On Monday’s episode of Scoop B Radio, Too Short revealed he believes Jay-Z made the remake of “Blow The Whistle” to entice Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James to join the then-New Jersey Nets back in 2010.
Oakland hip hop legend Too Short has been in the news the last couple of days because of his interview on the Scoop B Radio Podcast.
In the interview, Too Short discussed Jay-Z’s 2008 diss track, “Blow the Whistle,” a song aimed at former Washington Wizards guard DeShawn Stevenson. The song was made in response to Stevenson calling LeBron James overrated.
In the diss track, Jay-Z said:
"Uh! Ask my n**** Lebron!We so big we ain’t gotta respondWhen you talkin’ to a don, please have respect like you’re talking’ to your momWe let the money do the talkin’As you see we be talkin’ rather often (chatterbox!)The ROC Boys in the buildin’Another hundred fifty million don’t it sound like we yellin?!!!Who the f*** overrated?! If anything they underpaid himHatin’ that’s only ‘gonna make him spend the nightOut of spite with the chick you’ve been datin’We the best of the bestWe ‘gon be here so the rest could take a restI gotta get this off my chestNo pause none of that s***, get off my d***!!!"
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Here’s Too Short’s account of the whole James/Jay-Z situation, which begins at about the five-minute mark of the interview.
The Oakland rapper said the following:
"“So I guess in his mind he was gearing up to, at that point, I think he was thinking about signing LeBron and having him play for the Nets and he was courting LeBron and LeBron was special to him,”“And ol’ boy [Stevenson] stepped on LeBron’s toes talking sh*t and Jay was like, ‘I’m going to shut this down.’ And he probably saw the moment where the crowd reacted to the song and then that was on his mind.”"
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Too Short also gives an account on how Jay-Z went about requesting to use Too Short’s song:
"“He was like, ‘Could you send me the instrumental to that?’ If a rapper called me and said, ‘Send me the instrumental,’ I’ll probably say something like, ‘We didn’t even bounce the instrumental, so we don’t even have one.’ When Jay called, I was like, ‘It will be there in a couple of hours, man.’ I had no idea what he was going to do with it, but I am glad he did.’”"
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Ultimately, LeBron James did not sign with the Nets in 2010. He went onto the Miami Heat, then back to Cleveland. He’s made the NBA Finals every year since then. Nothin’ But Nets’ own Charles Maniego chronicled the LeBron free agency for NetsDaily. But even without LeBron, it showed the Nets’ previous strategy, and the power of a famous part-owner.
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UPDATE 3/30/17 11:50 p.m. ET
An earlier headline of this article said “Brooklyn Nets.” Since the Nets did not move to Brooklyn until 2012, the headline has been changed to reflect this fact.