What Inspired a Rap Song and Music Video About Pickleball?

Last week, we found not only a song about pickleball, but a whole music video. The song is called “What You Know About That - Pickleball” and it’s by Maxta Chief. Over the weekend, we caught up with Maxta Chief to ask him what inspired his love of pickleball, and how he came up with a rap song that’s dedicated to sport we all love. Check out the music video below. Then, read Maxta Chief’s letter below.

I have been rapping on and off for 10+ years, love being creative, love pickleball, and wanted to put something together that was fun that inspires others to give the sport a try and to make pickleball feel even more badass!

I first played pickleball in 8th grade P.E. class and remember thinking to myself like “I wish this was a real sport most people played all the time” and only until this year, January of 2021, I was able to revisit pickleball on a much bigger scale with the growth of its popularity and have been all about the sport ever since! I grew up playing Tennis and many other sports so I naturally picked up the game easily. Like many others have expressed, as we get older, out of school, and over consumed with work, many of us lose that competitive edge, team camaraderie and or adolescent connection we previously had when we used to be more involved with athletics. This sport really allows all ages, cultures, ethnicities, backgrounds to connect with each other and their inner kid.

I still love Tennis, but unlike Tennis, pickleball is much easier for anyone to pick up, more social as you tend to be much closer in proximity to one another, and has a fast and slow paced dynamic to it that is really like nothing else out there. What rap and pickleball do for me is keep me in the moment and away from anything else that is going on in my head and or the outside world. It’s therapeutic. When I am rapping, I am only focused on expressing my words, rhythm and rhyme in the best, most articulate and passionate way possible. When I am on the pickleball court I love the exercise (playing singles is the craziest workout you will ever have) and am only focused on my shot strategy, accuracy and consistency. This game has changed my life, as it has done for so many others! Especially with COVID-19 keeping people away from each other, along with the technological advancements in this day in age that keep us looking down at our phones rather than meeting up face to face, this game has allowed us to rekindle what truly matters.

I now try to play pickleball at least 3+ times a week, travel and play in every Professional Pickleball Association (PPA Tour) tournament, help people with their pain as I am the Social Media and Marketing Director of MEDICILEAF: Official Cannabinoid Supplier of the PPA, and also have the opportunity to perform and pump people up with my creative pickleball rap songs. It’s truly a blessing. I just want people to understand that pickleball is an all inclusive sport! And even if you don’t like my music, rap is the most listened to genre in the world. I’m not trying to be something I’m not, not doing anything to impose any hate, and this is how I like to make my music. So take it or leave it, but I appreciate those who understand my vision, love pickleball as much as I do and allow me to express myself and what this sport has done for me and so many others. Thank you PICKLEBALL!