Getting To Know Kobe Bryant Outside Of A Basketball Career

Kobe Bryant basketball player (Photo: @kobebryant)

JAKARTA - Today, basketball legend, Kobe Bryant, died in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. In the accident, Kobe and his son Gianna died on the spot when the incident took place. The incident left deep sorrow for the sports industry considering that Kobe Bryant is one of the biggest names in this industry.

However, not many know that before becoming a basketball player, Bryant was a quite productive musician. During school, Bryant took the position as a rapper in the CHEIZAW group with his friends. This group also had signed a contract with one of the biggest music labels, Sony Entertainment.

Unfortunately, the label only wanted Kobe Bryant to be solo rather than his group. In addition, they also want to develop Bryant's career in basketball because his popularity has been achieved first from that field.

Bryant finally started his career, as a singer. He performed at the Sway & King Tech concert in 1997. Then, he got the opportunity to remix Brian Mcknight's Hold Me. The duet was immortalized in a music video in 2009. At that time, people praised Bryant's rapping skills.

His debut album Visions was made by Sony to be more radio-friendly than underground. This hip-hop genre song also invited model Tyra Banks to sing the hook part of this song. After releasing the first single, the response was not very pleasant, so Sony canceled plans to make an album for Bryant. He later left the label.

Despite leaving the label, Kobe Bryant was entrusted with a duet with Jay Chou for his song, The Heaven and Earth Challenge. The song was released and sales were made to facilitate in-school basketball and equipment. A music video was also made featuring the two musicians. The song also served as the background song for the Sprite commercial in 2011, just like the year it was released.

The name Kobe Bryant has also inspired several musicians for his music projects. Rapper Lil Wayne composed a song called Kobe Bryant in 2009. In the following year, rapper Sho Baraka released Kobe Bryant On'em as an expression of his admiration for Kobe Bryant. Goodbye, Kobe Bryant.