Shaquille O'Neal and 'Inside the NBA' Cast 'Freestyle' with Nicki Minaj
There is freestyling, and there is whatever Grant Hill did on Inside the NBA.
Hill, along with Shaquille O'Neal, Kenny Smith, Ernie Johnson and guest Nicki Minaj, engaged in a bit of floetry Thursday night. It went almost exactly how you'd imagine.
Kenny Smith kicked things off with a solid performance for someone paid to wrangle his co-workers. He had lines—meticulously rehearsed lines, but lines all the same.
After Smith finished rapping about his millions, he turned over the microphone to Hill, who produced a sheet of paper and proceeded to dig a shallow but final grave for hip-hop.
"I have to freestyle off this paper," Hill said, without irony.
Hill's decision to pull a Canibus prompted some well-deserved criticism. The former Detroit Piston laughed it off until Smith questioned his political allegiances.
"What are you, a Republican?" Smith asked.
Smile gone.
"No, I'm not," Hill said. "I'm very liberal. Very liberal."
Hill then began biting off bar after bar, starting with telling O'Neal to "o'kneel to the lady."
Minaj and Smith responded with these faces:
Mercifully, O'Neal quickly took over and did his thing. That was followed by Minaj rapping about her "cookie."
Last, but far from least, Johnson grabbed the mic and shackled the masses with his drastic rap tactics.
"My name's Ernie Johnson, but they call me E.J., and I host a little show called Inside the NBA," Johnson said.
Then, Ernie dropped the microphone.
R.I.P., hip-hop. Hill ran you over, but it was Johnson who left the mic in a body bag.
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