As a complement to its exclusive coverage of the NBA Global Games 2014 Rio de Janeiro Oct. 11 preseason game between the Cavaliers and Heat, ESPN Brasil enlisted the help of Brazilian rapper Dexter to create a theme song for the contest. The game, which aired in the United States on ESPNEWS, featured the first instance of Cavs forward LeBron James playing the team he led to two NBA titles – the Miami Heat – before returning to Cleveland via free agency this summer. Cleveland defeated Miami 122-119 in overtime. See images of Dexter’s performance of the song in this gallery. See the video as it was used in the ESPN Brasil production.
In addition to the song being featured on air leading up to tipoff in Rio de Janeiro’s HSBC Arena, Dexter also performed his original composition live Friday night at the NBA Fan Zone on Ipanema Beach. The song features audio samples from Everaldo Marques, one of the ESPN Brasil sportscasters who called the game.
The rapper’s friend and collaborator Gregory worked with Dexter on the composition, as did DJ Caique who researched the beats. “It was an exciting project as we all share a passion for the sport,” Dexter said. “I was happy and honored to have been invited by ESPN to participate in this celebration of world basketball.” The clip, recorded on a basketball court in Sao Paulo, was produced entirely by ESPN.
“It was developed in four days, after a lot of inspiration and research,” Dexter said. “It was a great challenge to create a piece that would fit with the event and with NBA fans. Choosing the right words, the right rhyme, so that everything would work, beautifully and elegantly and easily assimilated, was a challenge.”
Related Articles
-
-
-
-
