So, why is this important to hip hop? Well, technically it's not, it's really just plain sad, but after doing a little research, I found some interesting connections between "Iron" Mike and the world of hip hop, so I thought maybe you'd find them interesting too:
- Tyson was good friends with rapper Tupac Shakur, and often came out for a fight with a Tupac rap as his ringwalk music (most common song "Ambitionz Az A Ridah"). Shakur had been in attendance at a Tyson fight on the night he was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting.
- Rap artist 50 Cent purchased Mike Tyson's 48,000-square-foot mansion in Farmington Connecticut for $4.1 million.
- In 1989, DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince scored a hit with "I Think I Can Beat Mike Tyson", in which the Fresh Prince envisages himself taking on the heavyweight champion (and taking a beating in the process). Tyson appears as himself in the song's music video.
- In 1998 Tyson featured on an underground rap hit, "Second Round K.O" by Canibus. Tyson gives the rapper advice over how to defeat his lyrical opponent (rapper LL Cool J).
- Tyson collaborates with R&B artist Ginuwine in his 2003 album "The Senior" in which he gives Ginuwine his "stamp of approval" in the introduction of the album.
Oh how the mighty have fallen. Mike Tyson was the youngest man to win a heavyweight title belt, a HUGE accomplishment, and was rated in 1999 by Ring magazine as the fourteenth greatest heavyweight of all time. During his prime Tyson was considered unbeatable, but his once dominant career was undermined by personal problems (something he obviously still has trouble with...), lack of preparation, and periods of imprisonment.
Why couldn't he have done something positive with his career, like selling Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machines?
1 comment:
Haha... that is funny. I have not heard of Mike Tyson in a long time. He had so much going for him at such a young age and he did not do take advantage of what he had going for him. After he was the champion of the world he did not slowly decline, he plumited to disaster. I thought he had to have been doing well since there have not been any reports about him.
It is just a shame how everyone like "Iron Mike" and now it is pretty much impossible to because of past events. What happened to him? After his was arrested for nearly killing his wife in a domestic dispute he had to go to jail as we most know. That had to be when he just lost everything he had created for himself. After he was released from prison he was not the same. He just got destroyed by Lenox Lewis and then the infamous Evander Holifield fight where he literally bit off a chunk of Holifield's ear. Who does that? It should be a crime to allow someone who had it all to destroy himself like this. Someone needs to stop him. It is to much.
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