CM Punk Reveals Behind-The-Scenes Work Behind His “Punkanomics” Rap

Top WWE star CM Punk discussed various topics with Comic Book Nation, including the significant effort and research put into his John Cena-style rap, “Punkanomics.”

Punk said, “It was a lot of research. I watched a lot of John’s delivery. His cadence and how he talks. A good friend of mine by the name of Jensen Karp, who is, to me, a battle rap master. That is what he does. It’s his lane. I definitely leaned on him. ‘This is what we’re doing.’ I could do this myself, but it was really his wheelhouse, so I kind of handed the ball to him. He helped me greatly, along with another friend of ours, Rone. The genesis of the idea was, everybody is expecting this pipebomb 2 from me. I’m not into delivering sequels to stuff that don’t need sequels. For 14 years people have been chasing this moment and trying to replicate it, duplicate it, talk like me, sit like me. I’m not so much into doing the same thing. I couldn’t have even followed myself. How is that for a supremely egotistical comment? Everyone is expecting me to zig, so I zag. That was the idea with it. Really, just having fun. That entire week was pretty emotional for me, being the last time I was going to get to share a ring with John Cena. I wanted to make it special and memorable. I find that when I challenge myself and put myself outside my comfort zone, that’s when the best stuff happens. People are going to remember that, whether it’s because of the delivery, the content, the way I was dressed, the atmosphere. I think it was a hell of a moment.”

You can check out Punk’s comments in the video below.

(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)