Some of the most vocal and passionate partisans in the world are from the world of hip-hop and football. So it’s no surprise that the two worlds intersect. To be Match Ready these days, you need to be just as fast with your wordplay as your foot play. From Drake, Jay-Z, Skepta, and more, hip-hop embraces the beautiful game.
Let’s take a look at some of the best crossover moments between hip-hop and football.
Hip-Hop and Football Around the World
Hip-hop’s perennial cheerleader, Drake, is famous for repping and supporting just about any club all over the world, on tour or otherwise. And just like his hip-hop persona, Drake’s heart seems ever-conflicted and divided when it comes to his Premier Leauge fandom, showing out in Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, and Manchester United. It’s only a matter of time before we see Drizzy in full on Brighton drip.
Drake repping Chelsea // Image via Getty/Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC
Drake is also Mr. Continental when it comes to his love of football kits. He’s represented Juventus, Barcelona, PSG, even the Italian National team in Toronto’s Little Italy while watching the European Championship back in 2012.
Drake x Juventus
Air Jordan has been inextricable from hip-hop style and rap music since 1985. In 2018, Jordan Brand announced its partnership with PSG, moving from the court to the pitch with a full line of apparel and redesigned kits. Days before the launch, Jordan Brand ambassador Travis Scott was spreading the word in Jordan Brand x PSG apparel.
Cactus Jack x PSG
Rounding out hip-hop and football’s expanding relationship across the globe is the best football kit from the last 30 years. The Nike designed 2018 Nigerian national team’s kit looks like a cross between a traditional soccer kit and Acronym’s Nike Vapormax. Driving the success and hype of the kit was UK hip-hop mavens Grace Ladoja and Skepta. Ladoja, as creative director, brand consultant, and Skepta’s manager, helped create the hype surrounding Nigeria’s updated kits and made sure Skepta was wearing the Super Eagle’s jersey months before they dropped.
Skepta in the Super Eagles kit
Hip-Hop and Football in the Cipher
All over the world, rappers lionise their favourite players. You’ll find football, and its various leagues, provide so much lyrical inspiration for rappers across Europe, too. UK rappers ranging from Yxng Bane, Mist, Headie One, DigDat, KO, and One all offer up football references in their flows.
The best example, or at the very least the coolest, of the intersection of football and hip-hop comes from UK rappers Dave and AJ Tracey as they spit fast and furious about the PSG captain on their song “Thiago Silva.” It’s a great song, but it received a massive second-life when Dave pulled a fan onstage to rap with him at the 2019 Glastonbury Festival. PSG is football’s most fashionable club, so all things Paris Saint-Germain provides perfect subjects for rap considering the importance hip-hop places on style and swag.
But it’s not just in Europe where you’ll find lyrical references to football players. Jay-Z, Tyler The Creator, and Drake have all name-checked players, including David Beckham, Mario Balotelli, and Freddy Adu, in their songs. The globe-trotting Action Bronson even managed three references in his song “Back To The Future,” including “I’m known to kick it like Ronaldinho, my rhymes are spicy as a jalapeno,” and “Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder, and Robin van Persie. And they say the Netherlands is famous for Vincent van Gogh mostly.”
Released back in 2011, Action was offering a glimpse of what was to come.
Hip-Hop and Football in the USA
As the beautiful game has grown in popularity in the United States over the last 20 years, American hip-hop’s interest in football has also increased. However, the history between American hip-hop and football dates back to at least 1983 and the rise of Run-DMC and hip-hop’s burgeoning cultural and economic power.
Run-DMC and one of their adidas ads
The “three brothers, wearing three stripes” popularised adidas in hip-hop, earning themselves the first million-dollar endorsement in hip-hop in 1986. Angelo Anastasio, who brokered the deal for adidas, just happened to be a former player for the New York Cosmos in the 1970s, playing alongside the legendary Pele.
Left to Right: Giorgio Chinaglia, Pelé, and Franz Beckenbauer
In April of this year, Manchester United superstar Marcus Rashford signed with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation to manage all of his off-field interests. England’s most successful football club has attracted hip-hop heads from the US for the last several years. French midfielder Paul Pogba has been a perennial favourite for artists, including Pusha-T, Desiigner, Snoop, and Migos.
Roc Nation’s love of football extends beyond the Premier League. Earlier this year, Serie A club AC Milan and Roc Nation teamed up for a “From Milan With Love” virtual live event in honour of frontline workers featuring DJ Khaled, Alicia Keys, and more. The event was so successful that AC Milan and Roc Nation have now formed a partnership that promises to “surprise and delight.”
US hip-hop’s love of football is beautiful to see, but when the chairman of the board Jay-Z invests, the connection between football and hip-hop is cemented. Maybe we’ll get HOV in an AC Milan kit one of these days?
