Don’t Quit Your Day Job: A Few Disasters When Athletes Decided To Pick Up The Mic

Don’t Quit Your Day Job: A Few Disasters When Athletes Decided To Pick Up The Mic

In a recent interview with NBA.com, two-time NBA defensive Player of The Year, Dwight Howard revealed that hooping isn’t enough to satisfy his hunger for more and that he is dropping an album.

Laughing???

Well, it’s not a joke. Apparently, Super Man part deux has recorded an album entitled Shoot For The Stars, which will be in stores October 26 on Razor & Tie/KIDZ BOP records. The project is said to consist mostly of the former dunk champion delivering his renditions of stadium songs, and classic hits. Interested yet?

At least it’s partially for a good cause. A portion of the proceeds will go to benefit the BETA Center (www.betacenter.org), the Orlando based organization whose mission it is to provide children and parents with the knowledge and support needed for strong and healthy families. The all-star center had this to say about the project,

“Recording this album for me ranks with being the first pick in the NBA draft, my first NBA All-Star game and winning a gold medal at the Olympics.  Razor & Tie and KIDZ BOP have been incredible and I hope everyone enjoys the album as much as I did recording it.”

Doesn’t quite sound like it will be flying off the shelves at your local hood DVD/CD depot, but hey, it can’t be any worse than these other athletes turned rappers…

Take a look at some questionable and epic fails from the likes of Shaq, Roy Jones and others by clicking the #’s below:

Deion Sanders

In 1994, two-sport star Deion Sanders took his Prime Time persona to the next level. With the co-sign of his big homey MC Hammer, the eccentric ballplayer dropped the album Prime Time on Bust It/Capital Records.

The album’s sole single, “Must Be The Money” was a shameless anthem on his indulgent spending failed to make the charts. Must have been the terrible voice.

Deion Sanders – “Must Be The Money”

Allen Iverson  – “Jewelz”

Following the 2000 NBA season, all star point guard Allen Iverson recorded a rap song called “40 Bars,” under the moniker Jewelz. However, after media scrutiny and earning the raised eye of NBA commissioner David Stern over the songs controversial lyrics, Iverson never released the album. Now that was the right answer.

Jewelz/ Allen Iverson – “40 Bars”

Roy Jones Jr.

In 2001, Jones was feeling himself enough to step into the rap ring, and the boxer started his rap career with the LP Round One: The Album, which produced the taunting lackluster single, “Yall Must’ve Forgot.” Maybe it was too many blows to the head, but Jones continued to try at rap in 2004 forming the group Body Head Bangerz and releasing the self-titled album the same year. Needless to say, it wasn’t a hit.

Roy Jones, Jr. – “Yall Must’ve Forgot”

Shaquille O’Neal

The Diesel began to pursue a rap career in 1993 shortly after being drafted by Orlando, but unlike most athletes turnt rappers, Shaq Fu had staying power. O’Neal dropped five albums in total with his first album Shaq Diesel going Platinum. He also famously rapped on tracks along side Fu-Schnickens and even Michael Jackson.

Shaquille O’Neal – “Biological Didn’t Bother”

Shaquille O’Neal – “I Know I Got Skillz”

Shaquille O’Neal – “You Can’t Stop The Rain”

Ron Artest

There’s MC Shan, Nas and Ron Ron? Apparently, before he started seeing his psychiatrist Ron Artest got the bright idea that he wanted to be the next big rapper from the Bridge. He released the album My World in 2006 fueled by the awful single “Fever.” He has since started his own label Tru Warrior, but his crowning accomplishment is his latest single, the unofficial 2010 NBA Final anthem, “Champions.” Say Queensbridge!

Ron Artest – “Fever”

Ron Artest feat. Mike Jones, Nature & Capone – “Get Low”

Ron Artest – “Champions”

Chris Webber  – “C. Dubb”

In 1999, Chris Webber took his scowl from the court to the booth and decided he wanted to be the next hoop star to test his skills. The result was an awkward LP titled 2 Much Drama, which featured a Kurupt assisted single, “Gangsta Gangsta.”

Somebody should have told Webb to call a time out.  As a saving grace, Webber would go on to produce Nas’ “Blunt Ashes” and “Surviving The Times” years later.

C. Dubb feat. Kurupt – “Gangsta Gangsta” (Tell Me How You Do It)

Kobe Bryant

In 1999, the rap bug caught Kobe and he decided we wanted to moonlight spitting 16s. Thankfully, the album never materialized but this unbearable single called “K.O.B.E.” featuring Tyra Banks with Bean sounding like a Will Smith knockoff was allowed to see the light of day.

Kobe Bryant – “K.O.B.E”

Tony Parker

Being a three-time NBA champion and having one of the baddest chicks in the game wasn’t enough for San Antonio Spurs guard Tony Parker. In 2007, he released the French rap album TP and commissioned Fabolous for the lead single. Pardon his French…and his raps.

Tony Parker feat. Fabolous and Booba  – “Top Of The Game”

Cedric Ceballos and Gary Payton

In 1994, some genius at Epic records got the idea that taking a bunch of NBA players and smacking them on a Hip-Hop compilation album would be great for the music industry. The end result, was B-Ball Best Kept Secret, an album stuffed full of foul raps from some of the NBA rising stars including Jason Kidd, Dana Barros, J.R Rider, Malik Sealy and Brian Shaw.

However, the tracks from Lakers’ leading scorer, Cedric Ceballos and Seattle Super Sonics point guard Gary Payton made you want to scream for a timeout.

Gary Payton – “Living Legal And Large”

Cedric Ceballos – “Flow On”