Pittsburgh Steelers star running back Le'Veon Bell called up Billboard on his day off several days after releasing his Until the Post Interview EP. Spitting under the rap name Juice, a nickname given by Coach Mike Tomlin during his second year in the NFL, Bell says music has long been a part of his DNA.
"When I was younger, my friends and I were 12, 13 years old and we would always make beats with our pencils on our desktops in our class and we used to freestyle all the time. That was really where the motivation came from," the Ohio native recalled. He also revealed that the first freestyle that he had recorded on a phone with his friend was called "Eat a Booger" (sample line: "I went to school, had to take a test so I pulled out a booger"). He added, "I recorded my first song when I was 13, 14 years old and I've been running with it ever since."
The Michigan State alum -- whose 1,361 rushing yards were the second-most in the NFL last year -- says he listens to all kinds of music and that pursuing a rap career was a childhood dream as much as making it to the league. "I didn't want to limit myself to one thing," says Bell, who even dreamt of being in the NBA.