Tyrese Haliburton's Dad Shares His Priceless Reaction to Rob49's WTHELLY

In 2025, New Orleans rapper Rob49 dropped a single called “WTHELLY” featuring Chicago’s own G Herbo, which he recorded in one take. The single exploded across social media and would land him courtside at Indiana Pacers games, mainly because of some of the lyrics in the single referencing Pacers two-time All-Star Tyrese Haliburton.

“I knew ‘WTHELLY’ might be big, but I’m not gonna lie, to be a game changer is crazy,” Rob says of the song’s runaway momentum in a 2025 interview with thefader.com. “The only thing I wanted out of ‘WTHELLY’ was to change the culture and make people start saying ‘what the helly’ – but it wind up being bigger than that forreal.”

In an interview with Sportico, Pacers senior vice president of marketing and content Tyler Beadlescomb spoke about Pacers players' love for music and what else pop culture has to offer.

"Our players love music, television and consume things like everyone else," Beadlescomb said in a video interview. "The genuine excitement that came from Tyrese and the team is something that we tried to carry through when we brought this [rollout] to life. … There was nothing about this that was forced. It was something that we all loved."

Per The Fader, Rob49 grew up playing basketball until he suffered an injury, that made him stop playing his junior year in high school.

“I’m kind of glad I stopped playing basketball in 11th grade,” Rob says. “I ain’t wanna be one of them athletes [whose] dreams don’t come true [and] now they just wanna kill themselves.”

Earlier this season, Tyrese Haliburton when asked about his name being drop in a song told reporters, “That’s Fire, shoutout Rob49, that’s fire.”

The song has now turned into a catchphrase, which Haliburton and teammate Pascal Siakam have used in their postgame interviews with Pacer’s media members.

John Hailburton, who is the father of the Pacers All-Star guard, recently weighed in on the subject in an interview with journalist Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson.

“All right, let’s be real—let me throw it at you. That’s my name. That’s my last name. Tyrese has that name because of me. So, to hear my last name in a record because of my son? I thought it was one of the best things that could happen in this world. To be recognized like that forever, because that song will be here forever,” said the elder Haliburton.

“The first time I heard it, Tyrese already knew about it because he was already kicking it. But I hadn’t listened to it yet because his music and my music are usually different—I’m an ’80s and ’90s R&B and hip-hop guy. Tyrese loves the old school too, but he’s new school and loves the beats. I was scrolling through X [formerly Twitter] and saw the song. I went, “What is that?” I replayed it, and I immediately called him: “Tyrese, did you hear this song?” He just laughed and said, “Yeah, Dad.” I was like, “Whoa, okay!” It became even more real when I actually met Rob49 and he was sitting right next to me.

"Very humbly, my chest stuck out. I know where I come from, I know where this began, and I know how it’s going to end, so I am just beyond grateful.”

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