NBA All-Star Winner? Hip-Hop Lifestyle
By Joshua "Fahiym" Ratcliffe, Special to AOL BlackVoices
DENVER -- As a senior editor for The Source Magazine, to say that I travel a lot would be an understatement. From the BET Awards to covering and appearing on various conferences and panel discussions, I go to events where hip-hop is celebrated, awarded and critiqued. Yet I wouldn’t have imagined that I’d see hip-hop in those three aforementioned ways at the 2005 NBA All-Star Weekend out here in Denver.
For an admitted basketball junkie like myself, this was a dream come true. But I didn’t have the proper media credentials, let alone, tickets for the All-Star game or any of the NBA’s other games and contests, so I had to watch the events in my hotel room or at a bar, like many other fans and weekend revelers (both local and national) who converged on downtown Denver like a swarm of bees for four days. Yet I did manage to attend some sponsored media events and parties put on by popular sneaker and apparel makers and automobile companies. And to be quite honest, this was really what the All-Star weekend was about -- spending that paper.
In recent years, the NBA All-Star Weekend has become one of America’s hottest annual entertainment events of the year, rivaling the Grammys and the Oscars in its presence and stature. Yet unlike those two award-giving shows, both whom usually hold their events in Los Angeles or New York City, the NBA All-Star weekend is a traveling act, hitting different cities and giving these select locales a chance to generate hundreds of millions of dollars. And though the All-Star game is the main attraction, the marketing and promotions of products and events surrounding the game has been elevated to new heights, and in 2005 it was no different. Brand Jordan rented and remodeled Denver’s Museum of Contemporary Art and four days was renamed the “Jordan XXperience,” to unveil the Air Jordan XX shoe and for Jordan aficionados to meet athletes affiliated with Brand Jordan and further idolize one of the NBA’s greatest players. Reebok rented out a two-story loft that tripled as grooming and massage lounge, a product placement showroom and club, where on Friday night, the revelers was still trying to get in the packed space... at 5AM. Martel Liquors sponsored a mansion party on the Denver outskirts hosted and rented by Denver Nuggets center Marcus Camby and DJ’d by former BDP member, rapper D-Nice.
There were other huge galas like Carmello Anthony turning club Palladium into Club Mello for four nights, and P. Diddy throwing his "Diamonds and Fur" party at a renovated church, called the Church. But what put the weekend's festivities in perspective was the National Basketball Players Association party called the "Ice Gala," which was thrown at the Colorado Convention Center. No, it’s not the fact the event was called the "Ice Gala" that should raise eyebrows. (I mean the All-Star Game was in Denver, yanno?). But what was noticeable was that Akademiks, a leading urban apparel company was one of the NBPL’s leading sponsors. Also, if you were to look at the program for the "Ice Gala," one would find that for the past seven years, there’s been at least one hip-hop act on its annual bill of performers. What does this suggest? Hip-hop has truly taken over the world; and if you want to connect with the next generation of fans and rising stars of NBA, you must not forget it.
It was interesting to see the convergence of the NBA and the world of hip-hop, not just in style (Sixers point guard Allen Iverson made sure he was decked out from head to toe in platinum jewelry and the latest urban threads). But it was seeing phenom Lebron James get "excited," reciting lyrics and all when watching Nelly and the St. Lunatics perform onstage. And it was ditto for Mr. Derrty and other rappers in attendance who were just as excited to rub elbows with the game’s best stars.
So has the All-Star game become a moot event in the NBA’s All-Star Weekend’s festivities? Not at all. Yeah, the all-star game has become an event where music moguls and powerful actors get to sit courtside just to look at each other and the parties seem to get bigger every year. And even though the game itself has lacked a competitive showing of talent since the late 1980s, fans still want to see it. What was the most talked about event of 2005’s All-Star Weekend? Had to be the dazzling aerial display that Atlanta Hawks rookie forward Josh Smith put on at the Rising Stars Slam Dunk competition. Rest assured there was a marketer in the audience who was taking notes for next year.
Joshua "Fahiym" Ratcliffe is the deputy editor for The Source Magazine and a contributor to AOL BlackVoices.