If a sport and its various figures begin to rack up references in rap music out of nowhere, they’ve officially become a part of mainstream pop culture.
In this regard, it’s safe to say that Football is firmly in the cultural zeitgeist, it’s popular, fashionable and oddly enough, a niche in certain corners of the world.
Hyper popular rap artists including the likes of Drake, Kanye West, Lil Wayne and Jay-Z have all name-dropped famous footballers in the past, and some players even have their names used as track titles.
Dave and AJ Tracy’s Grime-cut ‘Thiago Silva’ instantly springs to mind, and so does Afro B and Wizkid’s afrobeat collaboration ‘Drogba’.
These songs, and many others like them, have usually managed to garner plenty of popularity, and the same can be said for the track in the discussion today.
Titled ‘Neymar Jr’ after you know who, the track is a French rap cut created by Belgian rapper Green Montana in collaboration with French act SDM.
Primarily, the song’s lyrics are laced with braggadocio, including talks of a lavish lifestyle, a bit of self-appraisal, and of course, plenty of designer-wear flexes.
Themes of faith, loyalty and betrayal are also mentioned with a solid bar or two sprinkled in.
The links to the Paris Saint Germain superstar come in the form of a reference in the chorus, ‘In Paris, I wear Number 10, Neymar, ha’.
The music video (see below) delves further to sell the links, as it displays Montana sporting a Neymar jersey while having a 5-a-side kickabout, alongside your standard private jet and Lamborghini-laden visuals of course.
Nevertheless, the track has been doing well on streaming services as of late, which is a bit surprising since it initially dropped over 10 months ago.
As per a source online, it racked up nearly 10,000 plays/ hour, and it is currently among the rapper’s most popular tracks on Spotify.
On the artist’s page, it sits in second place having garnered over 18 million streams, and that figure is likely to increase in the coming days.
It would be interesting to know if Neymar himself is even aware of the track’s existence, although it is certainly likely, as the PSG locker room is filled with French rap enthusiasts.
