{"id":821333,"date":"2024-10-01T13:07:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-01T17:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?p=821333"},"modified":"2024-11-07T13:42:44","modified_gmt":"2024-11-07T18:42:44","slug":"the-slam-archives-slam-205-featuring-damian-lillard-from-march-of-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/archives\/the-slam-archives-slam-205-featuring-damian-lillard-from-march-of-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"The SLAM Archives: SLAM 205 Featuring Damian Lillard From March of 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This story first appeared in SLAM 252.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a time when every hooper wanted to rap, and every rapper wanted to hoop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hip-hop and hoops is a marriage that can\u2019t be divorced. In its truest essence, they\u2019ve been partners since the musical genre was first created in the early 1970s. Hip-hop\u2019s rhythm resonated from the Bronx and cascaded over hardwood surfaces and blacktops across the globe. It\u2019s a dance that moves through crowds and invites participants to sing along to the melody of its hook.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This inseparable union is why Shaq featured Biggie, why AI sparked a dress code, why Kobe took Brandy to the prom. It\u2019s Funk Flex DJing the Dunk Contest. It\u2019s Drake\u2019s commitment to the Raptors games. It\u2019s LeBron throwing up the Roc. It\u2019s The Knuckleheads. It\u2019s Stephon Marbury. It\u2019s Jigga bringing the Nets to Brooklyn. It\u2019s an AND1 Mixtape. It\u2019s the Knickstape. It\u2019s why SLAM exists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s why a young rapper named Dame D.O.L.L.A. would raise the bar by rocking a throwback Bill Walton Blazers jersey and a mic around his neck for SLAM 205. It was 2017, and at just one album deep (another would drop later that year), he had proven that music was more than a mere hobby. It had started from childhood when his cousin drove from New York to Dame\u2019s boyhood home in Oakland in the early \u201990s, bringing hip-hop with him. Dame just wanted to be in the car. Another family member and gifted MC, Brookfield Duece, would demonstrate that music was in his blood. It would never leave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Drake had broken new ground by joining Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan on a SLAM cover the year before, SLAM 205 was the first time that we\u2019d ever had a solo cover with a rapper front and center. It was \u201cThe Music Issue,\u201d a momentous celebration of the basketball\/music crossover that was executed with an intentionality that had only been alluded to previously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following this introduction to the basketball universe, Dame D.O.L.L.A. would go on to release four more albums and gain ongoing respect in his field. He would work with the likes of Jadakiss, 2 Chainz and Lil Wayne. He would contribute to the soundtrack of NBA 2K and enjoy recognition on the indie album charts. And he shows no signs of putting the mic down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a time when every hooper wanted to rap, and every rapper wanted to hoop. Dame is pretty good at both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This story first appeared in SLAM 252. There was a time when every hooper wanted to rap, and every rapper wanted to hoop. Hip-hop and hoops is a marriage that can\u2019t be divorced. In its truest essence, they\u2019ve been partners since the musical genre was first created in the early 1970s. Hip-hop\u2019s rhythm resonated from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":475,"featured_media":821330,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8383,12990,64382,14270,65304],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-821333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-damian-lillard","tag-nba","tag-portland-trailblazers","tag-slam-205","tag-slam-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821333"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821333\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":821335,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821333\/revisions\/821335"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821333"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=821333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}