Few rappers these days see the kind of breakout success from a debut effort as Gelo has. But then again, few have the sort of name recognition he had ahead of the release of his game-changing first single, “Tweaker.”
LiAngelo Ball is the middle brother of NBA stars Lonzo and LaMelo Ball. To be fair, their entry into the public discourse was equally buzzy, thanks to their dad LaVar, whose boastful interviews about their potential made them a controversial hot topic while they were still in high school. Their self-created leagues and Big Baller Brand shoe line furthered the debate; some saw LaVar as a genius, others as just crazy.
In some ways, Gelo is the black sheep of the brothers; While they were able to smoothly transition into high-profile roles in college hoops and then the NBA, the middle brother was more, in his own words, “turned up.” Despite following his siblings into the NBA — he spent three years in the G League, and signed briefly with the Detroit Pistons in 2020 — he didn’t stick the same way they did.
Then, “Tweaker” happened. Fueled by a nostalgic beat and Gelo’s anachronistic, drawling flow, the song took over first NBA locker rooms, then playlists, radio, and clubs. Its success led to a deal with Def Jam and high-profile performances at Rolling Loud, the NBA’s All-Star Weekend, and just this week, the ESPY Awards.
Now, he’s released his debut album, League Of My Own, filled with even more catchy odes to a style of music that ruled the airwaves when Gelo was still learning to speak.
Everything about his career so far has been rare, so let’s throw one more thing on the list: Prior to this interview, I’d known the Ball family for years from my work at Los Angeles pro-am the Drew League. And yet, here we are, at my day job, talking about his new album, and making the leap from the court to the stage in his own unique way.
Obviously we have to start with the elephant in the room, ball player to rapper, the transition. How has that been for you? What drove you to want to really buckle down and do rap?
Everything I do, I try to do it at the highest level. So, when I was playing basketball, that was my goal at the time. I’m not even thinking about rap. I’m trying to make the NBA. This is some years past and then that’s how the transition happened. Everything wasn’t going as smoothly as I hoped it would on the hoop side. But when I went to music, I feel my talent and just the way I am is going to have me on an NBA level, but for music.
That’s how I took my swag over to the music game. And I will say, I have always been hella turned up since a little kid. I toned it down a lot to play basketball. I feel like it’s a lot more rules and stipulations in hoops. So when I came to the rap life, it’s like I could be me now, that’s easier.
I love that you said taking it to the NBA level because you did take it to the NBA level: you performed at the All-Star Weekend. Do you hold that over their heads a little bit? Because I know Lonzo had his little moment where he was trying to rap, too, and I know Melo probably got his little bars off somewhere, but you are the one that made it, so now you have something to hold over them.
Yeah, they give me support, though. They think I’m the biggest in the rap game. They want to relate to my sh*t, and it helps for real. I’ll say that.
How has your routine changed from then to now?
Now my schedule GTA for real, I just get up and go about my days. I got a lot more free time to do things, I’ll say. Because in the NBA, I always had practice, got to be up at seven o’clock, ready to hoop, ready to shoot, and then after that, you going home, resting, and right back to practice. You know how that hoop stuff goes, so it ain’t really as much free time as what people think. So in the music world, everything’s more on my time. I could wake up at 3 a.m. and go to the studio and that’s just like working.
How do you address people or how do you respond to people who are saying that, “Oh, he coming from basketball, he don’t know nothing about rap life?”
I don’t want people to be like, “Oh, he think he a street man, he a gang banger, all this stuff.” I’m not. If you listen hard to my music, I’m not really preaching none of that sh*t. I will say I have been around that sh*t since a young age, bro. We always traveling. My cousins is a little wild sometimes.
I understand where all that came from. I give props to my pops, though, for real. Even when we was kids, he was like, “G, you could be a gang banger. You gonna die or be in jail,” or he was like, “You can go hoop and be on your own sh*t and make this money.” He’s really talking to us like that as a kid. So I always knew how to just maneuver and manage myself amongst all that type of sh*t.
Can I just say, by the way, I love your dad. He’s probably one of my favorite people that comes by the Drew. But I do have a theory about why you sound good on these old-school 2000-era… like Big Tymer, No Limit beats. You were born the year before Snoop Dogg made No Limit Top Dogg. Was that an album that got played around the house a lot? Because that’s part of my theory is that like, yeah, you were maybe a little bit too young to grow up with that, but somebody around you was playing it. There is a link between West Coast and the Southern style you like.
I just think my pops put that on us because that all he used to bump was Lil Wayne, bro. I heard Tha Carter II, III, all the way to IV, VI, all of them. And then all that Lil Wayne, The Drought Is Over, all the mixtape sh*t. Zo used to have all the mix tapes of Wayne. So I was always hearing Lil Wayne for sure. And he had the coldest lyrics. I like how he fly. I liked the sh*t he be saying. So I feel that built my sh*t up as a kid, not even knowing.
Listening to the song “Humble Abode,” it feels the way that people talk about the legacy of the family weighs on you. How do you manage all of those expectations and the things people might say?
How do I explain this? My mind hella strong. Since I was young, I feel like I have heard it all, for real. My pops even told me straight up, “Man, they’re going to hate you,” because I was the lightest one around all Black kids when I’m hooping. So they’re trying to take my head off. But he told me straight up, “They going to hate you.” He was like, “Everything you do, it is a target on your back already, so just be ready.”
And since I was young, I just always remembered that sh*t. I always just move how I move, for real. I’m going to be stepping man, that sh*t don’t be hurting me because I be getting stuff done on my own time.
What made GloRilla the right person to be the only feature on your debut album?
I was just familiar with her music at the time. I got some homies in Memphis, and then I linked up with her a couple of times, and she cool as hell. So I felt that was the perfect fit for the album, really. I mean, she was turned up. I just like how she delivered her songs and I felt it would sound great on that beat.
A lot of other NBA guys are also rappers; Do you have a favorite ball player, rapper?
Yeah, I’m going to get a song off with RTB [Miles Bridges]. He got some bangers, bro. I listen to Brandon Ingram, too. A lot of people don’t know he be rapping, but he got some sh*t in his vault, I’m telling you.
What were some features that didn’t make the album, if you’re allowed to say?
I got to keep it a secret. I am going to drop a deluxe. I got some whammers on there, bro. I’ve been working with a couple of people, bro, and I got some big names on there. We going to turn the city up, for sure, but I’m going to leave that because I’m going to probably put the deluxe out in August or something.
And one more question for me. Are you going to make an appearance in the gym?
To the Drew? Hey bro, if I do, though, it’s going to be scary. I’m coming with Zo and Melo, bro. I’m only getting in there if they do it for real. We all three going to go to that sh*t, if we do go.
League Of My Own is out now via Def Jam Recordings. Find more information here.
