#NewMusicTuesday: Damian Lillard

Damian Lillard may be off to a scorching start to the 2016-2017 NBA season as the league’s third-leading scorer. In fact, he may be still rejoicing from the Portland Trail Blazers’ crushing win over the Nuggets featuring not one, but two buzzer beaters to score the winning point. But Damian Lillard has multiple talents outside of basketball - and it makes us love him even more. He just released his first album, The Letter O, under his rap name Dame D.O.L.L.A., and we can’t stop listening to it!

From listening to Mary J. Blige in the car with his mom, to recording a team warm-up anthem in his high school assistant coach’s home studio, Lillard has a long history of rapping. Known throughout the basketball and music industries for his #4BarFridays challenge on Instagram and past singles like “Bigger Than Us,” this Oakland, CA native has been perfecting his craft since high school when he routinely schooled his older brother with perfectly delivered lyrics and bars. The Letter O is a culmination of all those years, the journey upwards and out, but also a reflection on what it took to get where he is today.

In the latest edition of Artist Stories by State Farm Neighborhood Sessions, Damian takes us back to his Oakland roots and shares the impact that growing up in Oakland has had on his career – both on and off the courts. ​