Butler is Too Big, Yo

Gordon Hayward and fifth-seeded Butler face 12th-seeded UTEP in the first round of the NCAA tournament. (John W. McDonough/SI)

Mid-Majority’s Twitter feed alerted me to a hip-hop track from one of the last All-America candidates I expected to be rapping: Butler’s Gordon Hayward. He goes by “G-Time” in this song, which was apparently recorded with some friends last week and then “released” on Facebook.

If UTEP wasn’t already quivering in fear over what Hayward might do to them in San Jose, well, they should take heed of what he throws down at the 1:49 mark — he’s the third of three rappers — in the soon-to-be smash hit Too Big Yo:

(UPDATE: The track got so big [yo] that it was taken off of YouTube … but Kyle Whelliston came the rescue and posted his saved copy at Mid-Majority on Tuesday evening. Go there to listen to it in its full glory. On to the lyrics …)

Yo, yo, the name’s G-Time
Big frame, big game, call me big time
Ball hard every night and day
From the ‘Burg I rep it in a big way

But it’s not about me, it’s about the team
Going to the tourney with a full head of steam
‘Chip’s real close, it’s at our back door
Get a few dubs we’ll be in the Final Four
Not stopping there, that’s not in store
Push it to the limit we want more

The ‘Burg Hayward references is his hometown. This is the kind of hilariously non-controversial rap you get out of Brownsburg, Ind. — as opposed to say, what you get out of Brownsville, N.Y.: GZA’s Liquid Swords. (Watch out for explicit language in that one.)

Hayward isn’t the only mid-major star to have rapped before; as Mid-Majority pointed out, Steph Curry joined in on a Davidson parody of I Love College last year. Hayward is probably the only mid-major hooper/rapper that also has his own tennis recruiting page, though.