Arizona Cardinals and linebacker Mack Wilson Sr. collaborate on rap songs and music video for 2025 schedule release

Behind-the-scenes of the 2025 Arizona Cardinals Schedule Release video on Wednesday, May 7, 2025 in Tempe, AZ.

Rocketship, more commonly known around these parts as Cardinals linebacker Mack Wilson Sr., sat in the middle of the auditorium at the Dignity Health Training Center, teammates flanking him, like he had done dozens of times before for team meetings.

This wasn't a team meeting. One could tell that by most of the lights being off, or the fog machine producing just enough smoke into the small spotlight in the back of the room, or perhaps most importantly the multiple cameras pointing in the players' direction.

This wasn't about a meeting but music, the creation of a video accompanying the rap song "18 Bars," the first time an NFL team has introduced its schedule using Apple Music and Spotify -- or with one of its own player's on the mic, for that matter. The song celebrates the Cardinals' 2025 schedule release, their upcoming season, and in some ways, another step in Wilson's rap career.

Or Rocketship's, if you prefer.

Wilson chuckles that he's even here. Rap has been essentially a hobby, albeit one he loves so much he wants to work at his craft. Over the years, it was basically about freestyling around the house to family, maybe doing the same over a beat among friends.

Last year, Wilson started recording songs with then-teammates Jesse Luketa and Zach Pascal. He was proficient enough that his brother, Orlando Fike – a Detroit-based rapper who goes by Lando Lo – told Wilson he should shoot some videos to go with his songs.

Wilson just shook his head. He told his brother he didn't think he'd ever do that. He just wanted to make some music, drop a few songs, and have something to play in the car as he drove to work.

He finds it funny after spending two days in front of the camera lip-syncing to his newest song.

"Here I was doing the whole deal with the Cardinals," Wilson said. "It was definitely a full circle moment."

For schedule release day, Wilson and the Cardinals dropped not only the song and music video for "18 Bars" but also a second song, "1of1." (And don't look now, but the releases are not over.) The Cardinals brought in an outside team to help shoot and concept the video, they brought in Bighead Music Group – with people that have worked with artists like Kodak Black, Flo Rida and 21 Savage -- to produce and mix the songs as well as co-write the lyrics.

Wilson was in the middle of it, hobby no more. Rocketship had some serious liftoff.

"It's surreal for me," Wilson acknowledged. "It's dope."

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Caitlyn Epes/Arizona Cardinals

For two days last week, Wilson showed up in the morning at the Dignity Health Training Center first to do his football job. There were meetings, weights and conditioning, and some on-field Phase Two work.

Then came time for the music.

From lunchtime deep into the evening, Wilson and the large crew – which also included most of the Cardinals' content team – simultaneously started shooting scenes for the video as well as creating multiple new tracks. Producer Tye Beats – Tye Marcus Gibson – laid down music and co-lyricist Yung Viz – Tylon Freeman – generated a base, while Wilson had already started working on his own lyrics.

Tucked inside a room Emmitt Smith once sat in to give a press conference during his 2003 free-agent visit, a makeshift recording studio was created for Wilson to rap his songs from scratch. When he wasn't in the room making music, he – and some Cardinals teammates – ended up in the auditorium, the practice bubble, the weight room and the locker room filming the video.

By first day's end, an exhausted Wilson went home, ate dinner, showered, and went right to sleep. Wilson's fiancée, Kayla Williams, who had some experience in the music video world, noticed.

"You came home like you were on set or something," she told Wilson.

"It was a long two days for sure," Wilson said. "It was hard work to get it done, but it was work I felt was worth it."

When the Cardinals first reached out to Wilson about the project, he was intrigued. But he also had in his head it might still have a chance to include Luketa and Pascal. Neither player, who were free agents, came back to the roster.

It had been with Luketa and Pascal that Wilson's rap hobby had blossomed. When he signed with the Cardinals, Luketa already had a connection with a local studio, and between the three of them – forming a group called “3rd&Go” – Wilson estimated they recorded some 50 songs last year, often after games or on their off days.

When Wilson stepped in to record "18 Bars" with Tye Beats, Viz and audio engineer Peter Munzo – Manzo, in the business – it was like doing it all again for the first time.

"It felt kind of weird and I was nervous at first," Wilson admitted. "Once I finished the first song, all the jitters were gone and I was feeling like myself."

The pros were impressed.

"I feel like everybody think they can rap deep down inside," Beats said. "But I think Mack is talented. He could probably be good at whatever he wanted to do."

Wilson and Viz connected quickly, vibing to Beats' beats and collaborating on words and flow like they had been working together for years. Wilson said having Viz next to him giving encouragement or even small tweaks to a verse "comforted me."

More than once, the two broke into wide smiles while working, knowing they were synched. Viz, a one-time junior college wide receiver whose NFL dreams had faded long ago, compared their harmony to a quarterback and receiver who know exactly where each need to be to complete the pass.

"Honestly, and I have no cap in my rap, Mack shocked me," Viz said. "The reason why he shocked me is he says he does it for fun, it's a hobby. I'm like, 'Bro, you need to stop, you're a rapper for real.' His ability and his attention to his craft in sports is synonymous because both of us coming from a sports background, we use the same things. Even if it's 'for fun,' we still want to be the best."

Caitlyn Epes/Arizona Cardinals

Players filtered through to fill roles in the video. Michael Wilson, Dante Stills, BJ Ojulari, Isaiah Adams, Greg Dortch, and Paris Johnson Jr. came through the auditorium in the first wave. Marvin Harrison Jr., Zaven Collins, Rabbit Taylor-Demerson and Trishton Jackson came through as a second wave, with Jackson, Owen Pappoe, Vi Jones and Jaden Davis -- providing their athletic skills for cinematically shot football drills out in the bubble or the weight room.

If the players didn't know of "18 Bars" ahead of time, they knew it by the time their 45 minutes or so as video extras were over, the song playing on a loop to get the right shots.

"I liked it," Adams said. "He came through that song. That's a great job highlighting what we're about. It was a banger. That's what we say these days – that was a banger."

Said Dortch, "I've never done anything like that before."

Teammates Zaven Collins (left) and Marvin Harrison Jr. (right) flank Mack Wilson Sr. during the "18 Bars" video shoot.

The ask went to Wilson early about what teammates he might want in the video. He wasn't sure, given that Luketa and Pascal were no longer around. He deferred to the content team, who recruited from there.

"To see the guys who wanted to be a part of it, it was special to me," Wilson said. "It made me feel like they support whatever we are doing as a team and whatever I'm doing too."

The project was special to others. Viz, the one-time JC wideout, once wanted to be a pro football player. He admitted he had a moment in his hotel room on Tuesday night, halfway through his Arizona stay, where the idea that he was working on something for the NFL and with an NFL player hit him so hard tears fell.

"It's a feeling when you grow up with this DNA written in you, coming from the X's and O's, and God has always been my playcaller," Viz said. "His call was for the win on this one. It came in a different way, but it's the same field. A full circle moment.

"I've been talking to my parents non-stop about this. Words can't describe."

At one point during the auditorium shoot, Wilson, with his teammates around him, was asked to stand up and rap to the camera. The director told the other players they were welcome to also get up, but in the end, they left Wilson in the spotlight.

"I'm good," one of them replied from his seat.

Jeremy Chen/Arizona Cardinals

Mack Wilson Sr.'s given first name is Lyndell. So, yes, he's already been working with a nickname his whole life.

But Wilson likes to create a new moniker whenever he goes to a new team. So when he signed with the Cardinals, it was the logo that caught his eye. The birdhead reminded him of the rocket emoji on his phone. He told his brother and some friends his new nickname was Rocketship.

It didn't go over well.

"They were like, 'No one is gonna call you that. We're not calling you that,'" Wilson said with a smile.

By midseason, Wilson said, his teammates and coaches indeed were using the name.

"I thought it was cool," Wilson said. "As far as flowing into the rap side, I thought it was cool to keep it as a rap name as well."

Wilson's feel as a rap artist is just gaining strength. When he first began, he acknowledged he used profanity often, "saying a lot of stuff to make cool music." He has slowly morphed – before the Cardinals project was brought to him – to ease that out of his music.

If someone hears his songs, like "18 Bars" or "1of1" or anything else, he wants to provide himself the greatest opportunity to connect with the largest audience. Besides, with Mack Jr. at home and the rest of his family, Wilson said it makes him more comfortable to play his stuff in front of them.

His lyrics can still be fire regardless.

The Cardinals' upcoming season – and the opponents Wilson raps about in his latest records – remain Wilson's main focus. The always upbeat Wilson loves the improvements the team has made to the roster and the upgrades on defense. He sees it as his duty not only to play well on the field but help bring the locker room together.

He wants these songs to be anthems to the season, to have his teammates vibe on what's to come in 2025.

"I want to be able to hear it at practice and other places," Wilson said, smiling again.

"This is so fun."