LiAngelo Ball’s ‘Tweaker’ Performance Spark Social Media Debate

LiAngelo Ball silenced, and emboldened, many of his critics with his performance at the 2025 NBA All-Star game over the weekend.

The middle child of the three “Ball Brothers” (LaMelo, himself, and Lonzo) LiAngelo had been a beast on the high school and college basketball courts.

However, he had never been one to hit the main stage of the NBA court, much to the chagrin of his father. But that changed when he still hit the court, in a different way, by performing his recently released rap hit Tweaker during the live half-time show.

The performance started with Liangelo’s (who’s rap persona is known as Gelo – a shortening of his name) brother Lonzo Ball, introducing him. There was a slight tear in Lonzo’s eye as he introduced his younger sibling to the stage. LiAngelo had played professionally overseas after dropping out of the NBA training camp in his senior year of college.

Unfortunately he had taken too many injuries, and returned to America for rehabilitation.  But never dismayed at a set-back, the brothers showed love and respect to each other, as LiAngelo took the court with a posse of beautiful dancers to back his performance.

The song itself is an explative filled track, with a bassy background beat. The song was also a family affair, having writing credits from Lonzo Ball as well. Ball’s performance has been both lauded and criticized by many. 

A social media user on X (fkaTwitter) said: ”Gelo’s on FIRE! He’s proving himself to be a talented artist in his own right, beyond just being Lonzo and Lamelo’s brother.” 

But not all the messages were positive. On Reddit, when discussing the song Tweaker, another internet user said: I find it offensive. “It’s a rich, privileged, LA suburban kid cosplaying as a brother from Baton Rouge… I don’t think anything is impressive here outside of some memeable quotes.”

Some users were able to see the silver lining in all of it. A different X user said, “Lavar finally got three sons to All-Star Weekend,” referencing the trio’s father who used to play college basketball alongside his wife and mother to the three superstars.

Lavar Ball himself is a controversial figure. He angered many Warriors fans by stating that his oldest son, Lonzo, was a better player than the four-time NBA champion Steph Curry. He has also been banned from ESPN after making inappropriate comments about ESPN host Molly Qerim. This is not shocking, as many basketball players have had controversies related to their families.

Tweaker has gained Gelo a few an in on the hip-hop music industry, having been remixed and getting a feature by Lil Wayne, earning him a record deal under Def Jam and Universal Music Group (UMG) and 57 million streams on Spotify.