The ties between sports and hip hop can’t be denied. Whether getting in the zone before a game, using it as inspiration for a hard training session or cooling off with teammates at the end of a long week, athletes depend on the heavy beats, revving rhythms and self-affirming lyrics that hip hop provides.
If you bring all that hip hop energy onto the field or court…well, you know the positive effect it can have. (Learn which three pre-game rap songs LeBron chose to fire up the Heat before beating the defending NBA champions.)
An athlete’s long and difficult journey, striving to get better each day, is comparable in some ways to the history of hip hop. In the soon-to-be-released documentary, Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap, director, musician and actor Ice-T traces rap’s evolution and steady rise—from a movement to a way of life to a global phenomenon. Some of the world’s greatest and most successful rappers came on board to give exclusive interviews—including Eminem, Nas, Kanye West, Common, Snoop Dogg, Mos Def, Dr. Dre, KRS-One, Q-Tip, Redman and many more. The artists discuss the history of rap as an art form and how it’s evolved, revealing personal insights on how they fought opposition to hip hop and learned to distinguish  themselves—individually as artists and collectively as fellow travelers.
Something from Nothing: The Art of Rap will release in theaters June 15. Grab your crew and prepare to be inspired.