Basketball player turned rapper/producer J. Cole shows his versatility when ESPN commissions him to update the theme for their signature baseball show.

Aside from Hip Hop, most people automatically associate J. Cole with basketball due to his time spent actually playing the game along with the recent placement of his “I’m On It” track in a Powerade commercial for NBA MVP Derrick Rose. As the NBA postseason nears its end and Major League Baseball begins to take the sporting spotlight for the summer, ESPN commissioned Cole to revamp the theme song for their flagship baseball highlight show, “Baseball Tonight.”

“I had the honor and the privilege of remaking the legendary theme song…it’s a classic,” J. Cole revealed in an ESPN video. “The old one was more like Mozart. This is more like Lil Jon.”

Roc Nation’s upstart emcee and boardsmith brought things closer to his native North Carolina courtesy of some double-time drums. The sound mirrors something you might hear from a college marching band as opposed to the traditional seventh-inning stretch music. But, aside from being a great promotional tool for his upcoming album, the theme song may help Cole accomplish his goal of getting more recognition for his production talents.

“I’m not a good self-promoter so I don’t go around saying, ‘Hey rapper-producer J. Cole,’ he revealed in a previous interview with HipHopDX. “As soon as I’m done with the album, that’s my main priority; producing for other people, and finding an artist, and developing an artist, and producing a whole album, because I feel like that’s how you really get your sound.”