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Let’s put Team USA and NBA talk on hold briefly to hear from Spurs guard Stephen Jackson, who believe it or not, is doing some promotion of his new rap album Jack Of All Trades. The thought of Jackson rapping sounds delightfully intriguing, no? I can’t say I’ve heard any of his tracks, but apparently is he not only quite good (for athletes standards), his latest work does not even feature much explicit lyrics at all. That part may be mildly disappointing to some, but anyhow, take a listen to Jackson talk about his music career, his upbringing and how he thinks the Spurs will be even tougher in.
Jackson joined KTKR in San Antonio to talk about what he does at this point in the calendar year to rest up and recharge, his new rap album, whether he wanted to be a basketball player or rapper first, the lack of curse words in his recent tracks, his plans to continue his music career long into the future, the tough Texas town of Port Arthur, and how and why he gives back to the people and city of Port Arthur.
On what he does at this point of the year to recharge:
“Just relax, try to get as much rest as I can, spend time with my family, and just get my mind right, man.”
On his new rap album and whether he wanted to be a basketball player or a rapper first:
“Basketball has always been my first love, that was my blessing from God. I think as my career developed, that developed. I’ve always had a passion for music growing up, singing in the church choir and all that stuff. So as time passed I recognized another talent which is music. So I just took it seriously just as I took my basketball seriously.”
On his recent tracks not featuring much cursing:
“Yeah sometimes a word might slip, and like you said, sometimes to get points across. But at the end of the day, you being aggressive and rap is competitive and sometimes words might slip out, but at the end of the day, if you can get your point across it just means you’re that much more talented.”
If he plans to continue with his music career into the future:
“Yeah, definitely. Like I said, anything I put my heart and my mind to do, I take it real serious and I put my all into it. I’m going to be the same way with music. I’m going to play basketball until the game won’t let me play no more, and I’m going to do music until I can’t talk no more. That’s going to be the same way.”
On the tough town of Port Arthur where he was born and raised:
“Well I think a couple reasons — there’s eight sets of projects and one high school. Everything is so small that everybody knows everybody. Everybody does the same thing to try to get out. It’s a lot…the people there are good, but there’s a lot of bad things going on and it’s kind of absorbing the whole city. But it’s just hard to get out, and a lot of people have to go there to know what I’m talking about.”
On the obligation he feels to give back to the people and city of Port Arthur:
“Well, I’ll never leave. I’ll be PA until the day I die. But the reason I made it out is because of the people in the city supporting me and keeping me out of trouble and situations and doing things that I shouldn’t do. I had people in my city supporting me that wasn’t my family that steered me in the right direction so I could get to the NBA. So I owe it to them, so when I go home I just try to create opportunities for others in a legal way. I don’t think giving back to others always means having a BBQ and feeding people. I think it’s more giving people opportunities to feed themselves, so they can create an avenue to feed someone else and create opportunities for the next person. So it’s a lot bigger than me and a lot bigger than me making it.”
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