Ja Morant is one of Hip Hop’s favorite basketball players on and, clearly, off the court. After all, the South Carolina native has made it known on numerous occasions that he’s about that life. After getting picked No. 2 by the Memphis Grizzlies in 2019, the Murray State alum quickly rose as one of the NBA’s most promising point guards, though not without controversy, some warranted, some not.
Take, for instance, his two suspensions in 2023, which made their way into lyrics from DaBaby on “SELLIN CRACK” and Symba on “12.” At the same time, Morant’s gotten his fair share of praise, with artists like Moneybagg Yo, J. Cole and Money Man either showing love musically or courtside. So, without further ado, here are nine songs that reference the basketball star.
1. m y . l i f e by J. Cole: Ja Morant, I'm on my Grizzly/ You n**gas just cubs but no, not the ones in the big leagues
J. Cole gave Morant a shoutout early into his sixth studio album, The Off-Season, something the NBA Rookie of the Year clearly appreciated. Here, he folded the basketball player into a bar that interestingly works on three different levels. There’s the team tie-in, with “on my Grizzly” linking him to Memphis. Then the next line flipped “cubs” into both a diss aimed at Cole’s competition and a nod to the Chicago baseball franchise.
2. Rookie of the Year by Moneybagg Yo: Strategic how I move, I just treat it like chess/ Tee Morant, the Grizzlies on my Mitchell and Ness
Perhaps no rapper knows Ja’s family ties quite like Moneybagg Yo, who gave a nod to the baller’s dad, Tee Morant, on “Rookie of the Year.” Mitchell and Ness is obviously one of the go-to brands for vintage jerseys, but for the sake of the rhyme — and the Grizzlies shoutout — the CMG rapper made it work.
“He takes pride in the game like I take pride in music,” Moneybagg Yo said of Ja in a conversation with Billboard. “Like, me and Ja together doing this, you got sports and you got Hip Hop. You got entertainment. On both sides, you can’t stop us. We [are] on top.”
3. Ja Morant by Sada Baby: Think I'm Ja Morant, make a n**ga do his best and still lose like he Steph Curry
The Memphis Grizzlies ended up falling 2-3 to the Golden State Warriors in the 2022 NBA Playoffs, so Sada Baby might’ve jumped the gun a bit on “Ja Morant,” which dropped that February. Nonetheless, the Detroit rapper got his basketball bars off right at the top of the track.
4. Death by Design by Lloyd Banks: Couldn't bear what I net, Kevin Durant, Ja Morant/ Everybody behind the cams, behind my stamp
Lloyd Banks’ “Death by Design,” one of the many surefire cuts on The Course of the Inevitable, had quite a bit of wordplay. Here, he lined up Morant and Kevin Durant to flex his own worth — what he “nets” — but set it up with “couldn’t bear,” nodding to the former’s team without exactly spelling it out. KD played power forward for the Brooklyn Nets from 2020 to 2023, so the bar made perfect sense, at the time of its 2021 release, at least.
5. Push Ups by Drake: N**ga, shout out to the hooper that be bustin' out the Griddy/ We know why you mad, n**ga, I ain't even trippin'
“Push Ups” was unquestionably one of Drake’s most loaded diss tracks to come out of his back-and-forth with Kendrick Lamar in 2024, second only, maybe, to “Family Matters.” Though he didn’t mention Morant directly, the Griddy is obviously one of the basketball star’s signature moves on the court. It’s also worth pointing out that Morant showed love to Future and Metro Boomin’s WE DON’T TRUST YOU, which, of course, included the song that started it all: “Like That.”
6. Least Ian Lie by Moneybagg Yo: Watchin' Ja Morant get forty-four points/ Courtside, in FedExForum with the fire
Moneybagg Yo’s “Least Ian Lie” is one of the more literal references on the list. In December 2020, during a game against the San Antonio Spurs, Morant scored a then-career-high 44 points. Unfortunately, the home team still fell 131-119 at FedExForum.
7. SELLIN CRACK by DaBaby: Yeah, I'm in the club with that fire/ I ain't dancin' around, like I'm Ja Morant.
Having his own fair share of controversies, DaBaby didn’t shy away from the heat here. The “fire” line, obviously being slang for a gun, was quickly followed by yet another polarizing Morant reference. The North Carolina rapper alluded to the viral clip of basketball star flashing a weapon in a strip club before subsequently saying he’s armed too. The incident at Shotgun Willie’s earned Morant an eight-game suspension in 2023, so it definitely made headlines.
8. 12 by Symba: To my n**ga out in Memphis moving senseless, I love you/ You someone that my nephew and all my cousins look up to/ You sell out every game at every stadium you come to
Symba is a bona fide lyricist through and through. Unlike some of the other tracks, which seemingly mentioned Morant for theatrics, the Bay Area rapper spoke directly to him on “12.” Across the 90-second freestyle, he touched on the baller’s influence, the pressure that comes with it. Symba also referenced everything from Morant being drafted No. 2 overall to his $200 million contract — and, of course, the two gun incidents.
“You up $200 million and you bought to risk it all just to show n**gas you bought a pistol/ It’s one thing if you do it once, we’ll dismiss it/ But you done did it twice in two months, n**ga you trippin’.”
9. Off The Court by SleazyWorld Go: My lil' n**ga shoot s**t on and off the court like Ja Morant/ Got the lo', and like ‘Ring Around the Ro',’ my n**ga spinned
Michigan’s own SleazyWorld Go painted his right-hand as a shooter in every sense of the word on 2023’s “Off The Court.” In the accompanying video, Polo G, who dished out bars like, “Walk down on him, ‘Grrah, grrah,’ I got my stick in the club like Ja,” recreated the former All-American’s infamous Instagram Live moment in the club.