Dwayne Johnson Reveals the Influence Legendary Rapper Tupac Shakur Had Over Him During Pre-‘Electrifying’ Wrestling Era: “I Was a Bad MF”

Dwayne Johnson today is undoubtedly the biggest superstar on planet Earth. His entry music is enough to get fans excited and blow the roof off the arena like it did in Denver for SmackDown. He is so influential that his recent appearance on SmackDown garnered 103 million views on social media in just 3 days.

But back in his early struggling days, Johnson was influenced by a rapper whose genre-defining music continues to break streaming records even today. This rapper’s hit track was the music Johnson walked out to when he started wrestling in Memphis.

Dwayne Johnson’s first-ever entry music was Tupac Shakur’s ‘All Eyez On Me’

Right now, each and every wrestling fan knows the iconic entry track “If you smell what The Rock is cooking”. It’s one song that gives goosebumps to every wrestling fan. For some, it takes them back to the Attitude Era. This legendary track was composed by WWE music producer Jim Johnston in the early 2000s.

Johnston also produced entry tracks for other legendary wrestlers like Mick Foley and Chris Jericho and even the menacing entry music of Vince McMahon “No Chance In Hell”.

But very few people know that prior to The Rock joining the WWE, he made his entrances to a very different song, something that, in a way, predicted Johnson’s Hollywood future. It was also a hard time when Johnson used to click pics with fans for a mere $5 in between the matches.

Back in his early wrestling days, Johnson used to walk out to Tupac Shakur’s “All Eyes On Me”. What the lyrics say is exactly what’s happening right now for Johnson with him being the biggest star in the world. He shared this in a video where he is seen with NFL legend Deion Sanders as “All Eyez On Me” played in the background.

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He said, “note that Tupac track “All Eyes On Me” was my walkout ring music when I first started wrestling in Memphis (pre WWE). I may have been broke as hell, only been making $40 bucks per match, but I was a bad MF walking to the ring 🤣💪🏾”.

The Rock also took some inspiration from Tupac Shakur when he tried his hand at rapping as well.

Dwayne Johnson made his rap debut with Tech N9ne

The Rock is known throughout the wrestling world for his quick wit and wisecracks. So much so that even top comedian Kevin Hart has to be ready for his quick comebacks.

It’s this quick wit and charisma that Johnson used to spit bars on the track “Face Off”. He did a musical collaboration with rapper Tech N9ne on his 23rd studio album “ASIN9NE” just a few months ago.

The music video has already amassed 3.4 million views. But seeing Johnson rap so effortlessly makes you feel why he didn’t take to rapping as a career before. What do you guys think about Dwayne Johnson walking out to ‘All Eyez On Me’ in his early days?

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