Before the Houston native could play against his fans though, he had to face me: Mark Lelinwalla, Editorial Assistant for Vibe.com. Now, truth be told, by no means am I a true gamer. I play once in a while, but I do have New York City pride: I’m competitive and I hate to lose. Thankfully, Cham revealed he plays video games once in a while as well, but he also made it a point to say that when he does play, he plays to win.
As we setup, Cham without any hesitation, picked his hometown's Houston Rockets to represent him. I let him know that I’m a New York City dude through and through, but the Knicks need to get their weight up, so I went with the Detroit Pistons.
When we became acclimated with the Xbox controls, Cham and I started our game. While the first quarter was set up to help us get familiar with NBA 2K6, the trash-talking from each side ensued within seconds. Just like a true to life Rockets' game, Cham used superstar Tracy McGrady for everything: points, rebounds, assists and steals. I, on the other hand, had the luxury of playing with arguably the nicest starting five in the L with the Pistons. So, whether it was a three-pointer from Richard Hamilton or utilizing Rasheed Wallace on the low post, your boy was spreading the wealth! The score was knotted at a low 28 points apiece at halftime.
right In between the slick talking though, Cham shared he's a fan of the NBA and its players, such as Allen Iverson and Kobe Bryant. “I’m a Kobe fan now because to see everything he went through and for him to pull it off and everyone jump back on is crazy,” said Cham. “After he scored 81 points, I remember everyone like ‘Kobe is great, he’s God.’ I was like man, how are you going to be talking about his personal life one minute and now because he scored 81 points he’s like (Michael) Jordan reincarnated?”
But, perhaps Chamillionaire admires and respects Bryant because he can unconsciously relate to his perseverance. Cham started with Swisha House, but when he broke away from the label, he was forced to work his contacts and become his own distributor. The Houston MC remembers the arduous days of filling his truck up with mixtapes and driving city to city with the hopes of finding retail stores to sell them to. During his grind, he was counted out and doubted by many industry heads. However, fast forward to the present and via his smash single, “Ridin',” and its remixes, Cham is getting love from MCs in the East, on the Left Coast, and even from some legendary Houstonians like Bun B.
“First people got onto me from the 'Turn It Up' single,” says Cham. “They were like ‘Ok that’s Chamillionaire’ without really knowing me. Now people are hearing “Ridin” and they’re like well, ‘This dude can really spit!”
It’s the fourth quarter, just under a minute left, I’m up by two points and believe me, I’m letting Chamillionaire know it every other second. I create a critical turnover with Ben Wallace and Cham and the Rockets have about eight seconds to tie or take the lead. Cham gives T-Mac the ball, drives to the basket and gets an And 1 (lucky). The game is tied, 49-49. T-Mac sinks the free throw and the score is 50-49, Rockets. With 1.2 seconds remaining, I get a clean look with Rip from the top of the three-point arc, but my shot rims out. Cham wins, 50-49. I fall victim to the sound of his revenge. “It’s over!” says a triumphant Chamillionaire.
Although Cham didn’t play as well against two of his fans live online (lost both games), he drew an important similarity between sports and hip hop across the map. “It always a competition,” he said. “In the South if you ask someone to name a lyrical artist, they only name a couple of people. But, if you go to New York or the East coast, they have a million people they could name. I think it’s good now, though, because we’re [the South] getting some recognition.”
And Cham is definitely one southener to thank for turnin' it up on the competition.
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