Kobe Bryant -- the Los Angeles Lakers' star player and a one-time failed rapper -- has returned to hip-hop in a pretty odd way. Bryant has surfaced randomly as the hype man in a Chinese rap video.

The clip, for a song by a Chinese MC and pop singer named Jay Chou, seems to be the equivalent of when American celebrities venture overseas to produce commercials that are never meant to surface in the States.

"You know how to b-ball Jay Chou?" Bryant asks at the beginning of the video as a bouncy, Eastern-sounding techno beat kicks-in and leads the artist into some wild synchronized dances.

Kobe doesn't do much from that point on. He asks Chou if he wants to play basketball or sing first, and Chou chooses to sing. He then tells Chou that he's "got spark." Bizarre? Indeed.

Oddly, this is the second year in a row that Kobe Bryant has participated in a strange project unrelated to basketball before the the playoffs. Last year, rather than going overseas, he stayed local and did an all-white photo shoot for the Los Angeles Times Magazine that was significantly mocked by pretty much everyone with an Internet connection.



Watch Kobe Bryant in Jay Chou's Hip-Hop Video

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