Brian McKnight: Kobe Bryant Was 100% Serious About His Rap Career

Kobe Bryant, Brian Mcknight

Brian McKnight: Kobe Bryant Was 100% Serious About His Rap Career

R&B legend Brian McKnight revealed that 5x NBA Champion Kobe Bryant took his rap career pretty seriously. Kobe Bryant rapped a verse on Brian McKnight’s 1998 song “Hold Me”.

Brian McKnight also wrote and performed a song for Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna titled, “Can’t Say Goodbye.”

Now, Brian is revealing that if it weren’t for his budding career with the Los Angeles Lakers, the late NBA legend might have continued his rap career. Brian says,

“Kobe Bryant was absolutely 100% serious about his rap career, the problem was … that this was before the Lakers were actually in a championship. And I believe that a year later, they were playing for a championship.”

Brian then mentioned that the Lakers wanted Kobe Bryant to keep basketball a priority.

“[They] needed him focused on that, more than trying to be a musical star. I think he thought ‘I can do it all,’ but we’re talking about a kid who’s 19 at that moment, of course he wants to do it all. It wasn’t a throw-away. It wasn’t just something to do. But I think that life and his actual career took precedence over [it] and then once they won three championships in a row, I don’t think he was thinking about rap music anymore.”

The late NBA legend was tragically killed in a helicopter crash with his daughter Gianna,13, and seven others in Calabasas, California on Jan. 26. Since then his wife Vanessa Bryant has been trying to make sure that the tragedy that she suffered earlier this year doesn’t happen again. She proposed a bill named after Kobe and Gianna Bryant that would require all helicopters built to carry more than six people to be equipped with a Terrain Awareness and Warning System, a flight data recorder and a cockpit voice recorder.

Kobe Bryant & daughter Gianna Bryant

Vanessa Bryant supported the proposal with this statement:

“I strongly urge that the United States Congress pass a federal law that would improve the safety of helicopters operating in this country. I believe there is a chance that Kobe and Gianna would still be alive today if their helicopter had been equipped with the safety equipment required by this pending federal legislation…Having Kobe’s and Gianna’s names associated with this federal law that has the potential to save countless lives would be a fitting tribute to their memory.”

Vanessa Bryant, Kobe Bryant

She continued: