A cosign from NBA champion LeBron James goes a long way.
In an Instagram post on Friday (January 7), the Lakers superstar utilized bars from Russ’ Jake One-produced Chomp 2 record “Sheep” in the caption of his pre-game photo snapped in the tunnel of Crypto Arena ahead of the team’s win over the Atlanta Hawks.
“I’m from the generation where it isn’t cool to be haters/You see, social media made everyone think they’re celebrities/But what have y’all done that’s worth celebratin’?/And everybody got the same personality and identities/The sheep just multiply, this shit is devastatin’/And embarrassin’, hahaha- Russ,” LeBron wrote in the caption.
Russ obliged the nod by reposting LBJ’s photo and reiterating how on-target the 37-year-old’s caption was.
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Before LeBron reinforced the lyrics to “Sheep” to his following over 100 million users strong, Russ stressed his desire for rappers to break away from the cookie-cutter format of creating music which many artists have subscribed to.
Last December, Russ issued a special challenge to MC’s to get back into their Hip Hop bag and craft rap-heavy albums much like his Chomp 2 release.
“I’m trying to just cultivate a home for people who want to rap and just go crazy,” he said. “Not any of this eight bars and then bridge, nah, rap for a minute and a half. And then you rap for a minute and a half and we’ll put a little hook in between just to get us through the sh*t, and let’s keep it pushing. I’m trying to create that home because I know I’m a fan of that style of rap. You feel me? And I wish more artists who can rap and really go, would make these projects… Would do a CHOMP-like series, because I still like hearing rappers just rap on a beat for two and a half minutes, eight songs in a row. I still like that.”
Revisit the stream for Chomp 2 featuring guest verses from Snoop Dogg, Jay Electronica and Westside Gunn among others.