Michigan State Yanks Football Scholarship From Recruit For Being a Potty Mouth Rapper
A promising football star has had his scholarship offer revoked, leaving him plenty of time to pursue his true calling as a rapper.
Jay Harris, a star receiver from the Philadelphia area, signed a letter of intent in February to play football at Michigan State but the Spartans recently revoked his scholarship offer after his explicit rap videos appeared on YouTube.
In the videos, Harris (who raps under the name Jay DatBull) can be heard making a series of profanity-laced and derogatory statements about women and homosexuals. He is also shown twice smoking what appears to be marijuana.
Harris initially said that his commitment to Michigan State had been “halfhearted” and that he made the decision to decommit so he could pursue his dream of a rap career. However, it later came out that Michigan State had actually made the first move to strip Harris' scholarship offer when his videos became known.
Harris’ first single, “DatBull 4 Life” has received almost 750,000 YouTube hits. Harris told a Philadelphia newspaper that his album would be out June 1 and that he would be collaborating with producer M. Stacks, who has worked with such acts as Wiz Khalifa and Mac Miller, on future projects this summer. A spokesperson for Stacks denied that the two have been in contact but, with the viral success of Harris’ video, he wouldn’t rule out reaching out to the would-be rap star.
Harris is not the first promising player to see a rap video derail a football career—in 2008, Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops kicked receiver Josh Jarboe off the team after an obscenity-laden video of the receiver rapping about shooting people surfaced. After being booted from the Sooners, Jarboe bounced around, playing briefly for Troy and Northeast Mississippi Community College before playing the last two years at Arkansas State. He was not taken in last month's NFL draft, but was invited to try out during the Washington Redskins’ upcoming mini-camp.