The NBA is preparing to put on a show for the 68th installment of the All-Star Game, and not just because fans will get to see some of the best basketball players on earth team up.
After the announcement that North Carolina native J. Cole will headline the 2019 NBA All-Star Game halftime show, the league revealed another major hip-hop star will take part in the festivities on Sunday, Feb. 17. Meek Mill will now open up the night with both a performance and the introduction of the starters for Team LeBron and Team Giannis.
Charlotte native Anthony Hamilton will follow Meek with a performance of the United States national anthem, while Carly Rae Jepsen has been announced as the singer of the Canadian national anthem.
Meek Mill to open #NBAAllStar 2019! @MeekMill will take the stage for an exciting opening and entertaining introduction of the 2019 #NBAAllStar teams (Sunday 2/17 @NBAonTNT)! pic.twitter.com/SlaAaqibH1
— #NBAAllStar (@NBAAllStar) January 30, 2019
Meek Mill is having himself quite the year. Meek dropped Championships, his fourth studio album, in early November. It debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, earning 229,000 equivalent album units. He even squashed his infamous beef with Drake, featuring the Canadian rapper on “Going Bad.”
Now, the Philadelphia rapper will kick off the 2019 NBA All-Star Game before embarking on a 16-city tour starting Feb. 19. As for the anthem performers, both have big 2019s in store — both Hamilton and Jepsen are slated to drop new records sometime in the coming year.