It as announced prior to the 2020 All Star Game that Damian Lillard known by his music name Dame D.O.L.L.A will perform at the NBA All Star weekend. Damian Lillard is probably best known for his basketball and his buzzer beater in the playoffs against Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2018-19 season. So what is Diamian Lillards Music?
What is Damian Lillards Music? Damian Lillard uses the alias Dame D.O.L.L.A to release hip hop music. In 2015 Dame D.O.L.L.A released his first single on Soundcloud called Soldier in the Game. Since then D.O.L.L.A has released three albums.
However, there is more to Damian Lillards hip hop career then three albums and is he the best basketball rapper around? Well according to Shaq, no he is not, within this article we look at Lilards music and the hip hop beef between him and Shaq.
When did Damian Lillard start Rapping?
Damiain Lilard started raping when he was a child, this was so he could hang out with his cousins. It is apparent that hip hop is a passion to Lillard and he has developed his passion over the years. Lillard started showcasing his talents on Instagram. A single was released on Soundcloud and then three studio albums were released.
Lillard stated that ‘I love doing music, I have always done it. I was doing music when I was in middle school. It’s not something that I am randomly doing or I just learnt to do or that it is some little random hobby on the side. I have always done music. When I was at college I done a bunch of mixtapes. but I understand that basketball comes first. Lillard also stated that his high school basketball team did a track dissing all the teams in their league and that he and his team used to warm up to it. The other high school teams were unaware that Lillards team were mocking them in the warm up.
What has Damina Lillard Recorded?
The Letter O
Damian Lillard released his first single Soldier in the Game in 2015. In 2016 Lillard released his first album The Letter O. The Letter O is significant in the life of Lillard as he grew up in Oakland, went to university in Odgen and is now Oregon and wears the number 0 for the Trial Blazers.
Confirmed
The second album of Damian Lillard was released in 2017. There were a number of collobrations on the album including Lil Wayne, and 2Chainz.
Big D.O.L.L.A
Dame D.O.L.L.A third album came out in August 2019. Again Lil Wayne featured again on the album.
What is Four Bar Friday?
Lillard started Four Bar Friday on on Instagram in the 2013-14 season. Whereby Lillard challenged his Instagram followers and other NBA players to spit four bars once a week and see who is the best. Since then there have been a huge number of followers take part in Four Bar Friday but also a number of NBA starts have taken part such as Paul George, Draymond Green and LeBron James. Obviously, Lillard is probably the best freestyler out of all the NBA players. Below is an example of his freestyle.
Damian Lillard And Shaq Beef
Damian Lillard and Shaq had rap beef in the summer of 2019, as Lillard said that Shaq was a pioneer for athletes becoming music artists. However, Lillard also went on to say that he was a better rap artist than Shaq. This started a war of words and accumulated in Shaq launching a diss track towards Lillard. Lillard responded to the track in less than 24hrs. Lillard managed to get his diss track recorded just before the start of the 2019-20 season. During the season Lillard doesn’t record, as he focuses solely on his basketball.
Lillard said that there was no beef between the two, it was just a diss track and that relationship remains unaffected. Although Lillard classed Shaq’s diss track is old school.
Damian Lillard Performs at NBA All Star Weekend 2020
Lillard was injured for the NBA All Star weekend and was unable to participate. Therefore, the NBA asked Lillard to perform at the NBA All Star Game. Lillard performed as his persona Dame D.O.L.L.A and rapped on tracks with Lil Wayne.
Footlocker Advert – Dame 6
Lillard has a basketball shoe contract with Adidas, unlike the majority of NBA players who have a basketball shoe contract with Nike. Footlocker promoted Lillards new shoe, the Dame 6, by having Lillard and Pusha T rap on the advert. Check it out below.