When he sits down and he writes, it’s like poetry. All the stuff he went through in Oakland, all the ups and downs, like how he grew up in a tough environment. That’s how he let it out. He’s better than a lot of these people out there that do music videos and stuff. – Former WSU guard Josh Noble on Damian Lillard's rap ability
OGDEN — Josh Noble reminiscences days where he and his then-college teammate Damian Lillard would scamper off to their rooms in a Weber State dormitory, lock the doors and write after long days of school and practice.
The two (and later fellow guard Lindsey Hughey) would find an online beat and then write raps to place over the original track. Once complete, they’d record their verses on their phones. After reviewing to see whose was better, which Noble admits was often Lillard, they would shoot a music video and post them to social media to share with friends.
“It was something we usually did because we didn’t do too much but play ball, and after that we would just go back to the apartment and just rap,” Noble said.
The operation back then was primitive in its own right, but even then it was clear Lillard had a talent. Instead of debating who the best rapper on the team was, WSU players argued who was the second best because Lillard was the undisputed champion of the locker room.
“He always was the best rapper on team,” former Wildcat Jordan Richardson recalled. “He’s gotten a lot better though. They used to just play around with it, but now it seems like he’s getting a little bit more serious with it.”
Five years have passed since the days of rapping on phones and making low-budget music videos, and Lillard’s life is much different than it was in college. The two-time NBA All-Star recently inked a five-year extension with Portland worth roughly $120 million. He’s in commercials and has a signature shoe line.
Not bad for a 25-year-old heading into his fourth year in the league.
His schedule has become more hectic along the way. This summer alone he finished his degree from WSU, even walking with the other graduates in May. One week he was in Asia, then speaking at the Special Olympics World Games in Los Angeles. Two days before returning to Ogden to coach a WSU basketball alumni game he created, Lillard is at a back-to-school event in Portland where he helped deliver backpacks and other supplies to children.
One thing hasn’t changed, and that’s Lillard’s passion for music and rapping. In the midst of his busy offseason, he debuted six tracks under his rap persona “Dame DOLLA,” which won over critical acclaim among fans and even those in the industry.
In a recent ESPN clip where rapper Ice Cube listened to various athlete-rappers, he seemed to place Lillard among the top, while laughing off others.
With so many athletes who try (and usually fail) to rap, Lillard is confident in his ability.
“I think it’s different because I can actually rap,” Lillard said, sporting a smirk. However, because the athlete-rapper success rate is pretty low, he wasn’t sure what the response would be when he decided to start releasing his own material.
“A lot of athletes, they try to go out there and rap, and people don’t like it. When I decided to put out some tracks, I figured there would be a lot of people saying ‘Just stick to basketball,’ but the feedback was actually positive. I put out six tracks in six weeks, and each of them got, like, millions of views. You get the feedback, ‘He can actually rap.’ That was a good feeling.”
Lillard’s old teammates weren’t surprised at all about his sudden rise in the music industry because he always had the ability.
His lyrics in the tracks already released, like “Soldier of the Game,” tell stories. His stories. In short, he spits out his life with words, which is no different from the days rapping over beats with his college teammates — just now he’s in a studio instead of recording on a phone.
“He’s always been real passionate about hip-hop, about music,” Noble said. “It was something that he could vent through because he plays basketball, and that’s how he gets his frustrations out. He vents through (music). When he sits down and he writes, it’s like poetry. All the stuff he went through in Oakland, all the ups and downs, like how he grew up in a tough environment. That’s how he let it out. He’s better than a lot of these people out there that do music videos and stuff.”
Those sessions in college weren’t just a catharsis after a long practice. They inadvertently served as ways to create bonds and friendships with his teammates.
“It was a huge part of how we got to know each other,” Lillard said, recollecting those post-practice sessions. “(Noble and Hughey) came from junior college and I was already here, so once they knew that I liked to rap, then they were, like, ‘Well, let me spit something’ and they would start rapping. You hear the stories, you hear people’s backgrounds coming out in what they’d say, and that would lead to questions about what they said. That’s how we kind of built relationships when we were in college.”
Those bonds remain unbroken even as Lillard has quickly risen as one of the more recognizable faces in the NBA.
As hectic as his schedule is off the court and as demanding as it is, his former WSU teammates said they’re impressed with how Lillard has remained in touch with everyone he has met along the way.
“When he made it as big as he did like he is today, he still calls me on my birthday, still tells me, ‘Merry Christmas’ first, stuff like that,” Noble said. “See me, I’ll be like ‘Oh, he’s busy. I don’t want to bother him.’ He still takes time out of his busy day to hit up everybody. That means the world to me. I catch as many games as I can, but our relationship got stronger ever since we left college.”
As predicted, Lillard still deals with some critics telling him to focus solely on basketball, but he reassures it’s only a hobby, not his profession, and there’s no change in sight.
He puts in a full workload preparing for the upcoming 2015-16 NBA season, but also said he will release an extended play record on Sept. 21, before the season starts. Each track to be released has already been recorded, and Lillard’s mind is set on basketball.
Even when he was recording, Lillard said his schedule never revolved around music, but like any hobby, he recorded in any spare time he could find. He doesn't take his rap career as serious as his job in the NBA.
“I wake up in the morning, I go to the gym, I work out, I lift, I go back and shoot, I go home, sit there with my nephew and watch TV, probably play a video game, then later on in the day, I might just go stop at a studio, and I’ll be there for like one hour — one and a half, and I won’t go back for another week,” he said. “It’s really just a hobby. It’s just fun. I haven’t even really looked too far into it.”