John Cena Talks Learning From Vince McMahon, His Love Of Hip-Hop, Getting His Rapper Gimmick In WWE

Source: Ballin’ Out

Recently on Billboard’s Ballin’ Out podcast, WWE’s John Cena appeared on the show. Among other things, ‘The Face That Runs The Place’ discussed his love of hip hop music and culture and how he was able to introduce that aspect of his personality into his professional wrestling character. Cena talked about learning from Vince McMahon everyday. Also, ‘The Champ’ shared his response to people who dismiss professional wrestling as fake.

According to ‘The Leader Of The Cenation’, the first hip hop CDs he bought as a youth were by The Beastie Boys and The Fat Boys. Cena’s love affair with hip hop continues today, as the 15-time world champion admitted that he still listens to the likes of Nas, Wu Tang Clan, Jay-Z, and Drake.

“Beastie Boys’ ‘License To Ill’ [and] Fat Boys’ ‘Crushin” were the first two CDs I got, hip hop CDs I got in 1985, 1986.” Cena continued, “I’ll play ‘Illmatic’ till the tape breaks, the Wu Tang stuff. I love Jay-Z. I just think you listen to his evolution as a human being through his art. The original stuff he was doing till ‘Hard Knock Life’ till like ’30 Something’. Obviously, that song resonates with me a little bit. Kanye West makes great music. Drake is, I think, phenomenal. I think I’m always drawn to like boombapish style hip hop. Like, I can go back to Grand Puba and all those guys.”

On the subject of how he began to incorporate his interest in hip hop culture into his professional wrestling character, the former ‘Prototype’ recalled that WWE brass overheard him freestyle rapping in the back of a tour bus and asked him if he would be interested in rapping on WWE television.

“The people who make decisions on creativity in the WWE overheard me in the back of a tour bus. To pass the time on some of the long rides, when we travel internationally, we travel as a group because they don’t want people spread out all over the country, so we all take these buses. And to pass the time, some guys play cards. Nowadays it’s a lot different. You have entertainment in the palm of your hand. That wasn’t the case at the turn of the century, so we would often, like, freestyle rap on each other and I always kind of did okay, okay enough for them to be like, ‘hey, would you want to do that on television?’. And at the time, I was very undefinable. I looked like every other wrestler in boots and tights. There was no real gravity …

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