Although Lil Wayne didn’t receive a 2020 BET Awards nomination, the New Orleans rapper still made an appearance during the virtual ceremony to perform “Kobe Bryant,” his 2009 tribute to the NBA Hall of Famer of the same name. In memory of Kobe’s death in a January 2020 helicopter crash, Wayne debuted a new verse of the song.
The performance started with the song’s intro featuring commentary by sports television personality Stephen A. Smith while showing game footage in the background. Wayne continued by rapping the first verse, in which he praises Kobe’s basketball prowess:
Kobe in the game dunkin' on the whole team
Black Mamba, attack, conquer
Basketball beast, rap monster
Crossover good, a turnaround jumper
Or just drive the lane and dunk on dunkers
On the new verse, Wayne references Kobe’s final game and five championships. He also alludes to Kobe’s 2018 Oscars win for Best Animated Short Film and late-career Achilles injury:
60 points in my last game
Like that’s game, yeah, yerr
Put five rings on my last name
Oscar could’ve been my first
On one leg, on my last leg
I want the last shot, that’s work
No Achilles heel, I told Phil
It’s The Last Dance, now twerk
During a 2019 appearance on Alex Rodriguez and Big Cat’s podcast, The Corp, Kobe recalled how Wayne was motivated to record the song by his performance in the 2009 Western Conference Finals, when Kobe’s Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Denver Nuggets in six games.
“He was like, ‘Man, that performance just motivated the hell out of me.’ I think it was like game six,” Kobe remembered. “[Wayne] was like, ‘I’ma do a song. Is it okay, can I do a song?‘ I was like, alright cool. I just thought he was bs-ing or whatever. Before the Celtics series he sends me the song and I was like, ‘Oh, you were serious.’ Okay, that’s awesome.”
Wayne became a Lakers fan after Kobe joined the team straight out of high school in 1996. The two stars became friends, with Wayne even giving Kobe a preview of his music before it was released.
On Drake’s recently released track, “From Florida With Love,” the Toronto rapper reminisced about hearing Wayne’s 2008 hit, “Lollipop,” on a tour bus with Bryant before it was officially released.
Earlier this year, Wayne memorialized Kobe by leaving 24 seconds of silence at the end of “Bing James,” from his latest album, The Funeral. Kobe switched his jersey number to No. 24 ahead of the 2006-2007 season after starting out his career as No. 8.
Genius previously broke down how hip-hop remembers Kobe’s legacy:
Watch Lil Wayne’s 2020 BET Awards performance above, and read all the lyrics to the original version of “Kobe Bryant” on Genius now.
