Damian Lillard recently sat down with REVOLT after dropping his fourth studio album titled Different On Levels (The) Lord Allows, which is the acronym for his rap name, Dame D.O.L.L.A.
During the interview, Dame explained how rapping helps him mentally, stating, "I don’t think it helps with my hooping, but it helps keep my mind right — have something else to balance it out. When you focus on basketball, what the media’s saying, winning and losing, playing well and not playing well, it can be a lot. It helps give me something else to have my mind [on], something else to feel good about."
Dame also addressed a song on the album, "The Juice," which he said is inspired by the 1992 movie Juice, starring 2Pac and Khalil Kain, who made a cameo in the music video. Dame then explained what the movie taught him, stating, "That movie showed me that your friends and the people around you — just because they’re around you, doesn’t mean they’re the people that’s really for you. You see everybody turning on everybody in that movie. I didn’t have friends like that. I’d seen stuff like that in real life, but that’s what turned me on to it being a real thing."
At the end of the conversation, Dame stated that he wants people to know that despite winning a gold medal at the Olympics and being a respected NBA player, he's not just a basketball player that raps. He told REVOLT, "What I want fans to get from my new project is I’m not a basketball player that raps, I’m a rapper."
Source: REVOLT
