Michael Jordan vs Muhammad Ali/Rap Meanings

Michael Jordan:
Why don't you dodge this battle like you did Vietnam?

(Ali avoided being drafted into Vietnam, which stripped him of all of his boxing titles. He then took his case through the Supreme Court, which verified his status as a "conscientious objector" as he became a Muslim. A CO can legally opt out of the draft if certain other obligations forbid him from entering. Jordan suggests that Ali should avoid battling him as he did being drafted to Vietnam.)

'Cause you've got as much chance of beating me as LeBron.

(LeBron James is a more recent NBA player. He is also celebrated, and he joined the NBA months after Jordan left. It is generally accepted that there would be no predictable winner if LeBron and Jordan went head-to-head. Similarly, Jordan thinks Ali has no chance of beating him in the battle.)

I'm a flying machine, like the world has never seen!

(Jordan often leaped so far, it seems like he flew through the air when playing ball.)

'''You can fight one man? I can drive through a whole team!'''

(In basketball, to drive is "to move quickly and forcefully down or along", usually for the purpose of reaching the basket. It is said that Jordan could beat a whole team on his own, basketball being a team sport. Boxing is one-on-one, by contrast.)

I choke a dope with his own jump rope!

(Jordan will choke his opponent with a jump rope, commonly used for exercise during a boxer's training, to shut him up. Jordan alludes to Ali's "Rope-A-Dope", where he just sat on the ring edge waiting out his opponents' fatigue before delivering an explosive counterattack.)

You'll get smoked when I flow, you Kentucky Fried joke!

(When Jordan delivers his rhymes, Ali will be "smoked" like a chicken. Getting smoked is another way of saying getting burned, or being greatly insulted, and may also be an allusion to "Smoking" Joe Frazier, Ali's boxing nemesis, who defeated Ali in their first bout. Ali's hometown is Louisville, Kentucky, and the state of Kentucky is known for Kentucky Fried Chicken, or KFC, which has become a stereotype meal for African-Americans. Jordan calls Ali out as a joke, replacing chicken with joke.)

Used to float like a butterfly, sting like a bee,

(Ali's famous quote before his battle versus Sonny Liston was "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee. The hands can't hit what the eyes can't see.")

Now you double dribble balls that nobody can see!

(In basketball, double dribbling is a turnover. Jordan makes a reference to Ali's Parkinson's disease because Ali's tremors make him look like he's dribbling invisible basketballs.)

Muhammad Ali:
Ooh, here comes Jordan, big tongue wobbling,

(Michael Jordan would often stick out his tongue when jumping in the air to perform a dunk. Ali isn't intimidated in the least by Jordan's trash-talk, passing it off as if Jordan's tongue is wobbling for no reason.)

Flying through the air like a big dumb goblin!

(A person "flies" through the air as they do a slam dunk, and Jordan looks dumb when doing this. Ali then compares Jordan to a mythical goblin, usually depicted with its tongue sticking out of its grotesque face.)

You're the only Bull that's uglier than Rodman!

(Throughout most of his carrer, Jordan was a member of the Chicago Bulls, as was Dennis Rodman, who Ali thinks Jordan is uglier than. Rodman is known for his excessive amount of facial piercings, tattoos, and wild choices in hair color, all of which make him ugly. Moreover, Ali was also known to taunt his upcoming opponents by calling them ugly – calling Sonny Liston a big, ugly bear, saying Floyd Patterson is too ugly to be champ, etc.)

Messing with me is gambling, you got a problem!

(Jordan lost $57,000 gambling in 1993 and apparently lost $1.25M in a bet while golfing, showing that he has a gambling problem. To rap against Ali, he says, is a big gamble, and one Jordan is likely to lose just as he lost all that money.)

Your whole basketball career turned whack,

(Years after Michael Jordan's 1999 retirement from NBA, he made a comeback in 2003 as a member of the Washington Wizards, but his performance for the team fell well short of that achieved in his Chicago Bulls years.)

When you came back a Wizard like Gandalf the Black!

(Gandalf is a wizard from "The Lord of the Rings" series. He died as Gandalf the Grey but somehow made a "comeback" as Gandalf the White and gained greater ability. But since Jordan was African-American, Ali says he is Gandalf the Black. Also, in Lord of the Rings, a wizard with the title "The White" is at the most powerful state possible. When Gandalf came back to life, he went from Gandalf the Grey to Gandalf the White, becoming more powerful. The reverse could be theorized: becoming Gandalf the Black would have meant he came back weaker than before, similar to how Jordan came back from retirement only to perform worse than he did pre-retirement.)

You should have kept your ugly sneakers packed up on a shelf.

(Ali says that Jordan should not have come back to the NBA and should have stayed retired. This line could also be a reference to Nike's "Air Jordan" basketball shoes, which Ali considers are ugly.)

Stick to golf, you can keep the ball to yourself!

(Ali is saying that since Michael Jordan doesn't want to pass the ball to his teammates, he should just stick to a sport like golf, where he can keep the ball to himself. It's also another reference to Jordan's bad golfing bet.)

Ooh, I'm so pretty, my hands are so fast.

(In Ali's "I'm the Greatest" speech, he says, "I am the greatest! I'm young; I'm handsome; I'm fast. I can't possibly be beat." It would be hard to stay pretty if you're a boxer since you're taking hits to the face. Hence, Ali is stating he's that good at fighting. This line is also a reference to how fast a boxer's hands are.)

I'll whup your face back to your Hitler mustache!

(Michael Jordan had, at one point, a mustache which had been shaved to a similar style as Hitler's.)

Now your daddy got killed and I feel for your family,

(Michael Jordan's father, James R. Jordan Sr., was tragically murdered by two criminals in 1993. Ali states he feels sympathetic for the event.)

But your baseball career, now that was a tragedy!

(After Jordan's father's death in 1993, Jordan retired from the NBA for the first time and joined a total of two Minor League Baseball teams until he rejoined the NBA. During this time, Jordan had a batting average of around .225 and a total of only 3 home runs, which is often considered middling by baseball standards. Against his NBA career, Jordan's numbers in baseball seem tragic. He couldn't hit a curve ball, which is why he didn't make it to the MLB. After his failed baseball career, Jordan went back to the NBA. It was also his father's earlier wish that Jordan would play baseball. Ali is simply stating the obvious here, to egg Jordan on.)

Michael Jordan:
Man, you make me sick, but I'm better with the flu!

(The day before Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals against the Utah Jazz, Jordan awoke with a stomach virus or food poisoning and the Bulls team doctor said that there was no way he could play the next day. Jordan did play and scored 38 points, along with grabbing 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals as he led the Bulls to victory. This game was known as "The Flu Game". Jordan uses this in the context that Ali bringing up his father's death would make him fall ill, but he says that getting sick would just give him an advantage like the aforementioned game.)

'''You should let the Fresh Prince do your rapping for you! (Swish!)'''

(Triple reference: "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air" was a popular TV show starring Will Smith. The fifth version of the Air Jordans (Michael Jordan's shoes made by Nike) were inspired by "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air". Jordan is saying that he is a fresh rapper, meaning that he is very good. Also, Will Smith, known as the Fresh Prince in his rapping days, played Muhammad Ali in the film "Ali", receiving an Oscar nomination. The "swish" onomatopoeia shows that the basketball is shot and goes through the hoop without touching the rim and flies through the net.)

I would pass the mic to Pippen, but I'm not done scoring!

(Another allusion to how Michael rarely passes the ball to his teammates, the ball here being the mic. Jordan and Chicago Bulls teammate Scottie Pippen were an unstoppable pair during the Bulls' six championship runs, with the two men frequently passing the ball between themselves to make plays. They were the duo to beat in all the NBA. Here, Jordan would pass control of the battle to Pippen, but Jordan's not yet done trashing Ali.)

Stay all up in your grill like my name was George Foreman!

("To get up in one's grill" is a slang term for meeting face to face in the most literal sense. George Foreman, a boxer beaten by Ali, markets a grease-draining portable grill under his own name. When fighting for the heavyweight championship, Foreman spent almost the entire time being close and face-to-face with Ali. After Muhammad Ali’s next verse, Jordan actually DOES get up in Ali’s grill.)

Muhammad Ali:
I saw you slapping Reggie Miller, boy, what's wrong with you?

(This line is referring to Jordan's fisticuffs with Reggie Miller. Miller attacked Jordan unprovoked during a Bulls-Pacers match, to which Jordan retaliated. Both teams engaged in an all-out brouhaha following their stars' lead.)

You fight like the little girls who make your Nike shoes!

(Ali calls out Nike for using sweatshop labor and using little girls as the source of said labor, along with insulting Jordan by saying that he fights like a little girl.)

McDonald's and underpants as corporate backers,

(Even post-retirement, Jordan still holds endorsement deals with Hanes underwear and McDonald's restaurants.)

You stay at the Ritz because you sold out to crackers!

(Ritz is a brand of cracker marketed by Kraft Food. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company owns several high profile hotels. Jordan was once seen playing beer pong at a Ritz. Cracker is a slang term for a white person. Ali is saying Jordan leads a charmed life because he betrayed his black people and sold out to white people, and now stays at their white hotels.)

Michael Jordan:
So Cassius wants to talk about cashing checks!

(While boxing under his given name of Cassius Clay, Ali signed a contract with a $10k bonus, which he used to buy his mother a coveted pink Cadillac. Ali was also paid $10M for his fight with George Foreman in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Zaire) known as "The Rumble in the Jungle". So, Jordan sees a case of the pot calling the kettle black.)

I'll school you through your bug spray, off your Broadway play, over the Japanese dude sitting on your face!

(A reference to the friendly duels Jordan often acted out with rival Larry Bird in various TV spots. The two would trade obstacles for the ball to hit before actually passing through the basket. These duels became a running gag and a template for similar duels between more current players. Ali's "bug spray" was a rather humorous commercial for a d-CON roach fogger. Ali also briefly starred in the Broadway play, "Buck White". The "Japanese dude" is likely Antonio Inoki, who faced Ali in a bout with extremely unorthodox rules.)

'''Hit nothing but net! You ain't seen nothing yet!'''

(Continuation: the aforementioned duels would end each line with "nothing but net", meaning that the ball would sink through the hoop without hitting the rim. Ali has yet to hear the end of Jordan's disses on him, says Jordan.)

Man, you needed a movement because you're so full of shit!

(Ali needs to have a bowel movement - take a dump - to get rid of the crap that he's full of. It might also refer to the Muhammad Ali Movement Disorders Clinic, a recognized top center for treatment of movement disorders, or the fact that Ali was a Civil Rights Movement activist.)

I'm a better athlete and a better MC!

(Possibly a reference to the fact that Jordan was named the Greatest Athlete of the 20th Century by ESPN. Ali was third, behind Jordan and Babe Ruth. Jordan is stating that not only is he more talented at his sport than Ali is, but he also is better at rapping than he is.)

Battle me two more times, watch me get a three-peat!

(Jordan is confident that if Ali were to face him twice more, he would win both of those fights as he seems to be winning this one, making for a three-peat. The Bulls secured a 3-time NBA championship (1991-3) and a second instance three years later (1996-8) with the help of Michael Jordan. It also doubles as a reference to boxing, wherein three knockdowns is a Technical Knock Out, or TKO.)

Muhammad Ali:
'''Beep beep! Why don't you back up that trash?'''

(Ali thinks Jordan is full of BS because of his trash talk, so he either wants Jordan to prove it or to go back and rethink what he said, either way to "back it up". Large vehicles like garbage haulers are required to make a noise when they back up. In America, this is often a slowed "beep". The beep could also imitate the bell-ringing that signals a new round at a boxing match.)

I'll leave you like Liston, flat on your ass!

(In 1965, Ali had his second of two bouts with Sonny Liston. During the fight, he had successfully knocked Liston down on his back, prancing around the ring in victory. Liston actually threw this fight having injured his shoulder, but he would not concede that Ali was the better fighter. Ali says here that he'll knock Jordan down as he did Liston and win the battle.)

You need to bounce back to North Carolina, kid,

(Michael Jordan was raised in North Carolina. He also played his college ball in Chapel Hill, NC as a Tar Heel and was drafted to the Bulls in 1984 after playing in the Los Angeles Summer Olympics. However, Ali thinks Jordan should just return home for a reason stated next.)

'Cause your rapping sucks more than Space Jam did!

(Michael Jordan was the star of "Space Jam", a basketball movie featuring the Looney Tunes cast. The movie was met with mixed reception due to Jordan's lack of skill as an actor. If not for the cartoons and support from veteran actors including Danny deVito, Bill Murray, and Wayne Knight, the film would have bombed. Ali is saying that while the movie was terrible, Jordan's rapping is worse.)