AS LEBRON JAMES crept up on 50,000 points — a scoring mark no one else in the NBA has ever achieved — Vincent Jordan, who goes by the stage name of OkaySpade, knew it was time to get started.
The thought of creating a song to commemorate the occasion had already been swirling in Jordan’s mind. He surfed YouTube for a beat before discovering one posted nearly two years ago that seemed perfect for the track he wanted to make.
Jordan listened to it twice and made up his mind.
“Finna make a LeBron James tribute [right now],” Jordan commented under the YouTube video of the beat.
It took Jordan no more than 10 minutes to record the song. The chorus, “LeBron, LeBron, LeBron James,” took him only two takes. He harmonized and matched the chords that are sung in E-flat. Then he incorporated a falsetto layer of “LeBron James” lyrics to establish a melody.
“I didn’t do too much editing. I still wanted it to be raw because it’s a comedic song,” Jordan said. “I really could’ve put more into it, but I didn’t. And I’m kind of glad that I didn’t, because at the end of the day, it kind of has a feeling of something I made at home. … [It’s] something that’s real simple, and I like it. It’s not complex.”
ONCE JAMES SET the NBA scoring record March 4 against the New Orleans Pelicans, Jordan let his friends listen to the song he aptly titled “Reigning in LA (LeBron James Anthem).” With their encouragement, he hit the post button on TikTok and went on with his day.
When Jordan posted the 35-second snippet of his song, he had only 100 followers. He woke up the next morning to thousands of notifications.
Philadelphia 76ers guard Jared McCain, a popular influencer on the social media platform, commented under the post: “This fire.”
In the wake of his song going viral on TikTok, Jordan decided to post a one minute, thirty-five second version on streaming platforms. As March progressed, TikTok creators began to make their own LeBron James songs by remixing more popular R&B hits with lyrics about the Lakers star.
And thus a trend was born.
Jordan’s song has since amassed more than 7 million views and 800,000 likes and gained him over 6,000 followers on TikTok.
As “Reigning in LA” continued to circulate on social media, the song caught the attention of Fyrehouse. The record label flew Jordan to Los Angeles to talk business and sent him to his first Lakers game. He signed a deal that allows him to record six songs for the label.
“Dreams do come true,” he told ESPN.
Music has always played a significant role in Jordan’s life. His parents surrounded him with music through their involvement in the entertainment industry, particularly with the rhythm and blues genre. Jordan’s mother performed breakup R&B songs. His father sang love songs and is also an actor at the Black Ensemble Theater in downtown Chicago.
“I can’t imagine my life without music,” Jordan said.
But Jordan didn’t think it would be possible to build a career in music.
“I just didn’t believe there was a chance,” Jordan said. “Because in my head, everybody wants to do music, so what makes me different from everybody else?”
Jordan’s inspiration didn’t come from only his musical upbringing. It also came from him being a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers star. The 24-year-old became a fan of James when the veteran helped anchor the Cleveland Cavaliers’ iconic 3-1 comeback in the 2016 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors.
“The situation shows him at odds and them coming through and fully beating one of the best teams ever assembled in basketball at a disadvantage,” Jordan said with a smile.
Jordan could never have imagined his TikTok creation would become the source of inspiration for someone else.
TIKTOKER CORTEZ MILES grew up singing and playing instruments in church before his father and friends realized the extent of his musical abilities. He didn’t post much of his music to TikTok, however, and what he did post didn’t get a lot of attention — until the LeBron James trend emerged.
“I started [to] hear some of them, like at first, it was a joke because I do music — I do R&B music,” Miles said. But then his musical instinct kicked in, telling him to join.
Miles didn’t want to remix a song that was considered “trendy” or “poppy.” Rather, he wanted to create something different and outside the box, with the hope of bringing listeners back to what he called an era of “good R&B.”
He decided to test the waters to see how his audience would engage with his song. His first LeBron James remix was done to Drake’s “Girls Love Beyoncé.” Miles freestyled whatever came to his mind about the 21-time NBA All-Star and tried to match it with the original song.
“I did the template of the actual song of whatever the flow was and just redid it with LeBron’s accolades,” Miles said. “I kept the same flow of whatever the original was to when you hear the song without the beat and if you just heard the flow of what I was saying, you know, it’s this song. … I just go off of what I know and what I’ve seen. Clearly, he’s the GOAT.
“If I had to perform these songs, I couldn’t probably even do it because I don’t even know my own lyrics after posting it,” he said with a laugh.
Miles tapped into the neo-soul era of R&B with separate remixes of Charlie Wilson’s “Charlie, Last Name Wilson” (renamed “LeBron last name James”) and Jon B.’s “They Don’t Know.” He saw his “LeMix” of Chris Brown’s “Residuals” gain more engagement than normal on TikTok.
As Miles posted one rendition, other users began commenting under the posts with new requests. One user requested Miles to remix T-Pain’s “Buy U a Drank” and title it “Le’Get You a Ring” — he did, and it took off.
“I wasn’t expecting none of them to go crazy,” Miles told ESPN. So once they did, people were suggesting, ‘Hey, do this song,’ and if I thought it would [sound] all right, I’d do it right then and there and post it. Like, it takes seconds.”
Miles had the most success with his Plies featuring T-Pain “Shawty” remix, which he renamed “Le’Shawty.”
“We know he is the greatest of them all, yeah I’m talking about LeBron James,” Miles sang. That rendition alone has more than 46,000 likes and counting.
After the Lakers’ 104-98 win over the Houston Rockets on March 31, reporters asked James if he was aware of the trend. LeBron acknowledged that he’d heard many of the songs.
“It’s almost impossible [to not see them]. My younger son, Bryce, actually showed me one … we got a good laugh out of it. There’s quite a few out there,” James said after his 16-point performance.
Miles wondered if one of his “LeMixes” was among the bunch James had seen, but he wasn’t overthinking it.
“If he’s seen it, he’s seen it, but I more so like the interaction with other people and being able to connect and just enjoy the trend,” Miles said. “The fact that it ended up getting to him is cool. That’s good for anybody who was on the trend.”
JAMES WASN’T THE only NBA superstar to get a TikTok song, though.
Days after Jordan released “Reigning in LA,” TikTok user Trynden released an original 40-second R&B song about Stephen Curry.
At the time, no other LeBron James songs were going viral. Trynden didn’t want to copy Jordan’s idea, but he told ESPN that he had a gut feeling that if he did a Curry song, it would go viral.
“I just did it for fun and kind of thought it could get big,” Trynden said.
The lyrics to the song went: “Oh Stephen Curry, oh No. 30; when he shoots the ball, he’s gonna turn around; don’t gotta see. It’s going in, all you hear is green.”
“I was really happy when it went viral, and it was just kind of surreal. I thought it could happen, but when it really did, I was kind of taken aback,” he said.
Trynden doesn’t plan to do any additional Curry songs in the future. But as for Miles and Jordan, they said they’ll continue to create songs as long as James is in the league and pursuing his fifth NBA title.
