Outside of his NBA career, Damian Lillard has a side gig as a rapper. Being both an NBA player and a rapper is nothing new — there’s a whole list of them, with Shaq being the one that comes to mind the most. But Lillard’s an exception, because he’s actually good at being both. He rapped about being snubbed at the 2016 All-Star Game, he gave shout-outs to Steph Curry and Russell Westbrook in a 2015 song, and he put out a well-received album in October.
Damian Lillard taunted by Bucks fans chanting ‘SoundCloud rapper’ during free throws
He’s enjoyed a good amount of success in both of his careers — that being said, his rap career opened up a new opportunity for Bucks fans to egg him on during Wednesday’s Trail Blazers game. You can hear a few Bucks fans doing a wrestling chant of “Soundcloud rapper” while Lillard is at the free-throw line.
I guess “SoundCloud rapper” would be considered an insult, because it implies that a rapper is not good enough to get a record deal with a major label, but merely good enough to have a lot of listeners on SoundCloud, a place where anyone can upload their original music for free and with minimal effort.
I highly doubt Lillard was fazed by the chant — he made both of his free throws, by the way — and it would also ultimately hurt SoundCloud’s feelings more than it would Lillard’s. Imagine the CEO of SoundCloud at that Bucks game hearing that chant, initially feeling pretty stoked that people know about his service, but then realizing, “Oh, wait a minute. That ... that’s supposed to be an insult. That’s how people feel about our service? I think I get why people haven’t caught onto SoundCloud Go.”
You can find Lillard’s album The Letter O on iTunes and Spotify, which would hurt SoundCloud’s feelings even more because it’s stuck with the audio previews.
(via @rachaelhoops)
