‘Even on the court we stay fly, Jada & A.I.’ The old Reebok Commercials, when Allen Iverson had the meanest crossover in the game, weren’t those the days… Well, Jadakiss spent some time chatting with SLAM magazine, speaking on the NBA, current players, classic commercials alongside A.I. and the rap game now.
First & foremost, it’s only right to include the UNTOUCHABLE A6 Commercial…especially for you youngsters reading this right now!
via Stunna Life:
Kiss sat down with Slam magazine for a little Q&A and it went like this.
SLAM: At what point did you become conscious of the hip-hop/basketball crossover?
Jadakiss: You know, after we were signed by Bad Boy, we were able to start meeting professional athletes and all of that. You see how much rappers wanted to be athletes and how much athletes with they were rappers. It’s a crazy, crazy thing. I’ve got Double-A—Alan Anderson of the Nets—hitting me right now. He said he needs some music before the game. I’ll show you the text: ‘I need them bars. Yo, Kiss—I need them bars, man!’ I said, ‘Double-A, I got you. I got you.’
SLAM: Did you have any interactions with NBA players early in your career that stand out to you?
Jadakiss: From the first initial jumpoff, it was Jalen [Rose] and [Chris] Webber. They embraced us, showed us wild love. AI, of course. And then Melo—I stayed watching Melo because he went to Syracuse and won the Chip for me [Kiss is a huge ‘Cuse fan.—Ed.], so once I was able to meet him, we just linked up like fam. Jason Terry, he just called me a little while ago, ‘Come to the game in Philly next week.’ Just to see how much they rap off the court and how much they love music is a major thing for me. They always got the iPod—they need music at all times in the locker room, in the crib, in the hotel, in the party bus. They’re just big music heads. That’s a good thing. Shaq bought 10,000 copies of my first or second album. Then he was on Tha Basement with Big Tigger and told people, ‘Go get Jadakiss’ album.’ That’s like priceless to have them in your corner like that.
SLAM: You starred in those iconic Reebok commercials with Allen Iverson. What do you remember from that experience?
Jadakiss: Oh yeah, that was great. Steve Stoute put a lot of them together. The good people over at Reebok called me—it wasn’t too watered down. Shout out to Trackmasters, they did the tracks. [Reebok] really let me do my thing. They told me about the sneaker, about the technology of the sneaker, and the rest was just my knowledge of AI. That was a good thing. We did two of them. The A5 and the A6.
