It's been a rewarding year for Damian Lillard. The 6-3 point guard led the Trail Blazers to their first trip to the Western Conference Finals in nearly 20 years and signed a super max contract extension last month, making him one of the highest paid players in the NBA.
And off the court, he's just released his third full-length album, Big D.O.L.L.A., under his nom de rap Dame D.O.L.L.A. and on his own label, Front Page Music.
The latest in Lillard's discography, which includes the 2017 release, Confirmed, and his debut album The Letter 0, released in 2016, Big D.O.L.L.A. features 10 tracks touching on topics pertaining to Lillard's life both on and off the court. As with his previous projects, Big D.O.L.L.A. includes a number of high-profile featured artists, including Lil' Wayne and Jeremih, along with appearances from other Front Page Music artists. Various athletes and artists, including LeBron James, Stephen Curry, Common and Pusha T, have also pitched in in terms of promoting the release.
For Lillard, Big D.O.L.L.A. represents a marked improvement over his first two albums, both of which were generally well received. After using Confirmed and The Letter 0 to hone his bona fides as a rapper, Big D.O.L.L.A. is more of a flex, as the kids say, both in terms of style and subject matter.
"My first two albums were on the humble side, just storytelling and the foundation of who I am, the kind of person I am and the kind of life I live," said Lillard in an interview with Hot New Hip Hop. "With this one, I’m still the same person and I still hang around the same people but, I’m at a different level and different time in my life. I have things now. I’m at a different level financially. I’m at a different level in my career. It’s just different and I think these two years were also big for that because I’ve grown so many strides. I’m so many levels up from when I dropped my last project."
Big D.O.L.L.A. is also different in that, after keeping his first two releases about as clean as one can, Lillard allows himself the latitude to curse this time around. It might as well be an episode of "Sesame Street" compared to what you hear in a lot of contemporary music (and society in general really), but there there are a few "explicit lyric" this time around.
You can purchase/download BIG D.O.L.L.A. on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, Google Play, Tidal and Deezer.