- published: 14 Apr 2016
- views: 4045407
Kobe Bean Bryant (born August 23, 1978) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He entered the NBA directly from high school, and he has played for the Lakers his entire career, winning five NBA championships. Bryant is an 18-time All-Star, 15-time member of the All-NBA Team, and 12-time member of the All-Defensive team. He has led the league in scoring twice, and he ranks third on both the league's all-time regular season scoring and all-time postseason scoring lists. After beginning his 20th season with the Lakers in 2015–16, which set an NBA record for the most seasons with the same team, Bryant announced that he would retire after the season.
The son of former NBA player Joe Bryant, Kobe Bryant enjoyed a successful high school basketball career at Lower Merion High School in Pennsylvania, where he was recognized as the top high school basketball player in the country. He declared for the NBA draft upon graduation, and was selected with the 13th overall pick in the 1996 NBA draft by the Charlotte Hornets, who traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers. As a rookie, Bryant earned himself a reputation as a high-flyer and a fan favorite by winning the 1997 Slam Dunk Contest, and he was named an All-Star by his second season. Despite a feud between them, Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal led the Lakers to three consecutive championships from 2000 to 2002.
Kobe (神戸市, Kōbe-shi, Japanese pronunciation: [koːꜜbe]) is the sixth-largest city in Japan and is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture. It is located on the southern side of the main island of Honshū, on the north shore of Osaka Bay and about 30 km (19 mi) west of Osaka. With a population around 1.5 million, the city is part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kyoto.
The earliest written records regarding the region come from the Nihon Shoki, which describes the founding of the Ikuta Shrine by Empress Jingū in AD 201. For most of its history, the area was never a single political entity, even during the Tokugawa Period, when the port was controlled directly by the Tokugawa Shogunate. Kobe did not exist in its current form until its founding in 1889. Its name comes from "kanbe" (神戸), an archaic title for supporters of the city's Ikuta Shrine. Kobe became one of Japan's 17 designated cities in 1956.
Kobe was one of the cities to open for trade with the West following the 1853 end of the policy of seclusion and has since been known as a cosmopolitan port city. While the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake diminished much of Kobe's prominence as a port city, it remains Japan's fourth busiest container port. Companies headquartered in Kobe include ASICS, Kawasaki Heavy Industries, and Kobe Steel, as well as over 100 international corporations with Asian or Japanese headquarters in the city such as Eli Lilly and Company, Procter & Gamble, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Nestlé. The city is the point of origin and namesake of Kobe beef, as well as the site of one of Japan's most famous hot spring resorts, Arima Onsen.
* from the forthcoming album "Visions"
[Kobe]
Uh huh
You know what this is
I'ma let 'em run around one more time
I drop sumpin' on y'all
It's like... it's like
What's it like?
My microphones and glock nines
Black? I'm dipped in that
The beats, my mash, jam you for the platinum you have
Run it, the illest, watch me become it
I'm here, and took it bowling, like straight to the wig
Speak truth like kids, tell you what you don't know
Kobe? Yeah, he's real with the flow
Kick in the do' wavin' the flow-flow
All you heard was stop, can't take the hits no more
Ha, didn't know I had your block on SWAT?
I'm CIA, y'all nuttin' but beat cops
I rock like my ma's mean, name is cocaine
Place you on my A-fiend list and pay you 'cane
Think you can handle? Not get stripped when you rock?
Think again, you find you lost your mind and judgement
My confidence, springs from watching y'all fall
Aw, forced to hustle, rap in charge
I'ma hop in your brain, tell you whatchu thinkin'
Yes, I am speakin', but I ain't writin'
So cold, I put the ice in nicest
You too broke to pay attention
My style is priceless
[Kobe][Nas]
If you say murder that means I'm aThug Poet
If I say my mind kills that means I'm a Thug Poet
If I say that I'm a flock that means I'm a Thug Poet
And when I lay it down, it makes me aThug Poet
[Broady Boy]
Thank the dudes for the gangs and tanks of booze
Shanks and twos, it's the gangstas, Langston Hughes
My poems' about broken homes and Jesus peaces
Dope is the Popes in Rome
Poetical field, thug overtone, it's like what, yo?
Bring it home, we both go gone
Pre-cord thought flow in the sober zone
My life style, chromosomes frost, hope to clone
The crack lust, black dust, and the gat bust
The claps, the lackluster, memoirs of the black hustler
Condos, Beemers, bomb hoes, coke bags, toe tags, John Does
Fiends skits them into the plane of day, as plain as day
It's hard to reach, to smell God anyway
Money, think backdrop payin' gray?
Man, rubber-gripped on that rainy day
Peep the way I came to play
One aim at the game, reign and stay
Every stain is straight from objective, insane
'Ey just don't know, I'm two ticks from blowing a hole through music
But I'm more than pimp-whoring him for the street wise
You met the ren
Cuz I open 'neath in the weed, hydrogen
Jam my eyes to skin, guide some of our wisest men
Until the skies of sin
I pray for the day we see you rise again
[Nas][Broady]
Thug PoetStreet analyst is this, the
Thug PoetHustlers bang out to
Thug PoetFlows for your block, Hip-Hop
Thug Poet
Thug Poet
[50 Cent]
Aiyyo, everybody know 50 ain't know how to act
I run up on cats with gats and aluminum bats
Y'all got fat while we starved, it's my turn
Shit, I done felt how a slug burned, I still won't learn
Niggas in the 'hood a-tell ya "50 crazy"
I had your moms screamin' "They done shot my baby"
Son, I yap your shine, I clap the nine, I slap you
I'm that one of them niggas you wanna fuck with
I spit the shit that make ya keep listenin'
Keep my wrists glistenin'
I left niggas alone and they still think I'm dissin' 'em
I'm on some new shit, S-Type baby blue shit
Niggas talk behind my back but don't do shit
I ain't looking for love, duke, I'm looking for respect
I leave you with options, like die or hit the deck
I'm a thug poet, you know what I came for, the dough
Clap-clap, y'all niggas get the fuck on the floor, floor
[Nas] (Echoes to fade)