Rick Ross – “Season Ticket Holder” (Feat. Dwyane Wade, Raphael Saadiq, & Udonis Haslem)

Some basketball stars, like Shaquille O’Neal, attempt to launch rap-music side-hustles just as their NBA careers are taking f. But Shaq’s former Miami Heat teammate Dwyane Wade has apparently decided to wait until two years after his retirement to attempt rapping. Wade spits a 16 on “Season Ticket Holder,” the new single from Miami rap don Rick Ross. Other than a couple Instagram videos, it’s Wade’s first attempt at rapping in public. It’s not great!

“Season Ticket Holder” is a luxurious slow-roll song with a hook from R&B great Raphael Saadiq, but it seems to mostly exist as an excuse for Ross to rap on a song with one his hometown’s sports heroes. Wade’s verse on the song is mesmerizingly earnest and clunky: “Ballin’s my passion/ Check my stats if they asking/ Shawty checkin’ my page, she follow my fashion.” On the song’s outro, he and his old teammate Udonis Haslem reminisce about past triumphts. Wade was a great player, and he seems like a genuinely good person, so it’s nice to hear him have fun. It does not, however, succeed as music.

There’s a video for “Season Ticket Holder,” but it’s nothing much. Mostly, it’s black-and-white footage Wade, Ross, and Haslem hanging out in the studio and ambling around Miami. There’s also a DJ Khaled cameo that you could see coming a mile away. The only real memorable part is when Wade, Haslem, Ross, and Khaled pour champagne on a Larry O’Brien trophy. Watch it below.

“Season Ticket Holder” is out now on the streaming services.