On his 2010 debut album Thank Me Later, Drake rapped,"I swear sports and music are so synonymous, cause we want to be them and they wish to be us." A decade later, in NBA 2K MT a universe where the intersection of mediums is far more possible and notable than ever before, this mixture of the world wide web, rappers, designers and ball players has made an ecosystem which permits collaborative art and amusement to be commercially accepted in an unmatched speed. NBA 2K21 sets the bar for ethnic mashups from the world of gaming, where everybody wants to reside in each other's worlds -- and there's no place you can make that fantasy come to life more vividly than inside the name. "My entire thing in 2K now is hoping to place all of these individuals -- fashion, music, sports, gambling and all these cultural extensions -- together, and know how we could be a stage for them," says Ronnie 2K, the Face of NBA 2K. And as for the game itself? By way of example, after a 12-block game in 2015 against the Chicago Bulls, Miami Heat Center Hassan Whiteside joked he had been"trying to receive his NBA 2K rating up."
Now, 2K has its very own professional Esports league, which is backed by the NBA. Some of the league's biggest superstars, including Karl-Anthony Towns, Damian Lillard and LeBron James, are passionate fans of this sport. So are high-profile entertainers like Atlanta rappers Lil Yachty and 21 Savage. Spike Lee has led an installation of NBA 2K's cinematic story mode. Currently, with the addition of in-game clothing drops, leading streetwear designers are injecting their own custom made pieces, available through the various apparel stores in NBA 2K's neighborhoods. The very first batch of brands that will be featured in the Most Recent version are Mike Cherman's Chinatown Market, Tracey Mills's Visitor on Earth and Eric Emanuel's eponymous label, in Addition to brands such as Daniel Patrick, Deon Point's Concepts, Nicky Diamonds, Palm Angels and SoleFly. In the movie above, a few of these designers speak to working on the match while displaying in-game footage of Tracey Mills sporting his own tag Visitor on Earth, Ben Baller in Chinatown Market, Zack Bia at Eric Emanuel and Ronnie 2K in Concepts. The aspect of community has become overwhelmingly crucial in the game and developers have given users opportunities to invest real money on digital money which can be used to enhance an avatar's basketball abilities or purchase virtual drip.
Three decades ago, we had Don C and Jerry Lorenzo kind of guide the way as both brands. We just saw that people really liked wearing those brands in our sport and attempting to stand outside. So then we wanted to give them more choices, but we wanted to become a stage for aspirational people in the fashion world, so you while we had Don, who is clearly extremely built-out previously, we sort of took a flyer on Chinatown Market annually -- and obviously they have turned into Cheap MT 2K21 a massive new in the previous couple of years. Tracey is really a really good example as well.