{"id":266791,"date":"2025-09-04T18:22:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T18:22:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/266791\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T18:22:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T18:22:09","slug":"celtics-jayson-tatum-lists-his-top-5-rappers-with-one-interesting-inclusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/266791\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtics’ Jayson Tatum lists his top 5 rappers, with one interesting inclusion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jayson Tatum<\/a> sat down once again with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on All the Smoke, and this time the conversation turned to hip-hop. Barnes wasted no time, asking the Celtics star to give his \u201cstarting five<\/a> in the rap game,\u201d per Complex Tatum didn\u2019t hesitate.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHov is the greatest, he\u2019s the goat. I got Drake at No. 2. Drake my favorite, but Hov is the greatest,\u201d he said. Lil Wayne landed in the third spot, a pick that drew instant approval from Barnes, who called Wayne his own \u201cGOAT.\u201d From there, Tatum named The Notorious B.I.G. at four before surprising everyone with his fifth and final choice, Nelly.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou got to,\u201d Jackson replied, while Tatum quickly backed his pick with a reminder that Country Grammar went diamond.<\/p>\n

The Nelly factor<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easy to see why Jay-Z, Drake, Lil Wayne, and Biggie all made the cut. Each has shaped the culture with albums that remain staples of rap\u2019s golden moments. Nelly, though, stands out. While undeniably talented, his career often leaned more toward pop-rap than gritty lyricism. Compared to The Blueprint, Ready to Die, or Tha Carter, his catalog doesn\u2019t sit in the same class. Still, Tatum\u2019s loyalty to a fellow St. Louis native makes the choice understandable.<\/p>\n

Nelly isn\u2019t just hometown pride either. He\u2019s a regular courtside at Celtics games and has built a genuine connection with Tatum over the years. That bond gives context to why the young star gave him a spot over names that most hip-hop purists might expect.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, Tatum\u2019s list also reveals a generational mindset. Younger NBA players often put rappers like NBA YoungBoy or Playboi Carti in their personal rankings, reflecting the sounds dominating today\u2019s playlists. Instead, Tatum leaned toward legends who cemented their status long before he reached the league.<\/p>\n

Whether he would have gone with Tupac over Biggie if he had west coast roots is another debate altogether. But for now, Tatum\u2019s list shows both his respect for the culture and his own local pride. Now it\u2019s just on him to get healthy, because fans are eager to see him back on the court leading Boston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jayson Tatum sat down once again with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson on All the Smoke, and this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":266792,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3766],"tags":[7,45,75,3798,7417,46,18323,77,17927,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-266791","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-celtics","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-bostonceltics","12":"tag-celebrity","13":"tag-celtics","14":"tag-jay-z","15":"tag-jayson-tatum","16":"tag-lil-wayne","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115147423575772175","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266791"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266791\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}