New 'Baller Vol' Woolridge as skilled behind mic as on court

His big break involved peanut butter.

Skippy peanut butter, to be exact.

Renaldo 'The Answer aka Swiperboy' Woolridge and his music will be on display on Rocky Top this season. (Provided to CBSSports.com)

"My aunt, who is in the industry, talked to this guy who needed a kid to rap for a commercial for Skippy Squeeze Stix," recalled Renaldo Woolridge. "So I went in for an audition. And after my first one, they just picked me. There wasn't even any callbacks. They just picked me, and I did a couple of commercials for peanut butter. And after that I just kind of fell in love with it."

Rapping, that is.

Not the Squeeze Stix.

And so it is with that background that a young man arrived at the University of Tennessee via Los Angeles. To some, he is Renaldo Woolridge. To most, he is Orlando Woolridge's son. But to his friends, he is The Answer aka Swiperboy -- a West Coast rapper in east Tennessee who also happens to be a Volunteers basketball player.

Or a Baller Vol, if you will.

That's the title of the latest track from Swiperboy. It was recorded in Los Angeles before Woolridge moved to campus, where the consensus top 100 prospect is expected to be a contributor off the bench for the SEC favorites after averaging 19.2 points and 7.9 rebounds for the same Harvard-West Lake School that has produced graduates named Jake Gyllenhaal, Bridget Fonda and Candice Bergen.

Who knows if Woolridge will ever grace the big screen like that trio?

But for now he's certain to own the rights to UT's soon-to-be basketball anthem.

"They actually said they're going to play it before our home games," Woolridge said. "So that's pretty cool."

Now I know what you're thinking -- Oh, great. Another basketball player rapping. The world needs that like it needs to know how Shaq's ass taste. -- and trust me, I understand where you're coming from. As does Woolridge ("Shaq," he acknowledged, "has made it kind of tough on everybody"). But if you don't mind me going all music critic on you for a moment, I feel comfortable writing that the freshman forward is genuinely talented in the craft, not just another clown with a YouTube account. His work -- which can be found by clicking this link -- is professionally produced, recorded in a studio, mixed and everything by a group of friends. In fact, Woolridge dedicated so much of his high school years to what he calls his "hobby" that his mother wasn't always pleased.

"My focus was always on other stuff," said Pat Jackson-Woolridge. "You know, 'Get your paper written. You have a lab report due.' So I'm not going to lie, it has been a little annoying over the years."