Kevin Durant has revealed a rather surprising new detail about his friendship with LeBron James, saying that the two NBA legends recorded approximately three rap songs during a trip to Akron more than a decade ago.
Durant made this revelation in a wide-ranging conversation with Speedy Morman on Boardroom Talks, and Morman asked if it was true that Durant and LeBron had recorded a song together. The Houston Rockets star revealed that they actually had three, and there was much more material.
Speedy Morman: “Is it true that you and LeBron have a song together?”
Kevin Durant: “We had like three songs, I think.”
Speedy Morman: “For real? Are y’all recording them in person or, like, y’all sending the files?”
Kevin Durant: “No. I went to Akron, like, 2011 to work out with him for, like, four or five days. And then he had a studio, ’cause Rich Paul—me and Rich Paul really was the ones that got it going and convinced Bron to rap. “‘Cause me and Rich Paul—’cause Rich Paul was trying to recruit me when he first started Klutch, and actually, I like Rich, so we hung out a lot. And every city we was going to, we was going to a studio, me and Rich.”
“We was in Philly in the studio. He would just meet me on the road, and we would just hop in the studio because he knew I like to rap, and Rich loved to rap. So we was just rapping, and I think we convinced Bron to rap that one day, and he got in there.”
Speedy Morman: “Keep it a buck, though. His s**t was whack or no?”
Kevin Durant: “It was just like, well, anytime somebody do something for, you know, the first few times, it’s forced, a little forced. Like, once you get that flow, he’ll figure it out. He loves rap.”
Speedy Morman: “Where are these records at?”
Kevin Durant: “I don’t know. That’s a good question. They in that studio in Akron. Somebody out there, engineer, somebody got them. The engineer dropped it… “He dropped one of them, and that’s how people even heard about it. But he changed the beat to it, ’cause I guess the dude who did the beat was like, ‘Nah, I need some. It’s them two on there. Bron on there?'”
Speedy Morman: “He’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m not clearing that out.'”
Kevin Durant: “So they changed the beat. Just made the song even more whack.”
One of their collaborations eventually did become public. “It Ain’t Easy,” recorded during the 2011 NBA lockout, was released in full in 2018 after snippets had previously surfaced. The track featured Durant and LeBron rapping about their journeys from humble beginnings to NBA superstardom.
Producer Frankie Vahu released the song with a different instrumental because the original beat couldn’t be cleared. Vahu also claimed that TMZ had offered $250,000 for the recording, and there were discussions about potentially getting it into the NBA 2K series, although nothing ever came to fruition.
The bigger revelation is that there are two other potential Durant and LeBron collaborations that still may exist. Durant doesn’t have the recordings himself and thinks that someone associated with the Akron studio might still have them.
This rap revelation was just one of the highlights of Durant’s exclusive Boardroom Talks appearance. He predicted that the new-look LeBron James 76ers would be a juggernaut, also discussed his former teammate Russell Westbrook’s retirement, explained why the 2019 Warriors were the best team he had ever played for, spoke on the Knicks’ championship run and Jalen Brunson’s massive pay cut, and discussed his reputation for responding to trash-talking fans.
But learning Durant and LeBron might have two unreleased songs sitting somewhere in Akron might have been the biggest surprise of them all.