The NBA is Damian Lillard’s day job. He’s already defied expectations, he’s still fighting for respect. Despite being a former Rookie of the Year, the owner of a nine-figure contract, and architect of one of the coldest offensive games in the league, Lillard, one of the top 10 scorers in the NBA, is the year’s most egregious All Star snub.

As last fall proved, though, the Oakland, California, native is just as excellent in regard to another form of creative expression: music. Beats and rhymes are as central to Lillard’s life story as the impeccably timed crossover that makes him a star. On Oct. 21, 2016, Lillard — stage name Dame D.O.L.L.A., an acronym he revealed in February 2016 that stands for Different on Levels the Lord Allows — dropped his debut album via top streaming sites.

The Letter O is a clever homage to the three locations directly responsible for his growth as a ballplayer and man: his hometown of Oakland; his college town of Ogden, Utah; and Oregon, where he’s since become an NBA star and endorsement darling. The album is a journey dating to Oakland High School, when Dame and teammates freestyled before and after practices. They often ran through layup lines with warm-up songs they recorded. “Our coach [Will Lew] was a music producer,” said Drake “Dupre” Green, Lillard’s high school teammate, friend and featured artist on O. “He let us go into the studio and mess around. We liked what we put out, and we ran out to it. Ever since then, I think we just had that bug for music.”

On July 15, 2016, his 26th birthday, Lillard held his first rap concert at Portland’s 102-year-old Crystal Ballroom, home to legends — Marvin Gaye, Little Richard, Jimi Hendrix – real and imagined. “After he had that last experience of performing,” said Nate Jones, who runs digital marketing for Goodwin Sports Management, the agency that represents Lillard, “I think it finally hit him that he was ready to take this next step.” Lillard was quietly obsessed with seeking respect in both worlds — professional basketball and hip-hop. “The president [Obama] has time to go hoop at the gym,” Lillard once said. “I see it the same way: I’m an NBA player and I have other interests.”

O charted on iTunes, finding company nestled between names such as Joe Budden, D.R.A.M. and NxWorries. More importantly, he commanded the respect of his peers, both in music and basketball. Reviews refused to grade Lillard on a curve, calling him on perceived shortcomings, but ultimately praising him for, as HipHopDX said, an “organic knack for storytelling.”

“There’s no bulls— to the man,” said O lead engineer Chris Henry. “This is the real deal.” Henry had just finished working with Justin Timberlake and Earth, Wind & Fire when he was invited to work with Lillard. “He applies that same sort of intensity in the studio … that he does on the court.” The Letter O is drenched in philosophies for victory.

Here, the producers, artists, and executives who helped make Lillard’s dream a reality recall last summer’s labor of love. Each song is memorialized.