Baltimore Orioles announcer Kevin Brown Credit: MASN
By Sam Neumann on

Kevin Brown is a national treasure and a pop culture icon.

When the Baltimore Orioles play-by-play voice isn’t singing Blink-182 in the booth, he references the rap beef between Kendrick Lamar and Drake. And even if you don’t understand why there’s such hatred between the two rappers or have any clue that it was even happening, you have to appreciate the willingness to tackle such timely references.

Lamar is topping the Spotify and Apple Music charts after dropping “Euphoria,” a more than six-minute diss track that takes aim at Drake, extending their ongoing rap beef. As he waited for Drake to respond, Lamar continued to antagonize the Canadian-born rapper with a May 3 release of “6:16 in LA.”

Drake responded with “Family Matters,” only for Lamar to release “Meet the Grahams” not even 15 minutes later. And on top of that, he continued to bury Drake with a “Not Like Us” track release on May 4. Drake responded on Sunday night with “The Heart Part 6,” but that was well after Brown quipped about Lamar running up the scoreboard.

The Orioles took a 6-0 lead in Cincinnati on Sunday on an Adley Rutschman RBI single in the top of the seventh inning.

“2-2 Rutschman; gets a piece, flairs it over (Elly) De La Cruz, which is basically like hitting a ball over a skyscraper, and Ramón (Urías) scores on the RBI single,” said Brown. “He’s got more hits this week than Kendrick Lamar.”

Ben McDonald knew there was a joke or reference in there somewhere, but it went completely over his head — much like the Blink-182 ordeal in the booth.

“That went over your head just like it did De La Cruz’s,” Brown added.

That it did.

While Rutschman certainly had more opportunities to deliver than Lamar, the rave reviews on social media suggest the rapper’s batting .100. As for Rutschman, he has 11 hits since last Sunday, April 28, and that includes a 3-for-4 performance on Saturday.

The only thing Rutschman and Lamar have in common is that they are both from the West Coast. Yet Brown masterfully found a way to connect them on Sunday’s broadcast.

[Jomboy Media on X]

About Sam Neumann

Since the beginning of 2023, Sam has been a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. A 2021 graduate of Temple University, Sam is a Charlotte native, who currently calls Greenville, South Carolina his home. He also has a love/hate relationship with the New York Mets and Jets.

View all posts by Sam Neumann