How Anyone's Game got its unique sound
How basketball and hip-hop are linked and why both are having a Canadian moment
Not a lot of sports have a genre of music associated with them. It's hard to think of one definitive sound for hockey or baseball or football. But basketball is different. Basketball is inextricably linked to hip-hop. It's what gets played in the stadium, they're linked by the common bond of sneaker culture, and many NBA players have (sometimes regrettably) tried their hand at rhyming. More importantly, both the modern game of basketball and hip-hop were born in Black communities in the U.S. in the back half of the 20th Century. According to Everton Lewis, Jr., the music supervisor for new basketball-focused CBC docuseries Anyone's Game, basketball could even be seen as the fifth element of hip-hop.
"You know the four elements of hip-hop, right?" he says. "MCing, turntablism, break dancing, and graffiti. At the time, everybody was using that as an outlet to step away from the violence. And I think basketball is definitely a similar element… I see it as the sport element of hip hop. It was the only outlet that a lot of people had to get themselves out of those sticky situations that they were in."
Anyone's Game spends a season with Canada's best high school basketball team, the Orangeville Prep Bears. Lewis wanted the music for the series to have a distinctly Canadian flavour.
"I thought about it as like your Toronto, Canadian mixtape vibe," he says.
He used his connections from his time as a DJ and producer in Toronto's music scene, as well as from his previous gig a a music supervisor at Vice, to start searching for up-and-coming talent for the show. He also used Instagram.
"These young and emerging guys that are dropping their music, they're dropping it at such an alarming rate," he says. "So a lot of it was just jumping on Instagram, following the new videos they released, because they all know each other, Toronto's such a small music community and saying 'Well okay, who's next? Who has this sort of like trap style? Who's doing more of the kind of playful hip hop?' I already had a contact base just from working in the music industry for so long, but there are a lot of artists that are on Anyone's Game that are up and comers, that I've never even heard before... A lot of the music you'll hear, it's all 2020. Other than 'Northern Touch.'"
He says that once he figured out who he wanted to work with, selling them on the project was easy. Every artist he approached was enthusiastic. Sometimes too enthusiastic for their own good.
"I showed [the artists] the sizzle [reel], they were like 'What the f---k is that? Hell yeah, we're in!'" he says "I was almost having to like force-feed these guys music fees. I was like, 'Don't forget about your fees! I need your invoice, guys!'"
Lewis says that for a hip-hop-focused music supervisor like himself, working on a show like this is a dream, particularly at a time when Canada's hip-hop and basketball scenes are both receiving global attention.
"I always say Drake had a lot of effect on Canada," he says. "And the fact that he is such a sports fan, and extremely fanatic basketball fan, I think he has managed to really not only get Toronto, get Canada on the map in regards to music but also elevated in regards to the basketball scene as well. And I'm not putting all the eggs in his basket, absolutely, but… there's definitely something there, that it seems like everything's happening at a simultaneous time."
Three artists to watch out for from the Anyone's Game soundtrack, according to Everton Lewis, Jr.:
Patrik
"I stage managed for Canadian Music Week. I remember stage managing at [now defunct Toronto bar] Smiling Buddha, it was Patrik's debut, we're talking back in 2010-ish? Maybe not that, but quite some time ago, and… that was the first time I saw him. And right then and there I was like, 'Holy shit, who the f---k are you dude? You're sick.'"
Jason Packs
"I was just on Instagram, wake up in the morning and flip through it, see who's out there, what's going on. And then he drops his 'Siakam' track, and I'm like 'You gotta be kidding me, right?'"
ILLYMINIACHI
"ILLYMINIACHI has the 'Cold in Canada' track. That was probably my favourite placement, where the fight started, I believe it was in episode five, and it's 'Cold in Canada,' real rugged shit."
If you want to hear more music from Anyone's Game, check out this playlist from the folks at Orangeville Prep.
Watch Anyone's Game, Fridays at 8:30 p.m. (9:00 NT) or stream it any time on CBC Gem.
For more stories about the experiences of Black Canadians — from anti-Black racism to success stories within the Black community — check out Being Black in Canada, a CBC project Black Canadians can be proud of. You can read more stories here.