LeIbrahim Muhammad, LeBoul James, and the art of giving very Philly nicknames to LeBron James

We know who King LeBron James is. But LeBoul James? He’s one of us.

Mere hours after James announced he was signing with the Sixers, Philadelphia fans started honoring him with public artwork, billboards, merch, sunburned backs, and his own state-designated day.

But among fans’ biggest gestures of goodwill is trying to find James a Philly-coded nickname.

“I like LeJawn. It’s so Philly,” said Saleem Lewis, owner of clothing label What Happened to Love and a Frankford native.

Lewis said the rush to give James a local nickname reflects the NBA superstar’s natural kinship with Philadelphians.

“If you’re not from here, you might not get it. But the jokes are all out of love,” he said.

“I like the one I came up with, ‘Abdul Maalik James,’” said social media creator Jamaal Thomas, who created an AI image of James wearing a thobe and kufi.

Another moniker doing the rounds on social media is “LeIbrahim Muhammad.”

The root of the nicknames and ensuing AI-generated memes is a fusion of hip-hop and Muslim cultures. These two elements are deeply embedded in the fabric of the city’s Black community, as evidenced by the influence of rappers like Freeway, Beanie Sigel, and PnB Rock, who “weaved the imagery, religious symbology, and practice of Islam into their lyrics,” said James Peterson, professor of literature at Delaware State University and host of Evening WURDs.

Within this meme and nickname multiverse, Philly slang like jawn and boul — both with roots in the city’s African American Vernacular English — coexists with Black Muslim content creators throwing in names like Ibrahim and Abdul. The result is a high form of welcome extended to the King of the Hardwood from the City of Brotherly Love.

“This is part of the reason the memes resonate with Philadelphians because whether you’re Muslim or not, the culture of Philadelphia is Islamic,” Peterson added. “You can’t go through places like Malcolm X Park or other areas of Philly without seeing the accouterments of the Islamic faith all around us. It’s not just the mosques; it’s the brothers and the sisters in the streets. It’s in the air in Philadelphia.”

Also, as Lewis points out, “Philly embraces people who work, compete, and don’t back down. LeBron has been doing that for over 20 years.”

For West Philly native Max Johnson Dugan, a visiting professor of Islam at Trinity University, the memes highlighting Philly’s Black Muslim culture through James, who is a Christian, are a “brilliant” balance of humor and “self-seriousness.”

“I’ve prayed next to people, packed food boxes, and volunteered at parks, or been in dialogue with folks who are dressed like those memes,” he said. “To me, it’s a beautiful thing that people can chuckle about this and live in a way that’s serious and significant to them.”

Dugan said James’ beard may be familiar to Philly’s Black Muslims because it resembles a style many followers believe was donned and ordained by the Prophet Muhammad. It’s commonly known as a “Sunni” or “Sunnah beard” in Philly, and those outside of the city call it a “Philly beard.” Dugan said it’s possible content creators saw the similarity between James’ beard and others by practicing Muslims, and “put two and two together.”

The memes may be fabricated, Peterson said, but have a “kernel of truth,” that James is coming into a “Black Islamic world.” The doctored images of James in a kufi and thobe, shared by the likes of educator, author, and media personality Marc Lamont Hill and hip-hop artist D Sturdy, acknowledge James as a Philly guy, one of us, even before he steps foot in the city.

“LeBron coming to Philadelphia means that all of Philadelphia embraces him. And that also means one of the largest Black Muslim populations [in the U.S.] and one of the most distinct Black Muslim cultures is embracing him, too,” said Peterson.

For Dugan, the memes are interesting in the way newly-traded star Jaylen Brown, who is Muslim and has traveled to Mecca to perform Umrah, hasn’t been welcomed with similar nicknames or memes in the same breath as James.

“I don’t want to speculate,” Dugan said, “I would say it points to [James’] visibility and significance. It’s funnier to share a meme of [James in Muslim traditional wear] than it is to share a meme of [Brown].”

“It has irony and tongue and cheek-ness,” he said.

North Philly-native Salim Weldon, co-owner of Whimsicle fruit pops, is confident James will live up to the name of “LeBoul,” another nickname that has appeared under scores of AI-generated social media posts.

Some show James ordering at a Wawa, some have him astride dirt bikes and four-wheelers, and some show him standing outside of “papi stores” — a friendly term used by Black Philadelphians for corner stores often operated by Latin American men.

The Philly word boul meaning boy, is a word James is already familiar with, thanks to his friend and North Philly-native Kevin Hart. The Sixer even said it in a recent Instagram post with the actor, who was giving his friend a crash course in Philly-isms while the two were golfing.

“We’re going to help [James] with a Philly barber to make sure that he keeps his beard a certain way,” Weldon joked. “And as you can see, he and Kevin Hart are close, so he will help him get that Philly swag.”

Quincy Harris, a Germantown-raised media personality and former host of The Q on Fox 29, said the early reactions are because of the championship dreams James helps Philadelphians imagine.

“He’s a top five player to ever play the game of basketball,” he said. For him, the energy James sparked is reminiscent of the Allen Iverson era in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Peterson doesn’t quite agree. For him, Iverson remains the “archetype of a Philadelphia athlete.” Plus, can LeBron James truly ever be LeBoul, if he doesn’t live in the Philadelphia region?

“Philadelphia fans want to hold you close. They want to see you walking around and moving around in the community,” he said, while acknowledging that James’ signing has brought a new level of excitement to Philadelphia.

“I think that energy is just going to be injected back into the city. It’s going to be a great time,” Harris said, adding that he won’t “cosign” the trending nicknames.

But there’s one he thinks will resonate with Philadelphians the most.

“Five-time NBA champion.”