Okay guys, let's address it right away and we won't have to talk about it for the rest of our time together. Dame D.O.L.L.A is one of the worst rap names I have heard in a while. It sounds like Damian Lillard put his name into a generic "rap name generator" and never looked back. I just used that generator, you guys can call me S Clip now.
Now on to the album, "The Letter O." When you hear the name Damian Lillard a few things may come to mind. Maybe the first thing you think is Lillard scoring the series-winning game winner against the Houston Rockets in the first round of the 2014 NBA playoffs.
Maybe you think of the last two All-Star games he was snubbed from.
But with the season just a few days away, most of the talk surrounding Damian has little to do with his basketball skills, which he has plenty of, and more to do with his first rap album that dropped Oct. 21.
A little over a year ago, the young NBA star appeared on "Sway in the Morning" and performed a live 1 minute and 20 second freestyle that shook social media. Now we get a chance to hear a completed body of work by the basketball star who goes by the name Dame D.O.L.L.A.
Album review
After the first run through "The Letter O", one name kept running through my head as I listened, and that was an early J. Cole. It is easy to see that Cole was a big influence on Dame's music and style. Even though Dame grew up in Oakland, the style and flow is a lot more reminiscent of the east coast style of rapping with samples of jazz music throughout the project. It is 12 tracks long with none of those being marked as explicit.
Bill Walton (Intro)
Even the intro is like J. Cole's intro in his first mixtape, "The Come Up." They are both very self-aware and break the third wall of the album and talk about what is to come in the following tracks. The intro is called "Bill Walton," after the Hall of Famer Bill Walton who led the Portland Trailblazers to its first and only NBA championship. A goal that Lillard would like to achieve.
In the track he talks about the hardships he faced while growing up and while also always being underestimated. Even when he became a household name in the NBA he wasn't selected to be an All Star when the majority of the NBA community thought that he was. He made sure to bring that chip on his shoulder from the basketball court onto his album.
Wasatch Front
This is a track about his time at Weber State University and about the life of being a college athlete who has to balance classes, homework and a rigorous basketball schedule. He shows us early in this second track that even though he is a basketball player making millions of dollars a year, we can relate to him on different levels. College students know how it feels to try to juggle school with club meetings, intramural sports and having a social life.
Plans
Jamie Foxx sings on the hook and bridge of this smooth song about a girl. It is one of the only songs where Lillard's flow changes at all and Foxx' voice is as captivating as always.
Loyal to the Soil
By far my favorite track on the album. But that is mostly because it is feature Lil Wayne. This song goes the hardest on the album and it is one that will definitely get dragged into your hip hop playlist you made on Spotify.
Most notable lines
"I'll be there coach, I'm jumping on the shuttle. he said if you on time that mean you late you better hustle" - Wasatch Front
"My pockets fat as Precious, but what's more precious than time?" - Lil Wayne - Loyal to the Soil
"All-Stars, I should have three by my name, they said I cried about not makin' it, it's free to complain. It's deeper than fame, it's principal. My feelings hurt? Minimal. Second team added, twenty m's, it's fixable. Boy it's fixable. They robbed me though and it was criminal. But aye, to the game I was chalking it. I'm trying to bring a chip to Portland just like Walton did." - Bill Walton
Overall impression
In this debut album, Dame made it clear that he was more than a NBA player that raps on the side like Allen Iverson, Tony Parker, Kobe Bryant or Shaq (even though Shaq went certified Platinum.)
Damian brings thoughtful lyrics and relatability to the table and gives us an inside look of a professional baller and what it took to get there.
His flow and delivery rarely changes and it makes some of the tracks less than memorable. But he definitely has some songs that will get replayed by most listeners. He told his twitter followers that he wrote the album in a week and recorded it in a week after and between workouts, and its lack of range and diversity may have taken a hit due to its rushed creation.
Overall it is a solid debut album and I'm sure he will show us more of his creativity as he grows as an artist.
I give it the album a B. Go give it a chance. I'm not saying he will be going double Platinum without any features any time soon like J. Cole, but he is showing a lot of promise.
