

He'll get you that shit that Gretzky skate on...

Compared to basketball, football, and baseball (and golf...and soccer...and NASCAR), ice hockey doesn't get that much love in rap lyrics—you know: it's cold, there's crazy white people with masks and sticks, etc. etc. (word to Nat X). That's why it always catches our attention when an MC drops a hockey reference in a verse. Most recently, it was the homie Mibbs from Pac Div (on "Knuckleheadz" from the group's new Complex-co-signed mixtape) who got icey with it: "It get colder than a polar, or Ovechkin with the puck."

The Ovie reference got us thinking about our favorite hip-hop hockey moments of the past. (Ed. note: Sorry Kardi, Saukrates, Maestro Fresh Wes, et. al.—we excluded all Canadian rappers. Y'all supposed to be talking about hockey!) So then, get your puck on and enjoy rap's greatest lyrical nods to hockey. Skate, skate, skate, skate!

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"I skate on your crew, like Mario Lemieux"

Phife from A Tribe Called Quest's "Keep It Rollin'"

COMPLEX SAYS: ...and take out your knees, dun, like Ulf Samuelsson.

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"I think they mad we from the turf and we dangerous/And my whole team on ice, we play rough like the Rangers"

Jim Jones, "Bright Lights, Big City"

COMPLEX SAYS: Uh, that means you suck though.

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"I stand out like a nigga on a hockey team/I got goals and I can, like a pop machine"

— Common, "Watermelon"

COMPLEX SAYS: Punchline Com >>>> Acting Com.

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"I do it for the Capital, Wale Ovechkin... More or less Lindros/Flyer than the rest of them... sideways talk'll make your neck like Zednick"

Wale, "Back in the Go-Go"

COMPLEX SAYS: Somebody's been playing a little too much NHL on the Xbox.

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"Ayo, crash through, break the glass, Tony with the goalie mask"

Ghostface, "One"

COMPLEX SAYS: Not really a great hockey quote, but Ghost in a goalie mask? We couldn't resist.

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"My style starts more fights than hockey/I Wayne Gretzky, on any MC"

Erick Sermon, "Freestyle" from Funkmaster Flex The Mixtape Volume 1

COMPLEX SAYS: Just avoid him in the locker room, yeah?

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"Put a motherfucker on ice like the Maple Leafs/That's a hockey team but I ain't on no hockey team/But I'm a champion, where's the fucking Rocky theme?"

Lil Wayne, "Upgrade" freestyle

COMPLEX SAYS: Word to Romany Malco.

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"I'm skating on blades like Sidney Crosby (that's hot)"

Lil Wayne, from Busta Rhymes' "Throw It Up"

COMPLEX SAYS: And they both grow facial hair that looks like prepubescent pubes!

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"Rap's Wayne Gretzky, yes I'm the best and/Only 22, more like Alex Ovechkin"

Asher Roth, "A Milli" freestyle

COMPLEX SAYS: But Ovie's got MVP trophies, son! What you got???

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"They tried to put two 9's on me, just like Gretzky"

Fabolous, "Ghetto"

COMPLEX SAYS: Pause?

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"And I done slipped more shots in then Gretzky's stick"

Fabolous, "Sickalicious"

COMPLEX SAYS: Pause?

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"I'll get you that shit that Gretzky skate on"

Cam'ron, "Horse & Carriage"

COMPLEX SAYS: "What you mean 'Gretzky' be on?" "Ice. Hockey." "Oh you gonna buy me diamonds?" "Bitch, shut the fuck up!"

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"And if rap was hockey, I be Gretzky, puffing nestle"

Styles from DMX's "Niggaz Done Started Somethin'"

COMPLEX SAYS: The mental image of The Great One toasting an L = priceless.

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"I bring flows more rare than black hockey cats/I never got checked due to lack of respect"

Evidence from from Dilated Peoples' "The Platform" (remix)

COMPLEX SAYS: There are more "black hockey cats" than "dope white rappers" homie.

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BONUS HOCKEY VIDEO! "React," Onyx feat. 50 Cent

