TCNJ

8 The College of New Jersey Magazine P R A I R I E E S S A Y COURTESY OF ATRIA BOOKS B ILL STEPHNEY, a longtime executive at Def Jam Recordings, one of hip-hop's most suc- cessful record labels, remembered Darryl Dawkins, a notable National Basketball Association player in the mid-1970s, carrying himself like a monstrous b-boy — the short hair with a part, the gold chains, the rhyming and fast talking. A decade later, as rap music got big, Dawkins' look was no longer an anomaly in and outside of the NBA. A wave of New York–born ballplayers, like Kenny Smith, Rod Strickland, and Mark Jackson, entered the league and carried themselves and dressed like the guys from the neighborhood, the same ones who were rapping. "We didn't look at them as hip-hop representation in the NBA, but guys from the same 'hood where the culture was," Stephney said. The look that defined Run-DMC, the crisp Adidas shell-toes and popping sweat suits, was what the ballers at New York Changing the game We know today's NBA stars as much for their branded clothing and social media influence as we do for their spectacular dunks. But the league's cultural clout didn't just happen overnight. In his debut book, From Hang Time to Prime Time: Business, Entertainment, and the Birth of the Modern-Day NBA, excerpted here, Pete Croatto '00 examines how the NBA's embrace of rap music and hip-hop culture helped lead to the sport's ascension.

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