Arian Foster is the NFL’s resident philosopher, but he also happens to be an emerging lyricist on the Houston hip hop scene.
After signing his five-year, $43 million contract in 2012, securing his football future, Foster decided to try his hand in the music industry. So, he partnered up with Houston-based rapper and friend Bun B, formerly of the group UGK, to get in the studio and start recording music.
“After he got his extension, he was like, ‘Man, I got some things — I just want to finally take a deep breath,'” Bun B said on the Texans’ “Off the Turf with Scurf” podcast. “He doesn’t really make music that he feels like he needs to put out a mix tape or make an album or feel like he needs to share or any of that kind of thing. It’s kind of more of a release for him because he does rapping as well as spoken word, as well as poetry. He’s very well-read, and he’s very well-written, as well. We just get together and just make music, not for commercial release but just for cultural expression.”
Unlike so many athletes before him, Foster’s rap career is strictly for his own personal enjoyment rather than the potential riches that the likes of Kobe Bryant, Allen Iverson and even Deion Sanders pursued in the past. The other thing that sets Foster apart from his athlete-turned-rapper predecessors? He’s apparently “”really good,” according to Bun B.
“I remember we were at Connor [Barwin‘s] going-away party, and he and Andre [Johnson] were talking about him rapping and he’s like, ‘Bun, tell this man I can rap, yo. Tell this dude I can rap.’ I’m telling him like, ‘Dre, he can go.’ Dre’s like, ‘Alright,’ I’m like, ‘No, he’s actually really good, ‘Dre. You’ll have to come check him out.’ So ‘Dre was like, ‘Alright, I’m going to check him out.’ Now, I don’t know how much rapping he does in the locker room. I don’t know if those guys are even listening to him doing any of that. It’s just funny, man. He’s really proud of what he can do, and he should be.”
So, Foster might not be planning to drop his debut album anytime soon, but you can be sure when he does it will be a must-listen.
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