

Why did two of Atlanta's most exciting rappers name their tape after one of America's whitest cities?

Last Tuesday, Young Thug and Bloody Jay released an 11-track collaborative tape, combining new songs with previously released singles “Danny Glover” and “Let’s Go Play.” It’s a thrilling ride, both rappers whipped into an ecstatic frenzy with a hummable undercurrent—but I was sold before I heard the first track, because the tape is called Black Portland. I moved to Portland when I was 18. At the time, I was mortified to be living outside of the South, where I'd grown up, and in a city so overwhelmingly not-diverse that one woman has since dedicated herself to documenting its black residents, each like a rare pearl. Like lots of locals and transplants, I adjusted to Portland by learning to ride a bike, buying rain shoes and getting into the city's basketball team, the Trail Blazers, who are reliably good if not recent league champions. Their arena was small and homey; keeping up with the season was a nice way to make friends that weren’t in school. When I graduated college, I wore a Blazers hat instead of a mortarboard.

So why, a half-decade later, would two rappers from my home state call their tape Black Portland, and plaster the Blazers logo on its cover? Last week, Pitchfork called this “truly the most important question in America right now,” while Stereogum preemptively concluded that the tape had been “inexplicably” titled.

Reached by phone, Bloody Jay offered an explanation. He and Young Thug, he said, consider themselves innovators, and wanted to give that purpose a name. “We’re on fire right now in the streets of Atlanta, and we’re stoners, so you know, we’re the Blazers and Atlanta is Black Portland,” said Jay. Propane, a manager who has worked with both Jay and Thug, said, “They’re the ones that are making the sound that’s going on right now. They’re the trailblazers of the culture. Everything falls in line behind them.”

More directly, Bloody Jay is also a fan of Portland’s team, and identifies his determination in its roster. “[The Blazers are] young and ambitious. There’s a lot of players on their team that you might have never heard of, but they’re all coming in and playing as a real team. They stick together. You know that if you play them, you’re gonna have a hard night.” (Jay’s favorite Blazer is point guard Damian Lillard, an Oakland, CA native.) A friend in New York told me this week that Trail Blazers jerseys are currently en vogue, but I think it'd be fair to call Jay's Blazers fandom a niche pursuit in Atlanta—I called three stores at the city's beloved Lenox Square mall, and none stocked Portland gear.