I think it’s fitting that this EP is posted on Too Chill because of the title of this EP alone. Just Chill comes from a fresh talent from Toronto, and she goes by the name of Veronica Domingues. This project displays flashes of soul that he hadn’t seen in R&B for a while, but the thing is that there’s more like her in the city just ready to break out (Victoria Di Giovanni, Shi Wisdom, Savannah Re to name a few). This is music for those desperate for feel good music – it provides that soul revival, so enjoy.

Listen Here

Don Cannon always makes HEAT and GhostWridah’s lyrics fan the flames. Check out the Miami emcee’s latest!

Black Hippy is all together again and absolutely murders this track. The TDE collective puts this out for the masses after anouncing the good kid… Madd City tour coming to a city near you!

Kanye is back.

“Nas Told Me” is the intro to Phil Adé’s forthcoming project R.O.S.E., which will be available Summer 2013.

For updates follow Phil Adé on twitter & instagram:

https://twitter.com/philade_rf
http://instagram.com/philade_rf

For new music, news, merchandise, & tour dates, visit:

http://www.philademusic.com/

Reppin’ the Eastside of Chicago is rapper YP, who’s still looking to release his Universal Republic debut, “Restless”. In the meantime, he joins forces with Sir Michael Rocks to drop one of the tracks that won’t be featured on his next protect, “Get With The Team”.

“Restless” is expected to drop next month.

Two things ran through my mind when I heard this story. First of all, you have to be a complete idiot to turn down a free education and a chance to play for a Big Ten school to be a rapper. There are tons of student athletes who have rap careers on the side (shameless plug for Kid Slim, check him out). Is it a bad look to be representing the university while rapping about weed and women? Obviously. That’s why you have to tone it down. Seems like the kid would rather smoke his weed than compete for a national championship (no, not you Honey Badger).

The second thing that crossed my mind, and it was something that I also pondered a few weeks ago, was the vast number of ball players who couldn’t help but pick up the mic, or the emcees who couldn’t let those hoop dreams die on the hard wood or the gridiron. It seems like sports and hip hop go together better than bread and butter or Amanda Bynes and whatever drugs she’s taking. They are a match made in heaven, and ever so often you see an athlete step into the booth and spit a few bars, or vice versa. So without further ado, let’s countdown the five greatest athletes turned emcees and rappers turned ballers, and the honorable mentions who were just too great to leave off the list.

Honorable Mention:

Macho Man Randy Savage

Oooooooooooo yeah! When wrestling legend, Randy “Macho Man” Savage, left doing backstage promos with Mean Gene Okerland and took his raspy, iconic voice into the booth in 2003, a lot of us were confused. 10 years later, we’re still confused as to why. The Macho Man released his first (and thankfully, only) rap album titled Be a Man, featuring a diss track aimed at Hulk Hogan (who he legitimately had beef with, I know wrestlers “beefing” is so fake) and a tribute to the late “Mr. Perfect” Curt Hennig. Savage even went on a concert tour in promotion of the album, with former wrestlers Ron Harris (manager) and the late Brian Adams (bodyguard) as his entourage. Sadly, Randy Savage passed away in 2011, and left us wondering what if we ever got the sophomore follow up to Be a Man.

Tony Parker

When Drake and Chris Brown were involved in a sissy-fight inside a nightclub last year, in which bottles were thrown and San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker nearly lost his eye to a shard of glass, we all were wondering one thing: what the hell was Tony Parker doing at a nightclub? Eva Longoria’s former beau seems like the last person we’d see in the middle of a nightclub fracas with Wheelchair Jimmy and Chris Breezy, but we forget that TP’s father is from Chicago. Not only was Parker most likely raised in an environment where he was taught to duck flying objects at clubs, he also had a heavy hip hop influence. It was that that prompted the 3-time NBA champion to release a hip hop album with producer Polygrafic in 2007. To make the album even more of a novelty, the album was only recorded in French. Maybe that was the good thing.

Kobe Bryant

Speaking of foreign-language albums, Kobe Bryant was an emcee in the early 2000s. Actually, he was apart of a group called CHEIZAW in high school, but once he became a star with the Lakers, he ventured out on his own as a rapper. He released the song “K.O.B.E.”, featuring Tyra Banks, on All Star Weekend in 2000. It was poorly received, and his label, Sony, dropped all plans of an album. This was a blessing, and the Black Mamba would frequently spit rhymes in Italian. There was one positive that came out of Kobe’s rap career: he met his gorgeous wife Vanessa, and we are forever blessed with pictures of this woman…

Ratchet, yes. Beautiful? Ya damn right.

Master P and Lil Romeo

I’m gonna bundle the father-son duo together, because they really do have skills on the hardwood. Percy Miller actually had contracts with the Charlotte Hornets and the Toronto Raptors, although he never participated in a regular season NBA game. He did play in the CBA with the Fort Wayne Fury and with the ABA’s Las Vegas Rattlers. Lil Romeo Miller also had an okay high school basketball career, and given a full scholarship to play ball for Tim Floyd at USC. As it turns out, Romeo was only a part of a package deal that enabled the Trojans to receive a commitment from All-American Demar DeRozan, the no. 5 recruit in the nation. Miller played sparingly for USC, but did make the 2009 NCAA tournament, and remains the only person to ever win a Billboard Music Award and a Pac-12 Championship. I’m pretty sure that’s better than dunking on NBA stars in the fictional movie, “Like Mike”. Romeo 1, Bow Wow 0.

1985 Chicago Bears

The 1985 Chicago Bears will forever be known as the most swagtastic Super Bowl Champions of all time. Not only are they arguably the greatest team ever assembled, going 15-1 and dominating their way to a victory in Super Bowl XX, they were brash, cocky, and arrogant. After their only loss of the season, a Monday night shocker to Dan Marino and the Miami Dolphins, members of the Bears recorded the Super Bowl Shuffle, an entire month-plus before the Super Bowl. It’s a good thing they went on to win the trophy, or else Sackman Dent, Samurai Mike, the Punky QB, Speedy Willie, and company would’ve looked like complete fools. “Sweetness” Walter Payton and William “Refrigerador” Perry also spit the anti-drug song “Together”, but thankfully, it was forgettable.

Marquis Daniels

While Marquis Daniels has enjoyed a rather average NBA career, he also has a career in the rap industry as Q6, a member of the Florida-based 1090 Blokk Boyz. Their video, “Come Here Nikki”, is example A. of why it’s not a good idea to put your friends from back home with aspiring rap dreams on once you sign that NBA contract. It is an interesting video though.

Clint Dempsey

Who said soccer players can’t rock the mic? Clint Dempsey, the interim captain of the United States national team and a member of Tottenham Hotspur F.C. of the Premier League, is also known as Texas-rapper Deuce, who dropped the track Don’t Tread with the help of XO and late Houston rapper Big Hawk, in remembrance of his 16-year-old sister who died of a brain aneurysm. The song was featured in a Nike campaign for the 2006 World Cup, further proving the mean streets in which these football players grow up in. Move over Paul Wall.

Ron Artest

The Artist Soon to Be Known as Metta World Peace dropped the album My World in 2006, which guest features from Diddy, Juvenile, and Mike Jones, among others. After winning the NBA title as a member of the LA Lakers in 2010, he dropped the single Champions, which was featured on the NBA 2K11 soundtrack. Not bad Artest. Not bad.

Stephen Jackson

Stephen Jackson has endured a pretty decent NBA career, but once the lockout of 2011 hit, Stak5 decided to take his talents to the rap booth, dropping the What’s a Lockout? mixtape in December of 2011. The project, hosted by MMG’s DJ Scream, featured a hip hop legend in Scarface. Stak5 would also dropped the song Lonely At The Top, featuring Kevin Durant. I mean, if he focused on playing ball more than he did rapping, he wouldn’t have gotten cut by the Spurs right before the playoffs.

And NOW the 5 greatest to ever lay it down in the booth and in their respective sport…

5. Deion Sanders

In addition to being a two-sport athlete, Primetime was also one of the greatest entertainers in sports history. In 1994, he dropped the album Prime Time on MC Hammer’s Bust It Records. The album featured the cult video, Must Be The Money, in which the Hall-of-Fame defensive back flaunted his riches as usual. Was Leon Sandcastle’s rap skills great? Hell no. They weren’t even good. However, Deion was entertaining as all hell, and so was his rap career. Thank God his football and baseball careers could compensate for his rap career. Deion would win two Super Bowls and a Defensive Player of the Year award in addition to his 186 career steals in the MLB.

4. Roy Jones Jr.

The former four-division boxing champion was no slouch on the mic, dropping Round One: The Album in 2002, which featured the lead single That Was Then, which hit #2 on the Hot Rap Singles chart. However, he’s best known for his work with the Body Head Bangerz, best known for their hit I Smoke, I Drank. It’s also important to note that, since Roy Jones began his rap career, he is 11-7 inside the ring, losing twice to Antonio Tarver, and also catching L’s to Bernard Hopkins, Joe Calzaghe, and Danny Green, among others. Guess he did it too big.

3. Allen Iverson

A.I., aka Jewelz, never got the chance to release an album, or win an NBA championship. Nevertheless, he’ll still go down as one of the hardest ballers to step in the booth. Now yes, his flow can use a bit of a tweak, but A.I. still went hard on 40 Barz. He would garner criticism over his content, which included violence, homophobic slurs, and domestic abuse. David Stern wasn’t too happy with Jewelz and a stop was put to his rap career before it could ever take off. Iverson would never win a championship, and his NBA career fizzled out as sadly as his rap career did. Is he one of the greatest NBA players ever? Yes. Is he one of the best athletes-turned-rappers ever? We’ll never truly know.

2. John Cena

John Cena’s white rapper gimmick on WWE Smackdown was proven to be no joke when he released You Can’t See Me in 2005. Cena, along with his cousin Tha Trademarc and frequent collabs from Bumpy Knuckles, would debut at #15 on the Billboard 200 and eventually would move 1 million units. Aside from rapping his theme music, Cena also found himself on the remix to Murs’ H-U-S-T-L-E, along with E-40 and Chingo Bling. Cena is a 13-time world champion, and the biggest face in the modern PG era of Sports Entertainment. Now if only the Doctor of Thuganomics would come back to save the game…

1. Shaquille O’Neal

I guess it really is true: you can’t stop the reign. Shaquille O’Neal is not only one of the greatest centers in NBA history, he is also the greatest athlete to rock the mic. After his rookie season, the #1 overall pick in 1992 dropped Shaq Diesel, which featured production from Ali Shaheed, Def Jef, and Erick Sermon, and the gold-single (I Know I Got) Skillz. Shaq Diesel would go platinum, and his next project, Shaq Fu: Da Return, would go gold, featuring Method Man, the RZA, Keith Murray, Warren G, and Redman. In 1996, Shaq would team with his good friend, the late great Notorious B.I.G., on You Can’t Stop The Reign. The Diesel was even a guest rapper on Michael Jackson’s 2 Bad. Eventually, the Big Shaqtus would leave the world of music and acting and focus on basketball, which was his best move, as he would go on to win 4 NBA championships and an NBA MVP. Kobe may have one more ring, but in this discussion, it is Shaq who’s the G.O.A.T.

Suspect………and Kobe eventually did it without him…….but still….

Dictated, Not Read.

The Management.