Video: Carlos Boozer raps on ‘Winning Streak (Bulls Anthem)’

There's a cliche that ballers want to be rappers and rappers want to be ballers. Like most cliches, this saying has stuck around because it's true. Every season, several players drop new hot tracks to indulge their musical dreams. Some attract controversy -- see Allen Iverson's work as Jewelz, for one -- but most are forgotten. However, some are so ridiculous that they stay remembered for decades, like Kobe Bryant's collaboration with Tyra Banks.

This newest entry, listenable in the video above, qualifies in that category. Throughout his career, Carlos Boozer has been best known as a productive player who maybe takes himself a little too seriously for his own good. So it comes as some surprise that he made a new song to celebrate the Bulls' regained status as a contender. From Jon Greenberg of ESPNChicago.com:

In the new song "Winning Streak" (Bulls Anthem), Boozer raps the introductory bars before R&B singer Mario Winans starts a somewhat-catchy chorus and Chicago rap legend Twista takes over with a Bulls-themed rap that namedrops most of the team.

The song was first played at the United Center before Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals and went viral the next day.

It is believed to be the first rap song that mentions Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau.

If "somewhat-catchy" isn't the definition of damning with faint praise, then I don't know what is. Response has been mixed, to put it kindly. Twista must be a pretty huge Bulls fan if he agreed to be involved with a rapper of Boozer's ... well, let's be nice and say "inexperience."

Boozer's verse is typified by cliche, including an intro of "mic check one two one two," several references to crossovers, and a clunky allusion to Waka Flocka Flame's "Hard in Da Paint." Boozer has room to develop, clearly. That goes for how he sells himself, in addition to his flow and rhymes. Every rapper worth a darn uses something other than his full given name. Even "Boozaholic" or "Carlos, the Dwarf" would be an improvement.

Then again, maybe his hip-hop stylings will inspire his teammates to branch out, too. I hear Derrick Rose spits science like Shy Ronnie.

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