Few players in NBA history have been as immersed in hip-hop culture as Stephon Marbury. From piloting Fat Joe’s infamous Terror Squad team to the 2003 Rucker Park championship to being immortalized in song by rap greats such as Fabolous, Lil Wayne, and Eminem, the kid from Coney Island has been a hip-hop staple for most of his life. At a recent Carnegie Hall performance from New York Yankees legend Bernie Williams, Marbury shared how deep his hip-hop roots go.
“Just being able to be at the Tunnel as a high school kid when you’re not supposed to be there with Nas, B.I.G., 2Pac, and all of these dudes in one space and one place all at one time back in ‘93 ‘94 ‘95,” Marbury explains. “Being able to be amongst those lyrical geniuses is something that resonated with me. Sports and hip-hop always correlate with each other.”
Dressed in an elegant, damask-patterned tuxedo jacket, Marbury’s formalwear was appropriate for a night at the opera but also indicative of a shift in his cultural tastes. The man nicknamed Starbury, who once hooped with Fat Joe in a Terror Squad video, and even publicly feuded with Jay Z, doesn’t follow rap as he once did.
“I listen to rap, but not as much as I used to,” he says. “I listen to more Christian rap these days. I like Tye Tribbett. I like the kid Nathaniel [the Christian rapper NF].”
But he still embodies hip-hop’s disruptive ethos. The Carnegie Hall show, which was sponsored by Marbury’s smart eyewear company Chamelo, is an example of how he’s still breaking down barriers.
Williams’ concert was the first performance by an athlete in the 135-year-old opera institution—and it often felt like it. Carnegie Hall sounded, at times, like Yankee Stadium, circa 1998. While the walls reverberated with the rich tenor of Jonathan Tetelman, Eganam Segbefia’s soul-stirring trumpet play, and Williams’ classically trained guitar work, the crowd broke out into numerous chants of Williams’ name. The four-time World Series champ and pianist William Hicks then ended the show with a rendition of “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” that every audience member joined in on.
Williams’ post-baseball musical sojourn has been well documented. He performed at former teammate Derek Jeter’s final game, tore down the house at the famous Blue Note Jazz Club in New York, and scored two Billboard 200 hits with his 2003 album The Journey Within and his 2009 album Moving Forward.
While Marbury claims he has no hidden musical talents, he believes Williams’ performance furthers a “vision towards cross-promoting sports and music and bringing it to the highest level.”
“It was phenomenal,” Marbury says. “Eganam Segbefia is a guy who went from playing his trumpet on the subway to being on the Carnegie Hall stage. To be able to do things like this and go into another realm, it’s so much of a blessing that God has bestowed upon me and my brother Adam Unger.”
The Carnegie Hall show was the first in a series of concerts. Williams and his opera crew will be performing next at Miami's Knight Concert Hall, in partnership with Florida Grand Opera, on May 6.