‘Grove Street Party’ rapper Waka Flocka Flame attending Kentucky-Florida game
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Game day: Kentucky 20, Florida 13
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday night’s Kentucky-Florida football game at Kroger Field in Lexington, Ky.
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There’s a party at Kroger Field on Saturday, and a special guest is in attendance.
Waka Flocka Flame, the rapper who sings “Grove Street Party,” which has been an unofficial anthem for the UK football team since a 2014 home game against South Carolina, was in attendance for the Wildcats’ home game against Florida on Saturday.
The song was played prior to UK entering the stadium, with Waka Flocka Flame acting as a hype man for the crowd as he helped usher in UK’s players.
Waka Flocka Flame, whose given name is Juaquin James Malphurs, a few hours before kickoff was spotted on the field with head coach Mark Stoops and other UK football staff.
With Kentucky leading 24-17 in the third quarter of an eventual 45-38 victory, “Grove Street Party” played over the loudspeakers as UK prepared to kick off. The Wildcats’ kickoff team danced along on the field, prompting an audible response from the crowd. That was UK’s first victory over a Southeastern Conference school under Mark Stoops, and the song seven years later remains a fixture at games.
“Grove Street Party” was released in February 2011 and features rapper Kebo Gotti. It was the fourth single of Waka Flocka Flame’s career and reached as high as No. 74 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 2011.
Waka Flocka Flame hasn’t released an official studio album since 2012 but released his most recent mixtape, “Salute Me or Shoot Me 7,” in April of last year.
The rapper made headlines over the summer after a series of Instagram posts announcing his foray into agriculture.
This story was originally published October 2, 2021 at 4:57 PM.
