Kevin Durant and LeBron James made a rap song and they won't let us hear it
Easily the most important NBA news of the day comes to us from Chris Haynes of ESPN.com:
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As legend has it, stashed away somewhere is a six-year-old, never-before released hip-hop track by [LeBron] James and [Kevin] Durant.
League sources informed ESPN that the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors superstars collaborated on the track during the lockout in 2011 while Durant, then a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder, was visiting James, who had joined the Miami Heat, for workouts in Akron, Ohio. […]
The song’s title and theme are unknown, as are its whereabouts. Durant, who produces beats in his spare time, is believed to have provided the instrumentals.
When approached about its existence, James and Durant, to a moderate extent, confirmed that there is such a track before bursting out into laughter without further comment. There are no current plans to release the song to the public.
I, for one, hope those plans change!
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While we wait for some heroic soul to leak the six-year-old audio, we’ll just have to content ourselves with listening to the former MVPs and NBA Finals combatants gliding on previously released tracks from yesteryear. We’ve heard Durant’s flow a number of times in the past, and he told our own Michael Lee (then of the Washington Post) in an August 2012 interview that he’d be open to releasing a project at some point:
You talk about doing something different. There has been a lot of buzz around Stephen Jackson’s new solo album coming out. Apparently you went to the studio and dropped a verse for him?
Yeah. I did. I enjoy doing a lot of different things. I’m a basketball player. That’s what I do and what I love but that’s just not all who I am. I’m talented in a lot of different areas. Rapping is one of those things I just enjoy doing. I have fun doing. Stephen Jackson is pretty good. He’s a nice rapper. It’s a privilege to be on a song with him. It’s not one of those songs where you’re just talking about how much money you got. It’s one of those inspirational kind of deals.
Does it make you want to go in the studio and put out your own album?
I think I’m going to do something. I have some resources and some nice people that’s going to help me out. I have a studio in my house already. Maybe I might put out a little something and have a little something.
While Haynes reports that Durant did “have a little something” with James, and that there “were discussions about it being featured in the 2012 film ‘Thunderstruck,’ which starred Durant,” KD never put out this particular little something. We don’t know for sure, but based on this audio released by TMZ in 2014 of James hopping on a remix of Jay Z’s “F***WithMeYouKnowIGotIt,” I suspect the answer is …
… because LeBron James, for all his enthusiastic rapping along with songs on Instagram, does not have bars, and Kevin Durant, branding aside, is too nice to let us know that.
Am I correct? There’s only one way to find out. Reach across the Finals aisle, King James, and get KD to release the track. Prove me wrong, LeBron. If you dare!
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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!
