"Basketball" is a rap song written by William Waring, Robert Ford,

Kurtis Blow Kurtis Walker (born August 9, 1959), known professionally by his stage name Kurtis Blow, is an American rapping , rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Walker is the first commercially successful rapper and the first to sign with a major rec ...

, J. B. Moore, Jimmy Bralower, and

Full Force Full Force is an American music group of hip hop and R&B singers, songwriters and producers from Brooklyn, New York. Members *B-Fine (Brian George) – drums and drum programming, backing vocals *Shy Shy (Hugh Junior Clark) – bass guita ...

and recorded by

, released in 1984 from his album '' Ego Trip''.

Song history

According to Blow, the idea for the song came from his then-girlfriend (whom he later married), who told him, "You need to make a song about

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

, it's the No. 1 sport for African-Americans and nobody has done it yet." Twenty-five famous basketball players are mentioned during the recording. Waring was primarily responsible for choosing which players would be mentioned in the song, but Blow specified that his favorite player, Julius "Dr. J" Erving, would be mentioned first. Blow said in 2013, "We wanted the guys we grew up watching who were all out of the league by the time the song came out, and the best of that time." The lyrics consist of

rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final Stress (linguistics), stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciou ...

couplet In poetry, a couplet ( ) or distich ( ) is a pair of successive lines that rhyme and have the same metre. A couplet may be formal (closed) or run-on (open). In a formal (closed) couplet, each of the two lines is end-stopped, implying that there ...

s, a structure that has been described as "typical of early-1980s rap". The song's hook was sung by Alyson Williams, who later had hit songs of her own on the

R&B chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by '' Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 ...

. The music video for the song was directed by

Michael Oblowitz Michael Oblowitz is a South African filmmaker. Early life and education Oblowitz was born in Cape Town where he grew up surfing in the 1970s. He is a Fine Arts and Philosophy graduate of the University of Cape Town. He received an M.F.A. in Fi ...

, who had a $25,000 budget. The video included cameos by hip hop groups

The Fat Boys The Fat Boys were an American hip-hop trio from Brooklyn, New York (state), New York, who emerged in the early 1980s. The group was briefly known originally as the Disco 3, originally composed of Mark "Prince Markie Dee" Morales, Damon Wimbley, ...

and

Whodini Whodini is an American hip hop group that was formed in 1982. The Brooklyn, New York–based trio consisted of vocalist and main lyricist Jalil Hutchins; co-vocalist John Fletcher, a.k.a. Ecstasy (who wore a Zorro-style hat as his trademark; Jun ...

. Although Blow had wanted the video to include footage of the players mentioned in the song, the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

would only provide clearance for use of still photos of

Micheal Ray Richardson Michael Ray Richardson (born April 11, 1955), known as Micheal Ray Richardson, is an American former professional basketball player and head coach. He played college basketball for the Montana Grizzlies. The No. 4 overall pick in the 1978 NBA dr ...

(who is not mentioned in the lyrics). Nevertheless, the NBA later took an interest in Blow's song and played it at games, as well as creating its own video that featured clips of every player mentioned in the song. Blow said, "When the song was peaking, the NBA started flying me around to do shows. ... I would do a live performance right after the game to fill the arena." The video game '' NBA 2K12'' used the song during the introduction.

Charts

Lil' Bow Wow version

Lil' Bow Wow Shad Gregory Moss (born March 9, 1987), better known by his stage name Bow Wow (formerly Lil' Bow Wow), is an American rapper and actor. His career began upon being discovered by rapper Snoop Dogg in 1993 at the age of six; five years later, ...

covered the song in 2002, featuring

Jermaine Dupri Jermaine Dupri Mauldin (born September 23, 1972) is an American rapper and record producer. Raised in Atlanta, Georgia as the son of Columbia Records executive Michael Mauldin, he began his career in music at the age of nine. He discovered th ...

Fabolous John David Jackson (born November 18, 1977), known professionally as Fabolous, is an American rapper. Raised in Brooklyn, he first gained recognition for his ability upon performing live on DJ Clue's WQHT, Hot 97 radio show. Jackson then signed ...

and Fundisha for the ''

Like Mike ''Like Mike'' is a 2002 American sports comedy film directed by John Schultz and written by Michael Elliot and Jordan Moffet. Starring Lil' Bow Wow, Morris Chestnut, Jonathan Lipnicki, Brenda Song, Robert Forster, Crispin Glover, and Eugene ...

soundtrack A soundtrack is a recorded audio signal accompanying and synchronised to the images of a book, drama, motion picture, radio program, television show, television program, or video game; colloquially, a commercially released soundtrack album of m ...

Charts

In popular culture

* In 2016, the song was played during "

Dungeons and Dragons ''Dungeons & Dragons'' (commonly abbreviated as ''D&D'' or ''DnD'') is a fantasy tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) originally created and designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson. The game was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rule ...

, Anyone?", an episode of '' The Goldbergs'', a 2010s TV sitcom set in 1980s America. Specifically for use in the episode, Kurtis Blow also recorded a version of the song with lyrics about the

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, or abbreviated as RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out ...

Dungeons & Dragons. * In the animated TV sitcom ''

American Dad! ''American Dad!'' is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane, Mike Barker (producer), Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series premiered on February 6, 2005, following Super Bowl XXXIX, with the r ...

'', season 13, episode 17, "Criss-Cross Applesauce: The Ballad of Billy Jesusworth", the song plays during a segment where Stan and

Roger Roger is a masculine given name, and a surname. The given name is derived from the Old French personal names ' and '. These names are of Germanic languages">Germanic origin, derived from the elements ', ''χrōþi'' ("fame", "renown", "honour") ...

play one-on-one basketball. * In ''

The Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening and developed by Groening, James L. Brooks and Sam Simon for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is a Satire (film and television), satirical depiction of American life ...

'' season 28, episode 17, " 22 for 30", the song plays during the aftermath of a documentary.

References

External links

* {{authority control 1984 songs 1984 singles 2002 singles Kurtis Blow songs Bow Wow (rapper) songs Jermaine Dupri songs Fabolous songs Song recordings produced by Jermaine Dupri Songs written by Jermaine Dupri Basketball music