Iman Shumpert appears to be looking for a way for his voice to be heard as he just made a rap song about taking a knee during the national anthem as well as telling us about his latest troubles with the law.
Following a long tradition of basketball players trying to be rappers and vice versa. Shumpert released his latest track at Karen Civil titled, "His Story" which is produced by Ca$h Clay.
One line that stands out from the rest of the song is, "you best believe I'm going to take me a knee for the anthem."
Black athletes have a long history of standing up for racial equality and their beliefs. From track and field stars John Carlos and Tommie Smith famously raising the Black Power salute at the Mexico Olympics, to Muhammad Ali refusing to go to the Vietnam War. Today we see this with athletes like Lebron James talking about these issues in social media.
More recently, San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick made headlines across America by his refusal to stand up when the United States National Anthem was playing in a preseason game. This has caused some division in opinions about the matter. Some critics have slammed the football ace for his disrespect and utter lack of patriotism while others have praised him for making a stand regarding nationally significant issues like racism and equality.
Iman Shumpert, who has been having some troubles with the law lately, also referenced his recent arrest for DUI and for possession of illegal substances (marijuana) with lines like, "came in the league and my image was so clean cut. Then I messed up and got locked up and this (expletive) sucks."
We could see a lot more athletes making more forms of protests when the NBA regular season starts. As for Iman Shumpert, we shall wait and see whether he does indeed do what he says and take a knee for racial inequality.
