Dame D.O.L.L.A. Drops Surprise EP ‘Live From the Bubble’ After NBA Play-In Win

Hours after Damian Lillard propelled the Portland Trail Blazers into the playoffs, his rap persona Dame D.O.L.L.A. celebrated the victory with a surprise EP recorded inside the NBA “bubble” near Disney World.

Live From the Bubble contains two tracks — new songs “I’m Him” and “They Know” — that Dame crafted in his hotel room-turned recording studio during the NBA’s mandatory quarantine. “No Punches,” a cut from his 2017 album Confirmed, rounds out the surprise EP.

“I saw people saying that there would be complaints of him recording music, but I don’t have any speakers. Everything is in the headphone speakers,” Lillard told the Associated Press in July about the recording process. “I’m rapping out loud, but not screaming to the top of my lungs. Nobody is going to hear me rapping.”

Live From the Bubble was uploaded onto SoundCloud Saturday, soon after the Blazers’ play-in game win over the Memphis Grizzlies. Following a 51- and 61-point performance the past week, Lillard was unanimously named Bubble MVP of the NBA’s seeding games as he led the Blazers in overcoming a deficit in the standings to improbably make the playoffs. The Blazers face the 1-seed Los Angeles Lakers in a seven-game series beginning Tuesday night in the Orlando sports complex.

Prior to entering the Bubble, Dame D.O.L.L.A. released a trio of new tracks, the ode to family “Home Team,” the Raphael Saddiq-featuring “GOAT Spirit” and the spoken word protest cut “Blacklist.”