S. Samuel
With rap veteran Nas recently sparking the debate whether Shaquille O'Neal or Kobe Bryant was the better emcee, SOHH decided to hit up Los Angeles native Kid Ink for his take on the comparison.
Whether basketball or rapping, Kid Ink said he has to rock with Shaq Diesel.
“Shaq, [laughs],” Kid Ink told SOHH when asked who he liked more as a kid growing up. “Yeah man, I honestly feel like Shaq is the reason why they got a lot of those championships. … [Better rapper between Kobe and Shaq?] [laughs] I actually bought a Shaq album before. [laughs] I’d probably have to say Shaq. [laughs]” (SOHH)
Despite the Lakers talk, Ink said his favorite local sports squad is the rival Los Angeles Clippers.
“Clipppperrs,” Kid Ink added when asked if he reps either the Clippers or Lakers. “Clippers over Kobe. Honestly, I’m going for the Clippers and I hope they go far for the city but, honestly, the Heat are probably going to take it again. [laughs]” (SOHH)
Nas said Shaq’s collection of music easily gave him an edge over Bryant.
Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant have had their fair share of verbal sparring bouts when they were teammates on the Lakers from 1996-2004. According to rapper Nas, who has released eight consecutive platinum and multi-platinum albums since 1994, one of basketball stars might be a bit more glib than the other. When asked who is a better rapper, Nas said, “Shaq got that. Shaq got a classic hip-hop album. I don’t think Kobe got a chance to put out an album.” (Los Angeles Times)
Kobe recently delved into his past problems with O’Neal during their run as Lakers teammates.
“It just wasn’t going to happen, it’s not in the cards,” Kobe said about maintaining a close bond with Shaq as Lakers teammates. “There’s things I wanted to do in my career, take my career to another level, that I was just uncapable of doing as long as we were playing together which I was fine with doing until I heard him say a few times, ‘Kobe’s not going to be as succesful without me, this, that and the other.’ That kind of became the chatter — once that became the chatter, it’s like, ‘Wait, whoa, whoa, whoa. No, no, no. I can do this.’ It just wasn’t going to work. No matter what happened, even if we had won that [2004 NBA Finals] championship, I would have just, me being a free agent, there was just no way. I had to accept this change, I had to see what I could do.” (Yahoo Sports)
Check out Nas speaking on Shaq/Kobe below:
