Besides being icons in their respective fields, Kanye West and Kobe Bryant don’t appear to have much else in common.
But there might be more similarities between them than you think. In fact, according to Kanye West, he is the “rap version” of the Mamba while Bryant was the “basketball version” of him. It’s a weird dynamic, but one he was proud to illustrate in a chat with GQ.
“One thing I thought was really amazing is that we were able to find a groove with the photographs today even as out of it as I was with the loss of Kobe. We were able to just go to the court and play ball. There’s one street that I drive to go from either my office or my home to the property where the domes were built. So now there’s no way for me not to be as determined as Kobe every time I drive down that street. It’s game time. There’s no move that we can’t make, or that we’ll wait to make.”
“Everyone in our life is now a member of the Lakers on one of Kobe’s championship teams. The way that Kobe would say that we all have to come together and win this championship is the way I look at life now. To an infinite, other level. This is a game changer for me. He was the basketball version of me, and I was the rap version of him, and that’s facts! We got the commercials that prove it. No one else can say this. We came up at the same time, together. And now it’s like, yeah, I might have had a reputation for screaming about things—but I’m not taking any mess for an answer now. We’re about to build a paradigm shift for humanity. We ain’t playing with ’em. We bringing home the trophies.”
Kanye West is all about being the best that he can be. He’s determined, driven, and does whatever it takes to get to the top of the music industry.
The same could be said about Kobe Bean Bryant in the basketball realm. He wanted nothing but excellence and demanded it from everyone around him. He may not have been well-liked at times, but he wasn’t afraid to speak out.
He and Kanye seemed to have not only a similar mentality about life but also mutual admiration and respect for each other. No doubt, the West family will miss the Mamba greatly — the rest of us surely are.
