Grammy Award-winning American rapper and actor Big Daddy Kane is often described as a wordsmith of his generation, the late-golden era of hip-hop. Having started his career in the 1980s he has enough experience to draw from.
That’s why he was asked to consider who from the hip-hop world he would compare to Kobe Bryant whose untimely death shook both basketball and hip-hop communities alike.
The conversation started with asking Big Daddy about his personal opinion about Kobe. That’s what Big Daddy told to hosts of Cherry’s World Podcast:
He was a young brother and one of the greats. I happily would have him in my top five, one of the greats on the NBA. And young, man! Watching him grow to the NBA, to the person that he became, I thought that was a beautiful thing. I had an opportunity to meet the brother once and that was crazy because they told me that he was cocky and arrogant, and dissing, and yadda-yadda. So when I met him I was really standoffish. And he was like, “Yeah my man, such and such played some of your stuff for me. I used to tell him that I thought such and such was the greatest rapper and he said “You need to hear Big Daddy Kane” and he played some of your stuff and I was like “Yo!”. So I started buying your stuff, man”. And I was just like, wow. You know, like amazed. I had nothing but the utmost respect for this young brother.
The co-host reminded to Kane about the parallel drawn between JayZ and Michael Jordan and asked if Hov is Michael Jordan of hip-hop, who he thought can be named hip-hop-s Kobe Bryant? Kane took a minute to seriously consider his answer:
Hmmm. I don’t know, what’s the generation after Jay? I don’t know who would it be. Eminem? Em.
None of the two co-hosts expected that answer but agreed with his opinion. Indeed, everything Big Daddy said about Kobe before that fits perfectly: an artist rising to the highest ranks because of his artistry, skills and talents, with a reputation of being arrogant and difficult but in truth respectful, humble and passionate. That’s Marshall.
Watch the podcast segment with this conversation below:
