Words By David D.

“It’s a war cousin/ Hit you with the Ric Flair figure four cousin/ Barry Windham right hand to your jaw cousin/Road Warriors, Animal and Hawk cousin”- Jedi Mind Tricks

All of us have watched wrestling. Whether you were in front of the TV with a bowl of cereal watching Hulk Hogan rip his shirt or watching Stone Cold and the Rock in the 90′s, you’ve seen wrasslin and are familiar with the theatrics. And obviously your favorite rappers are as well. Hip-hop songs constantly quote or reference wrestlers and storylines they saw growing up (i.e. Big Pooh “I love Macho Man Randy Savage screamin’ ‘Elizabeth come take a ride on my Slim Jim’”).

But don’t worry, this isn’t one of those articles about how Hip-Hop is becoming like WWE with all the beef. We kinda beat that horse to death. Instead, this is a celebration of a pivotal event- one that I feel is connected to our music.

Ric Flair is retiring, man.

Sometime in the next couple of months, the Nature Boy – the best wrestler ever to lace up his boots – is walking away from the game at the spry young age of 56. Now you may be wondering what the hell this has to do with Hip-Hop but seeing as how so many rappers have watched wrestling as children, many have seen Slick Ric (as he calls himself).

And if you’ve heard Ric in his heyday, you would know that he is Hip-Hop…

Ric was flossin before your most beloved obnoxious rappers even thought about bling. The braggard, me against the world/ hate me but respect me mentality was championed by Ric Flair decades ago.

“Limosine Ridin’ Jet flyin’/kiss stealin’ wheelin sonofagun”

“Stylin and profilin’…”

Those aren’t rap lyrics; they’re Ric Flair quotes.

The man talked about his limousines, his women, his watches and custom suits. He mastered the art of the theatrics necessary to promote oneself. Most importantly though, when the man walked in the ring, he backed it up with classic matches.

If you notice in the video, the crowd was cheering the man even though he was playing the “bad guy.” It was like they hated him so much they liked him and were thus drawn to Ric.

How different is this from Kanye’s cryfests that make you put him in the Camel Clutch one minute, then wanna crown him as the best ever as soon as an album drops.

And if Carter III is a classic, then we’ll feel the same about Weezy.

So as he closes in on the end of his career, let’s acknowledge a man who left an indelible mark on Hip-Hop.

Wooooo!