MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin – While there are numerous NBA players who have dabbled in rap on the side, no one has done it better than Milwaukee Bucks guard Damian Lillard.
In his free time off the court, Lillard is a hip-hop artist and rapper known as Dame DOLLA, which stands for Different On Levels the Lord Allows. And while he’s not the first NBA player to become a rapper, Lillard stands out as a rapper alongside former NBA superstars who are now occasional rappers like Allen Iverson, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant because of how seriously he takes his craft outside of basketball.
In a recent episode of Jeff Teague’s Club 520 podcast, Lillard appeared and discussed a variety of topics, including his music and his experiences working with rap and hip hop legend Lil Wayne.
It’s not often that other rappers get the opportunity to collaborate with an artist as talented as Lil Wayne.
When it comes to rap, Wayne is widely considered the best rapper in the world, and some even believe he is the best rapper of all time. That alone takes a lot of confidence to be able to match Wayne beat for beat on a rap track, and Lillard has already shown he is capable of doing just that.
“My favorite collaboration so far has been Lil Wayne,” Lillard said. “When I first got together with Wayne, someone actually contacted me about him because he said, ‘You know, he wanted to do something with you because he likes that you don’t try to rap like a rapper. He notices that you just rap for who you are,’ so we bonded like that. Wayne and I have so many songs together that haven’t even been released yet because he copies everything I send him and just sends it back. There’s a lot of shit that we haven’t put out yet. I actually went into the studio with him and when I got to see it, I was like, ‘damn.'”
Unlike many of today’s most popular rappers like Travis Scott, Lil Uzi, Playboi Carti, Young Thug and Future, Lillard approaches rap in a completely different way. His style is more in line with the late 1990s and early 2000s, where he tells a story over a beat mixed with some powerful punchlines. Of course, he can sometimes have a catchy hook to grab the audience’s attention, but his music is mostly focused on the lyrics he spits out.
Lillard certainly feels honored every time Lil Wayne takes the time to send his verses back when Lillard asks him for a verse. That’s something the Bucks superstar doesn’t take for granted given Wayne’s status as a rapper. I’m sure both Lillard and Wayne fans are excited to learn that there may be more new music coming their way between the two celebrities.
