LaVar Ball’s only rival might be the late Joe Jackson.
LiAngelo Ball #18 of the Charlotte Hornets stands on the court in the fourth quarter during a preseason game at Spectrum Center on Oct. 5, 2022 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Eakin Howard/Getty Images
This song is everywhere.
Last night (Jan. 7), the Inside the NBA TNT crew played “Tweaker” throughout various breaks and highlights. South Carolina Women’s Basketball head coach Dawn Staley liked the song enough to record herself listening to it during practice and posted it on her Instagram. Multiple professional locker rooms celebrated wins as “Tweaker” in the background, like the Detroit Lions after beating the Vikings for the division and the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. The song has even been referenced on the news in West Virginia.
Since that clip of LiAngelo Ball aka G3 aka Gelo played the song in his car for popular streamer n3on, the song has truly taken on a life of its own. Some hate the track and think it’s mid, while others are having fun with the novelty of it all. Either way, he’s winning — because he’ll be performing at Rolling Loud California later this year and the song is doing numbers on Spotify and YouTube, with over four million plays and counting on both platforms. After years of trying to make it and stay in the NBA, the middle Ball brother may have finally found his true calling.
“Tweaker” is resonating with folks because it sounds like the music they grew up on, and it has a catchy hook. There’s also the novelty factor: People are going to have fun with a song made by someone out of the Ball family. We’ve missed the family’s patriarch LaVar’s antics, and his son coming out with a banger is going to get some attention. Whether you’re a fan of the song or not, you really can’t get too mad at those that are choosing to have some fun with it.
Social media loves the song — especially users on X — so we compiled a list of some of the funnier memes we’ve come across this past week or so.
Check out our picks below.
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Madden Music
Imagine loading up Madden 2004 into your PS2 and this banger comes on? I’ll be ready to run through a wall and do my Ray Lewis dance.
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LeBron James, Certified Tweaker
Some kids will never understand the time and effort it took to listen to music before streaming came along. You either had to purchase a song or album from a real life store or from the digital iTunes store. Then you had to burn it onto a CD and label it properly, so you could listen to it in your car or on a Discman like LeBron is doing in the video below.
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“Tweaker” Sounds Like a Fresh Pack of White Tees
Honestly, “Tweaker” feels more like late ’90s/early ’00s Big Tymers than it does mid ’00s Atlanta Snap era, but we’re going to allow it due to semantics.
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The Wire, “Hamsterdam” (S3, E4)
The original version features the guys in the car mean muggin’ Cutty as Ludacris’ “Splash Waterfalls” plays. I think “Tweaker” fits better in that situation.
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The Regular Show, “Slam Dunk” (S3, E6)
R.I.P. Basketball King Carl Weathers. May he swerve and bend corners on that big basketball court in the sky.
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Brian Pumper Dancing, Part 1
B. Pumper has gone the way of the burned CD and it’s also where most of his work lives.
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Brian Pumper Dancing, Part 2
If you say Brian Pumper’s name three times, he appears and dances just like this.
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A Nice Coogi Will Never Go Out of Style
I have some on my eBay watchlist. I might finally pull the trigger.
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*Flex Bomb*
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Midnight Club Menu Music
Ah, s—t, here we go again. *fires up the PS2*
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NBA Ballers Menu Music
Starbury doing And1 tricks with his iced-out chain swinging around is what nostalgia is all about. I never owned this game, but I wish I did now.
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WWE Entrance Music
Cryme Tyme is such a ridiculous concept, but the song fits them well. The 2000s were a different era. Now go throw on “Tweaker” and hit your little cousin with a G9.
