BleedGopher
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per the City Pages:
When you're six-foot-two with a wingspan to match, you come with a big shadow.
Lawrence McKenzie averaged 11 points per game in 2008 as a senior for the University of Minnesota men's basketball team, scoring an all-time record of 79 three-pointers. He'd been a basketball legend in Minnesota before ever joining the Gophers.
To this day, he's tied with Jarvis Johnson as the only Minnesota high schoolers to win four consecutive state championships, which he accomplished at Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis from 1999-2003. It's a reputation McKenzie's not been able to shake, even though he hasn't played competitive basketball in half a decade.
In 2011, McKenzie released his debut mixtape, Certified Magnet, under the moniker Mac Irv. It'd been only months since he retired from the NBA Developmental League because of a hip injury, and no one quite knew what to make of the point guard-turned-rapper they were used to seeing on the court at Williams Arena.
"People have seen me play basketball at such a high level, so they have this image in their head," Irv says ahead of his gig Friday opening for Prof at 7th St. Entry. "They've never seen someone take all that work they did as an athlete and put it into music."
Irv's story made him something of a local media darling, as critics glommed onto the feel-good arc. His debut single, "Hometown," blew up alongside the Local Boy Done Good headlines. But beneath the fluff, there was a resentment brewing in Irv's native north Minneapolis.
"At first, I felt like it was a gift and a curse," Irv says. "People wanted to hear me, but I think they wanted to laugh at me, honestly. It turned into an automatic excuse for everybody. They were like, 'He's good, but he only got this because he was playing basketball.'"
"If you're from Minneapolis and you know who Lawrence McKenzie is, it's easy to use [basketball] as a way to discredit his music," Wonka says. "But he's fought hard to continually make quality product, and you can't really deny quality no matter who's making it."
http://www.citypages.com/music/ex-gophers-hoops-star-mac-irv-uses-rap-to-fight-for-change-8051133
Go Gophers!!
When you're six-foot-two with a wingspan to match, you come with a big shadow.
Lawrence McKenzie averaged 11 points per game in 2008 as a senior for the University of Minnesota men's basketball team, scoring an all-time record of 79 three-pointers. He'd been a basketball legend in Minnesota before ever joining the Gophers.
To this day, he's tied with Jarvis Johnson as the only Minnesota high schoolers to win four consecutive state championships, which he accomplished at Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis from 1999-2003. It's a reputation McKenzie's not been able to shake, even though he hasn't played competitive basketball in half a decade.
In 2011, McKenzie released his debut mixtape, Certified Magnet, under the moniker Mac Irv. It'd been only months since he retired from the NBA Developmental League because of a hip injury, and no one quite knew what to make of the point guard-turned-rapper they were used to seeing on the court at Williams Arena.
"People have seen me play basketball at such a high level, so they have this image in their head," Irv says ahead of his gig Friday opening for Prof at 7th St. Entry. "They've never seen someone take all that work they did as an athlete and put it into music."
Irv's story made him something of a local media darling, as critics glommed onto the feel-good arc. His debut single, "Hometown," blew up alongside the Local Boy Done Good headlines. But beneath the fluff, there was a resentment brewing in Irv's native north Minneapolis.
"At first, I felt like it was a gift and a curse," Irv says. "People wanted to hear me, but I think they wanted to laugh at me, honestly. It turned into an automatic excuse for everybody. They were like, 'He's good, but he only got this because he was playing basketball.'"
"If you're from Minneapolis and you know who Lawrence McKenzie is, it's easy to use [basketball] as a way to discredit his music," Wonka says. "But he's fought hard to continually make quality product, and you can't really deny quality no matter who's making it."
http://www.citypages.com/music/ex-gophers-hoops-star-mac-irv-uses-rap-to-fight-for-change-8051133
Go Gophers!!
