She’s a hip-hop artist. She calls basketball games at North High. And she works with community youth, mostly in north Minneapolis.
Now northside native Brynne Crockett, known by her stage name Bdot, has added in-arena host for the Minnesota Lynx home games to her resume.
At the recent Kids Day matchup against the Phoenix Mercury, the fans — mostly the kids — were roaring inside the center. The special day is known as one of the loudest games of the season, she said.
“It sounds like Mall of America Nickelodeon Universe,” said Bdot, 35.
Her job entailed cheering on the crowd, playing game-show host and throwing team T-shirts into the crowd.
On days the Lynx win, like the team did on Kids Day, she also interviews one player. Bdot spoke with guard Courtney Williams and asked, “So what do you want to say to the best fans in the W?”
Williams answered, “Man, shout out to y’all, man, we love y’all, let’s keep it gooooiiiiinnng.”
The loudest day became louder with a crescendo of cheers.
After the game, Bdot signed autographs and posed for pictures with fans. Mostly kids.
“It’s amazing … young people are my biggest inspiration,” she said.
It makes sense since her degree is in youth studies and communication, a double major she designed at the University of Minnesota.
“The kids are excited to see me and inspired by me, you know? And that always inspires me more, because that's the goal is for them to see themselves when they see me,” Bdot said. “Full circle.”
Crockett said her experiences helped her land a job with a team she’s been a fan of for years. She said she’s especially fond of the days when Maya Moore and Seimone Augustus were playing.
Students who’ve seen her call games at North High and have gone on to graduate this year have told her she inspires them, Bdot said. Her path shows kids that there is more than one way to the top, she said.
“I know some young girls wanted to play in the WNBA. And maybe they feel like if they don’t make it there, they’re like, ‘Oh, well, if I don’t make it in the WNBA, I could still work for the WNBA in a certain way,’" she said.
As a hip-hop artist, Bdot found an early mentor in her uncle Kelly Crocket, a.k.a. rapper Kel-C. He performed locally with the I.R.M. Crew.
She said over the holidays, he taught her and her cousins the basics of rapping. She was eight.
“We all just kind of used to rap in the basement … mimic him. He would rap with us,” Bdot said. They would freestyle and improve to eventually find their voice, she added.
Bdot said her uncle saw talent in her.
“My uncle used to always be like, ’You know, the boys are good, but Brynne is the monster. Like, she’s the one they're gonna have to watch out for,’” she said. “My cousins didn’t like that too much.”
On the subject of basements, Bdot and her family moved to Robbinsdale for a few years and later returned to the north Minneapolis. Her mother bought Bernadette Anderson’s home, a place where Prince lived for a time.
Bdot said her mother showed off the basement and told her it would be her room. She added that she planned to put in carpet. But Bdot wasn’t sold on the space.
“Then she added in this emphasis of, like, ‘You don't even know how special this basement is. We used to come down here and see Prince and then practice,’” said Bdot, who adds that she was in high school at the time.
She said she responded: “‘Sure Mom.’ [I] didn’t believe her whatsoever.”
Years later, when Crockett was in her 20s and living on her own, Prince died. She said her mother called her up and asked her to check on the house to make sure it was secured. Her mom suspected some fans would head to the house where Prince once lived.
“And I’m thinking in my head, like, Mom, ain’t nobody — like, you’re making this up,” Bdot said. “But then, sure enough … there were roses all over our steps … all the biggest news outlets were trying to come and interview my mom … or get in the house. That’s when I really believed my mom. Like, ‘Oh OK, you might not have been lying about Prince and them being here.’”
She said she found her voice in that basement and learned how to tell her story.
“Prince, you know, his spirit, or the energy of him and all of his band mates that did so much work and practice down there has something to do with that, for sure,” Bdot said.
Kel-C and Prince weren’t the only people inspiring a young Bdot.
In high school, Bdot was in one of Anna Beal’s science classes at North High. Beal described her former pupil as happy, bubbly and a very good student.
“She just has a really good disposition in life. And think, when you teach high school, you can see that already formed in a student,” Beal said. “Even how Brynne is now is very similar to how I viewed her in high school, which is just very warm, welcoming, kind and interested.”
Beal remembers seeing a music video online of Bdot. She was performing in Beal’s old classroom at North High.
“That was really special to me, that that is where she recorded it. I’d like to think it’s because it brought her good memories and not that it was the only room available to do the video recording,” she recalled. “But I just really loved that.”
Her former teacher said she appreciates that Bdot has stayed in the community, as a mentor and role model. Beal said Brynne Crockett is a “gift to the area.”
