Rapper’s anthem inspires KC Royals, blasts during celebrations

The phone rings in Los Angeles, and the voice on the other end already knows why you’re calling. Archie Eversole had been confined to a music studio for the last two days. (“In the studio hard,” he said.)

And for Eversole, a 30-year-old rapper, that meant detaching yourself from the world, emerging only for a few deep breaths.

But then the email arrived , from a reporter asking about this crazy baseball story in Kansas City, so Eversole had to go straight for the Internet, hoping to find a clip. He sifted through video highlights from one of the Kansas City Royals’ three champagne celebrations in the span of 10 days.

There, amidst the din of corks popping and grown men shouting, was his song — his freakin’ song — blasting on repeat in the Royals’ clubhouse. The song, written more than a decade ago, is “We Ready.” And for the last month, the Royals have used Eversole’s only famous track as their clubhouse hype song and postseason mantra.

“We ready … we ready … we ready … for y’all.”

It played when they clinched their first postseason berth in 29 years. It played again after they survived the Oakland A’s in the Wild Card Round and the Los Angeles Angels in the division series.

“That’s when I got the warm and fuzzy feelings, man,” Eversole said. “I seen them all in the clubhouse. I said: ‘Ah, man, that’s so cool.’”

OK. So perhaps we should start at the beginning, with a teenage rapper from Atlanta, looking for a way into the music business in the early 2000s. He had a record deal, but no brand or image. He needed something that would stick.

Eversole said he dabbled in sports growing up, playing football and basketball. (“Never had the hand-eye coordination for baseball.”) He worshipped the local teams, including the 1990s Atlanta Braves, the team of Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz.

During high school pep rallies, his teams would come out to The Steam’s “Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye,” the eternal sports stadium anthem.

“They told me I needed a high-energy record,” Eversole said. “That was the first thing that came to my mind.”

With some help from friends, Eversole sampled the chorus for “We Ready,” and the song became a minor hit in 2002. It really took off, though, at sporting events. College football. High school basketball.

And later, a featured spot on the Madden 2011 video game. The song itself was not too memorable. But the chorus? It was like it was specifically crafted to be blasted out of a stadium loudspeaker during timeouts.

“I already knew it was a possibility it would be big with sports teams,” Eversole said, “but it was never aimed at that.”

How does some minor rap hit from 2002 end up as the Royals’ anthem? The answer lies with left-handed pitcher Danny Duffy, who first heard the song in high school at Lompoc, Calif. The basketball team used to pipe the song in before big games.

“It came to me like a month ago,” Duffy said. “I was like, ‘Dude, we need to get it crunk in here. We need to get it hyped.’”

In the Royals’ clubhouse the music playlists are an informal, yet serious, part of the routine. Players will drag a song onto the list, and some tunes are more inspirational than others. Imagine a basic music meritocracy. Some songs last. Others don’t.

“It (“We Ready”) kind of stuck in our clubhouse,” center fielder Lorenzo Cain said.

Thursday afternoon, one day before the Royals were set to open the American League Championship Series in Baltimore, Eversole was in Los Angeles, listening to stories about the 2014 Royals.

“Word!” he said. “I can’t really explain it enough. It’s the biggest thing ever in my life, because I made it almost 10, 11, 12 years ago; and for it to still hold on to people and for people to still love the record …

“And for it to get people ready to go win a championship, you can’t beat that.”

Moments later, Eversole was convinced. He needs to come to Kansas City. OK, so he knows nothing about the Royals. He admits that.

But when he heard that Royals manager Ned Yost used to work for the Braves and lives in Georgia, Eversole was down.

“Word! Small world,” Eversole said. “Tell my homie I said, ‘What’s up?’

“Seriously, that would not make my day. It would make my month and my year.”

Eversole still creates music, still produces for others and works in the industry. But in the years after “We Ready,” he never found the same formula for success.

“A lot of artists, they come and they go,” he said. “A lot of songs, they come and they go.”

But then there are moments like Friday at Camden Yards in Baltimore. The Royals had just defeated the Orioles 8-6 in 10 innings, taking a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven American League Championship Series. It was nearly 1 a.m. on the East coast, and the doors to the clubhouse finally swung open to the media.

And there it was, his song, playing in the clubhouse again.

“Tell me a promoter in Kansas City right now,” Eversole said. “I want to come, I want to see a game, I want a ticket. I want to help pop champagne.”

This story was originally published October 11, 2014 at 6:39 PM with the headline "Rapper’s anthem inspires KC Royals, blasts during celebrations."