Lakers as Kanye West Songs

Well I have an hour left at work before I'm gonna drive up to Berkeley for the weekend, so I decided I was going to go through Kanye's catalog and assign a song to each player. I will give the player, the song, a lyric and maybe a youtube link (I dunno I only have an hour).

Edit: the song titles are links to youtube videos of the songs themselves. I think they work, I'm at work so I can't really listen to them right now. Lemme know if I need to fix the links.

First up is our leader, our savior, our Mamba.

Kobe Bryant - Power (Remix) ft. Jay-Z.  (edit: no one told me this link was broken!)

First of all, the remix is roughly a million times better than the single. If you disagree, well you're wrong. I PROMISE YOU, IF YOU HAVEN'T HEARD THE REMIX LISTEN TO IT NOW! IT'S MUCH BETTER.

What do it mean to be the boss?
It mean second place is the first one who lost
The crucifixion, the being nailed to the cross
Truth or fiction, it’s a hell of a cost, do the dishes
I’m ’bout to hit that Jeff Gordon
Michael Jordan, the only one more important
But I be feelin’ like Jordan when I’m recordin’
‘Cause every time I record, I duck to slap the boards

Of course the chorus of "no one man should have all this power" rings true with Kobe, but I like this bit better. Kobe is obsessed with winning, and second place just isn't good enough. The Michael Jordan bit applies to me as well, for while I love Kobe, I still hold MJ as the gold standard.

Pau Gasol - Lost in the World (ft. Bon Iver)

You're my devil, you're my angel
You're my heaven, you're my hell,
You're my now, you're my forever,
You're my freedom, you're my jail,
You're my lies, you're my truth,
You're my war, you're my truce
You're my questions. you're my proof
You're my stress and you're my masseuse

Pau Gasol has two sides to him. On one, we have the most skilled big man in the league, who can score from anywhere out to ~20 feet with the most beautiful rainbow (if slightly funny looking) jump shot, and spent an entire series in 2009 doing the best job I've ever seen defending Dwight Howard, the league's best center. On the other, we have a finesse player who shies away from contact, doesn't rebound as well as someone his height should, and got absolutely dominated by the physical (I say dirty) Garnett and Perkins in 2008.

Andrew Bynum - Stronger

Work it harder, make it better,
do it faster, makes us stronger,
more than ever, never over,
Our work is never over.

Bynum could have taken the injuries the past 3 years as an insurmountable setback, taken his time to get back (like a certain former Laker center) and came back as a slightly better Greg Oden. Instead, he spent his time after surgery in the weight room, bulking up and improving. Combine that with a marked attitude change, and Laker fans have to feel good about our future when Kobe is no longer the man (perish the thought).

Derek Fisher - Champion

When it feel like living's harder than dyin'
For me givin' up's way harder than tryin'

I flirted with giving this song to Ron Artest, but I decided it fit D-Fish better. Fisher is the ultimate professional, and the fact that his return to the team in 2007 signified the start of our dynasty again I think is no coincidence. El Presidente has his moments that make me yell at the screen (WALITs and PUJITs anyone?), but I can't remember Fish ever quitting on the Purple and Gold.

Ron Artest - Monster (feat. Rick Ross, Jay-Z, Bon Iver & Nicki Minaj)

Sasquatch, Godzilla, King Kong
Loch Ness, Goblin, Ghoul, a zombie with no conscience
Question - what do all these things have in common?
Everybody knows I’m a motherfucking monster

Ron (Crazy Pills) is an absolute monster on defense. He's also slightly insane, so I feel this works.

Lamar Odom - All of the Lights (feat. Rihanna, Kid Cudi)

All of the lights
Cop lights, flash lights, spot lights
Strobe lights, street lights
All of the lights
All of the lights
Fast life, drug life
Thug life, rock life
Every night
(all of the lights)

Lamar's had his struggles (UNLV, URI, drugs, motivation) earlier on in his career, but I'm proud to call him a Laker today. And with his and Khloe's reality show, I can't say he doesn't like fame (plus he grew up in NY).

Shannon Brown - Touch the Sky (ft. Lupe Fiasco)

Gotta testify, come up in the spot looking extra fly
For the day I die, I'mma touch the sky

This is personally my favorite Kanye song, in much the same way Shannon is my favorite player to watch. Now I hear what you're saying "Martin what are you talking about? Shannon is the master of the WAKI and dribbling 26 feet from the basket until only 6 seconds are left on the shot clock!" To that I say whatever. In fact, his moments of brain-death partly add to my enjoyment of watching him.

And come on, there's no way Shannon doesn't touch the sky when he soars for a dunk.

And that's the post, folks! I would like to add songs for Phil, Blake, Barnes, and Walton, hopefully I'll have time this weekend to. Or maybe I'll make a second post.

Anywho, if you like this, leave a comment. If you hate this, leave a comment. If you feel I'm silly and Amazing clearly should have been the song to describe Kobe, leave a comment.

Thanks!