LiAngelo Ball has made a big switch from basketball to music, and according to him, it was an easy choice.
Swerving and bending that corner has made him more than posting up and shooting. In a recent interview with the Bag Fuel podcast, he shared that while playing in the NBA G League, he was only making $3,000 a month. As a grown man trying to build a life, that paycheck wasn’t cutting it. So when he started getting paid from music, he didn’t think twice. “I wasn’t sitting there like, ‘Damn, I gotta keep hooping,’” he said.
His song “Tweaker” went viral and helped him land a major record deal with Def Jam and Universal Music Group. The deal is rumored to be worth up to $13 million, with $8 million guaranteed, a huge step up from what he was making in basketball.
In July, Ball dropped his first album, League of My Own, where he opened up about some of the personal drama he’s been going through. Earlier in the year, as “Tweaker” was blowing up, his ex and mother of his children, Miss Nikki Baby, called him out on social media. She accused him of leaving her and their kids for another woman, Rashida Nicole, and said he was an absent father.
Ball denied those claims and chose to respond in his music. On his song “Wine N Dine,” he raps, “They kick me when I’m down, so can you pick me up? / Say I’m a deadbeat daddy who don’t give no f-cks.” The lyrics show that he’s trying to tell his side of the story and express how all the drama has affected him.
LiAngelo’s move into music is about more than just the money; it’s about doing what makes him happy and taking control of his own path. So far, it looks like that choice is working out.
See social media’s reaction to him switching careers below.
