Due to the sheer athletic dominance of our nation, Americans are left to fixate on the many heroes and heroines that have come out of the 2012 Games. The U.S. Women’s Gold Medal Gymnastics team, affectionately known as “The Fab 5”, stole the hearts of American’s from coast to coast, particularly Gabby Douglas, the 1st African-American female to win gold in the individual all-around.
The Ryan Locthe/Michael Phelps “rivalry” captivated the nation during the first week, while the United States took gold in Women’s Soccer and Men’s and Women’s Basketball in the second week. Allyson Felix, Missy Franklin and many others became superstars overnight. But while these athlete’s accomplishments became national stories each morning of the Olympics, one other unsung hero took its place alongside these gladiators whether you knew it or not…
Hip-Hop.
America’s love affair with Hip-Hop has been well documented, but perhaps never before has it had the limelight on such a global scale. It started early in week one, when Locthe displayed his custom-made Stars & Stripes grill designed by rapper and hood grill-master Paul Wall, and used it to check the authenticity of his new medal. It continued when his teammate Phelps, the most decorated Olympian in the history of the this solar system, shouted out rappers Lil Wayne and Young Jeezy during an interview with NBC’s Andrea Kremer (While Kremer, due to her delayed reaction, did not appear to know who these individuals were, she handled this situation much more gracefully than her infamous Tom Brady postgame interview on Sunday Night Football, a personal all-time favorite that has unfortunately been all but erased from the internet).
Numerous high-profile members from the world of Hip-Hop came out in full force to congratulate Gabby Douglas after earning two gold medals in London. An article from MTV.com points out that Douglas received praise from Beyoncé on her blog, as well as tweets from Hip-Hop heavyweights Nicki Minaj, Lil Wayne, Timbaland and Ciara. To provide some context, the Nicki/Weezy/Timbaland/Ci-Ci foursome have a combined twitter following in excess of 25 million, and the tweets mentioned in the MTV.com article (three total from Nicki via her conversation with Gabby, one each from the others) received over 14,700 retweets and 5,800 favorites on twitter at the time this article was written. Even more came to the 16-year-old’s defense after her hair controversy took social media by storm.
And who could forget tennis legend and Compton native Serena Williams hitting the crip walk at Wimbledon (WIMBLEDON!!!) after she ethered Maria Sharapova 6-0, 6-1 to claim gold? Let’s put it this way, if I ever visit Wimbledon, I’ll be dressed like this guy, for fear that anything short would get me tossed out DJ Jazzy Jeff style. Needless to say, I’d refrain from crip walking, blood walking or any other kind of walking that’s not my normal stroll. This by no means is a criticism of Williams (who also won gold in doubles with her sister Venus). She was having fun after doing something few people have ever done, and was simultaneously paying homage to her hometown and…to Hip-Hop.
The Queen of England was in the house to witness an Olympic opening ceremony that featured a performance by British rapper Dizzee Rascal. And Usain Bolt, perhaps the most electrifying athlete the Olympics has ever seen and the fastest man to ever walk the Earth, chose to celebrate his three-gold medal performance at the Games by taking up a new craft. Bolt, the self-proclaimed “greatest athlete to live”, has all the charisma of a young Muhammad Ali; it’s telling that he chooses to identify with Hip-Hop culture. It reinforces Hip-Hop’s impact on sports and society today.
Interestingly enough, all these connections between Hip-Hop and the Olympics don’t even begin to tell the full story. We don’t even need to get into the long and storied connection between Hip-Hop and basketball (here’s another picture of Luda kickin’ it with swimmers Ryan Locthe and Conor Dwyer at a Team USA basketball game). Basketball is arguably the biggest draw at the Olympics, and is one of the few sports featuring multiple established global icons heading into the summer games. There may be no bigger star in these Olympics than LeBron James, who’s been hobnobbing with Shawn Carter since his rookie season. Hov of course is now a minority owner of the Brooklyn Nets, who are represented in London by point guard Deron Williams.
The parallels are endless. The influence is omnipresent.
Gone are the days of C. Delores Tucker, Tipper Gore and other critics voicing their disapproval of this genre of music on Capitol Hill. We now have a man sitting in the Oval Office who is open about his love of this art (or at least some aspects of it), so much so that he has recruited the likes of Jay-Z and Diddy to assist with his campaign.
The President of the United States (who also considers himself a sports enthusiast) has enlisted rappers to help reach the ears and minds of young voters. Think about that.
Think about how far Hip-Hop has come in 30 some-odd years. Formerly the quintessential example of musical rebellion, it is now being embraced by the leader of the free world and the top athletes on the planet, with all the world watching.
Sports and Hip-Hop are no longer two separate entities containing various similarities—they ARE the same! Each contain elements of teamwork, creativity, competition, rivalries, dedication to one’s craft, and individual excellence on a large scale (literally and figuratively), and both use their rare gifts to captivate fans worldwide. It transcends race and nationality.
Athletes realize this, rappers realize this, and so do we.
Welcome to hiphopsportsreport.com.