The title track strays from the abrasive and crowded sound the Bomb Squad produced for Public Enemy records. Washington is in prison for murder, but the governor offers to commute Washington’s sentence if he can get his son to play for the governor’s alma mater (which feels like it is probably a NCAA recruiting violation).Īnyways, the soundtrack for the film was done by Public Enemy, one of the greatest rap groups ever. Denzel Washington plays the father of Ray Allen’s character, the top basketball recruit in the country.
#Like mike basketball song movie
This song is not overtly about basketball, but it is the title track of a Spike Lee movie about basketball, which is good enough for me. “Tough guy, what you gotta prove?” It is a lesson that basketball in the park or the gym is supposed to be fun, and it is not cool to be the guy who ruins it. Elbows, eye pokes, moving picks, and overly physical play where they “throw me around like a bounce pass.” It also includes its share of name drops, saying this guy thinks he’s Shaq, but plays like the dirty Bill Laimbeer.īut this angry, loud, fast song poses a deep question for all of the “tough guys” who might hear it. The “Tough Guy” has all of the worst attributes of someone you hate to pay with. Coming off their 1994 album Ill Communication, it is one of two hardcore punk songs that appear on the album, a throwback to the band’s early days before they started rapping. The Beasties certainly did, and penned this tune for those guys. But Lil Bow Wow’s version lacks the same kind of lyricism required to rhyme names of famous players, and is instead built upon standard rap braggadocio about how he is the best basketball player there is.Įveryone has played with that one guy who takes pickup basketball far too seriously. Lil Bow Wow also recorded a version of the song for the 2002 film Like Mike, the story of a young man who gets Michael Jordan’s basketball powers when he his struck by lightning while trying to retrieve a pair of Jordan’s sneakers from a power line. The music video also features grown men dunking on what is clearly a six-foot rim with a camera angle designed to hide that fact. J” Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Pistol Pete Maravich, and Bill Russell. Just some of the players who get shout outs are “Dr. The rest of the song is all name drops of the best players of his day and the past, and they are all delivered in the over-annunciated, monosyllabic rhymes you would expect from a rap song from 1984. One of the great songs from one of the great pioneers of hip-hop, “Basketball” is a song by a man who professes basketball to be his “favorite sport,” because, “I like the way they dribble up and down the court.” He breaks down all of his favorite offensive maneuvers: “I like slam dunks, take me to the hoop / My favorite play is the alley oop / I like the pick-and-roll / I like the give and go / Cause it’s basketball, Mr.