin backs like Ken Patera." There are a surprising amount of Ted DiBiase references in hip hop songs.
July 9, 20232 yr comment_6006923 Is this the first time rap and pro wrestling intersected? Off the top of my head, I can't think of anything prior to this. Pretty crazy that it came from the AWA of all places. Almost as surprising is the fact that Nick Bockwinkel actually had a pretty good flow.
July 9, 20232 yr comment_6006925 1 hour ago, ohtani's jacket said: My favorite will always be GZA's "I slayed MC's back in the rec room era/My style broke motherfuckin backs like Ken Patera." There are a surprising amount of Ted DiBiase references in hip hop songs. This is the one for me. As soon as I saw the thread title, this was the line that came to mind. I mean, the obscurity level of a Ken Patera reference in 1995 is sort of astonishing. You know he was watching MSG shows back in the 80s. Pusha's 'What Dreams are Made Of' has solid chunk of an actual Ric Flair promo at the intro of it. Pusha is always good for a Ric Flair reference. I remember the picture from Wrestlemania 11 with Bret Hart and Salt-N-Pepa. I do not remember if they were actually involved in anything during the show beyond that, however.
July 9, 20232 yr comment_6006926 i keep expecting Daniel Garcia to start coming out to a Westside Gunn song like any week now, surprised it hasn’t happened already. Gunn played “Dr. Birds” for his entrance live last year when he won the Pure Title, but i’m waiting for a recorded theme specifically for Garcia. Gunn does have a song called titled “Red Death,” but its a ten minute Griselda-style posse cut, so it’s not necessarily great wrestling theme material (at the very least not for this particular version of Garcia). but if the discussion is wrestling’s current presence in rap Griselda has to be mentioned, more specifically Westside Gunn, since he’s a superfan who has a whole compilation record of his songs named after wrestlers and had a dedicated line of wrestling themed merchandise (both called The Fourth Rope).
July 9, 20232 yr comment_6006928 I'm almost positive there was a thread about this years ago but I can't be bothered to find it Czarface is pretty much exclusively wrestling and superhero references in their songs
July 9, 20232 yr Author comment_6006930 3 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said: There are a surprising amount of Ted DiBiase references in hip hop songs. Riff Raff and Yelawolf put out a song called "Million Dollar Mullet" that brings up Ted in the opening line. At one point, Riff was supposedly training with Hulk Hogan, talked with WWE, and appeared at an independent show where he interfered in a Kurt Angle vs Rey Mysterio match. Riff uses "Texas Tornado" as an alias.
July 9, 20232 yr comment_6006941 Can someone that knows how to embed videos please do us the service (or disservice) and link the greatest wrestling related rhymes of all time.... Wrestlicious!!!
July 9, 20232 yr comment_6006946 Chamillionaire featured Zeus in his Ridin' music video, in a wrestling setting, even. Also, in a Russo swerve, ICP has a song called Chris Benoit which is far less exploitative than one would expect.
July 9, 20232 yr comment_6006949 I definitely didn't expect to see "Nick Bockwinkel" and "white rappers" in the same sentence.
July 9, 20232 yr comment_6006951 8 hours ago, KB8 said: I remember the picture from Wrestlemania 11 with Bret Hart and Salt-N-Pepa. I do not remember if they were actually involved in anything during the show beyond that, however. They did perform a version of "Whatta Man" prior to Lawrence Taylor vs Bam Bam Bigelow.
July 10, 20232 yr Author comment_6006959 Cardi B has a lot of Salt-N-Pepa in her act, WWE has been begging her for years to eventually perform. Not sure what the hold up is, she seems totally into it. Maybe the time has passed, she's still A-List. Eminem proclaiming himself "the best thing since wrestling!" Wasn't Soulja Boy training with Rikishi? I don't know if he followed through on any of it. Flavor Flav hosted RAW in 2010.
July 10, 20232 yr comment_6006960 Its as if someone who spent 40 some years as a jet flyin, limousine ridin, kiss stealin, wheelin' dealin son-of-a-gun resonated with a lot of folks in rap.
July 10, 20232 yr comment_6006961 21 hours ago, ohtani's jacket said: My favorite will always be GZA's "I slayed MC's back in the rec room era/My style broke motherfuckin backs like Ken Patera." Definitely this. Liquid Swords is such an amazing album. Shame how much the Wu sound changed in the late 90s because the first albums are pretty much all fire.
July 10, 20232 yr comment_6006964 MF DOOM albums are usually littered with wrestling references, but this one may be my favorite (from the song "Great Day"): "Lookie here, it's just the way the cookie tear Prepare to get hurt and mangled like Kurt Angle rookie year" Just classic, brilliant MF DOOM rhyme style with the way he purposefully mispronounces "tear" to rhyme with "here" and "year," but then also has the uncanny internal rhymes of "hurt" with "Kurt" and "mangled" with "Angle" and "lookie" with "cookie" and "rookie." Just an insane amount of rhymes/assonance within two lines. Anyway, here's the song in all its glory: Madvillain - Great Day
July 10, 20232 yr comment_6006966 We didn’t get Smackdown, UPN wasn’t on our cable package. I feel so old typing that now lol. So when I first saw John Cena come out in the 2003 Royal Rumble I thought the gimmick was so bad. That show was a roller coaster between the godawful Steiner/Triple H fiasco and the thorough pounding Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit gave each other.
July 10, 20232 yr comment_6006968 5 hours ago, MLB said: Wasn't Soulja Boy training with Rikishi? I don't know if he followed through on any of it. That was Bow Wow. However, Soulja Boy did have that hilarious Twitter beef with Randy Orton a couple of years ago. Also hilarious: Flo Rida getting eviscerated by Bo Dallas in a rap battle. 5 hours ago, sek69 said: Its as if someone who spent 40 some years as a jet flyin, limousine ridin, kiss stealin, wheelin' dealin son-of-a-gun resonated with a lot of folks in rap. Rappers as a whole tend to have questionable role models (see also, Tony Montana).
July 10, 20232 yr comment_6006970 Bo Dallas bodying Flo Rida is so fucking funny. How the fuck did Flo stink it up so bad? He did that for a living!
July 12, 20232 yr comment_6007081 I'm sad nothing ever came of the aborted Bow Wow/Jade Cargill angle in AEW
August 16, 20232 yr Author comment_6009617 I had to tack on this French-Canadian rap video, "Winning Team" featuring Jacques Rougeau et Carl Oullette:
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