Rap lyrics referencing LeBron, MJ or Kobe are pretty standard in hip-hop. But how about name-dropping Wilt Chamberlain, Amar’e Stoudemire, Kyrie Irving, Dominique Wilkins, Tony Allen, Scottie Pippen, Jason Williams, Kevin Garnett, Anthony Davis, John Stockton, and CJ McCollum all in under 3 minutes? That’s what BabyTron does in his song “AirTron,” which samples Kurtis Blow’s 1984 classic “Basketball” and has over 1.5 million views on YouTube.

One-third of Detroit scam-rap trio the ShittyBoyz, BabyTron knows ball. All throughout his discography, Tron flexes elite NBA knowledge, with bars like “You ain’t been shit since you left college, Frank Kaminsky” or “I’ma call you ‘Dennis Schröder,’ you done sold the bag”—a callback to when Schröder famously rejected a massive $84 million offer from the Lakers in free agency, only to end up signing a modest 1-year deal in Boston—or “She’ll never get a ring like CP3.” (“Every year I just hope he retires,” he says of the HOF PG.)

Tron keeps up with hoops no matter where he is—at home, on the road or even in the studio while he’s recording. “I love basketball so much, whether it’s on TV, YouTube or in person at the gym. So that shit is just cemented in my brain.” Of his obscure hoops references, BabyTron says, “That’s what I was interested in in life when I first started rapping, so it was easy to say a crazy ass basketball player’s name. I used to study basketball, because I wanted to play basketball. When you rap, you study rap.”

And he doesn’t need to put in any extra Basketball Reference research hours to come up with his lyrics. His mixtape knowledge goes deep—from Aquille Carr to Marcus Lovett to Seventh Woods—and his favorite hoop sneakers of all time include the “Legend Blue” Jordan XIs, the “Weatherman” KD 4s and the “Miami Hurricanes” LeBron 9s. This is a kid who grew up with a collection of NBA jerseys that included KG on the Celtics, Melo on the Nuggets, LeBron on the Cavs and Kobe’s original No. 8.

His hometown team, the Pistons, hosted BabyTron for a halftime performance after he was named an XXL Freshman in 2022, and hoopers like KD, Cade Cunningham and Jordan Poole all co-sign his music (“Jordan Poole—I’m happy he got off the Wizards!”). But his own high school basketball career was short-lived. “I got in an argument with the coach at freshman tryouts, I walked out the gym before they even picked the team or anything. I think it was because I was on my phone, on some bullshit,” BabyTron recalls, before adding, “I was cold, though. I play like Luka—no defense, score 100 points.”

The 25-year-old’s latest project is fittingly titled Luka Troncic 2, which hit major streaming platforms on August 1. Tron heralds LT2 as “the greatest music to ever be created,” which may sound brash until you realize this is an artist who equates his discography to Stephen Curry’s career arc. The list of NBA name-drops on this latest release includes Rodney Stuckey, JJ Barea, Payton Pritchard, Reed Sheppard, OG Anunoby, Andre Drummond and Marcus Camby. One track even features Shannon Sharpe’s infamous “OKC, KFC, UFC… Lakers in 5!” clip—a not-so-subtle nod to Tron’s Finals pick for next year: L.A. over Detroit.

“My two favorite players are on the same team: Broncic,” BabyTron says of the Luka-and-LeBron-led Lakers. “In a perfect world, they need to win this year and LeBron just needs to retire gracefully. This needs to be his last season—ain’t it his 23^rd season? He’s number 23. Only makes sense.” See: BabyTron knows ball.

Photos via Getty Images.

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