His NBA career may not have panned out, but LiAngelo Ball has seemingly found another path to success with rapping. His newest song, “Tweaker”, has taken over practices and pre-game workouts in recent weeks. For the Cleveland Cavaliers, the hit song has become somewhat of an anthem.
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During Darius Garland’s appearance on FanDuel TV’s Run It Back, Lou Williams shared how he noticed how the Cavs have been playing Ball’s song and asked the 24-year-old who first brought the song into the locker room. Garland shared how the song first became a routine following a game in Dallas.
The Cavs guard explained how he walked over to Donovan Mitchell’s interview while listening to “Tweaker”, which skyrocketed in popularity from that moment.
Garland then shared how he walked over to another teammate for a conversation, resulting in more positive reactions from the Cavs roster. “Everybody heard the song, and they started going crazy,” Garland said. The All-Star playmaker mentioned how ESPN asked him about his opinion on the song a couple of weeks ago, to which he responded, “Yeah, Gelo [Ball] got a banger.”
🔥 "Gelo got a banger, bro. It is what it is." 🔥@dariusgarland22 gave the @Cavs their new anthem when he played LiAngelo Ball's 'Tweaker' during a Donovan Mitchell post-game interview
📺 https://t.co/JlZRXpnaQX@MichelleDBeadle | @TeamLou23 | @ChandlerParsons pic.twitter.com/qlT1VzNpAC
— Run It Back (@RunItBackFDTV) January 23, 2025
Lou Williams echoed Garland’s sentiment, stating how Ball “got one.” Even Michelle Beadle understood the hype of LiAngelo’s newest song. When Williams asked her if she was following the conversation, Beadle responded “Yeah, the ‘Woah’ song, I like that,” reasoning with her co-hosts that she was caught up with the times.
Even if someone was trying to avoid Ball’s popular track, the song has been so ingrained in mainstream media recently that it’d be hard not to at least hear a snippet from the breakout hit.
LiAngelo Ball’s hit song kickstarted his rap career
It feels as if Ball’s “Tweaker” has been on heavy rotation ever since it was released on January 2nd, but that’s no mistake. The hit song has taken over NBA and NFL locker rooms and has even been featured in sports broadcasts in recent weeks.
This doesn’t appear to be a one-hit wonder situation, though, as LiAngelo was able to turn his hit song’s success into a record deal with Def Jam and Universal Music Group.
According to Shams Charania, the deal is worth as much as $13 million, with $8 million guaranteed, and gives Ball full ownership of music and his own record label. A representative from LiAngelo’s label, Born2Ball Music Group confirmed the deal, meaning we should be hearing plenty more music from the middle Ball brother in the coming years.
LiAngelo may not be bringing an NBA supermax contract like his younger brother, LaMelo, but he has officially secured his status as a self-made multi-millionaire and has successfully exited his brothers’ shadows.
