The Portland Trail Blazers superstar Damian Lillard doesn’t just blaze trails in basketball. The multifaceted hoopster who can shoot from anywhere — no shot too deep for Dame, truly — is also an accomplished hip hop artist. That’s right — not an NBA star merely parlaying his fame into a couple of uninspired turns at the mic, but a legit artist bring his Dame A-Game to the studio just like he brings it to the hardwood. But he’s not just Dame on mic, he’s Dame D.O.L.L.A. — and he’s money, no doubt.
The Sway’s Universe (warning: explicit, very explicit) YouTube featuring Lillard — and called “Damian Lillard Is The Best Rapper In The NBA! Here’s The Proof!” — has been viewed more than 9 million times. How about this line? “”I swear to God it gets realer, a city full of killas, addicts walkin’ round looking like the zombies off of thriller.”
For Dame basketball is never far from mind. Take his 2016 full-length debut LP The Letter O — that’s his number, zero, which shouts out Oregon and Oakland, where he grew up. The first cut off that record is called, believe it or not, “Bill Walton“. That’s the name of the Trail Blazers legendary center who took them to their last title four decades ago.
Consider this blazing Dame flow, from the video below:
My mission took me to college where I picked up the knowledge
And tried to stay away from violence since I escaped the virus
Divided my folks from tyrants, but I rised from that environment
In my life it was perfect timing, and my drive blew me up, atomic
I’m sick of these suckers all in my bubble, though
Critiquing me on stuff I had to struggle for
This dream done been a long time coming
And my clock was Forrest Gump—it spent a long time running
Lillard will be reppin’ Portland in the NBA Western Conference Finals and trying to blaze their trail to the NBA Finals for the first time since Clyde Drexler led the charge in 1992. (Drexler’s Blazers lost to Michael Jordan’s Bulls.) His flow will be true, no doubt.
