Tons of NBA athletes consider themselves great artists, but Austin Rivers is ready to compare himself to one of the best of all time.
In a new profile of the Houston Rockets guard on The Athletic, Rivers is revealed to be an avid writer of rap music. In the piece, he mentions that he isn’t as into it as some other players around the league might be, but still does dabble.
While Rivers hasn’t debuted any of his music yet, he knows that jokes might be coming. “They’ll probably think I’m like Drake or some s—,” Rivers said when asked about his music.
According to Rivers, he hasn’t made any actual songs yet, noting that he isn’t as serious about it as guys like Gerald Green. “I’m not as serious as Gerald or some of these other guys who actually put it down on tracks, but I used to make a lot of music with my older brother,” he said.
For Rivers, the music just seems to be a fun outlet for him and a way to connect with his brother, who is a music producer. “He’s a music producer, so he and I used to always make beats,” he said. “And the ones he didn’t want, I’d ask, ‘Can I get on that one?’ And me and my friends would rap on it.” He later equated his rapping skills to how it must feel to watch actual musical artists try and play sports. “At first it was fun, to like take our time and try to make songs, but they’re terrible,” he said. “It’s like when a rapper says he can hoop and you watch him going, ‘look at this dude.’ That’s what they would think of me.”