In 2013, The Last Artful, Dodgr already knew.

"When I get on 'Sway in the Morning,' believe I'ma rip it to shreds," the artist formerly known as Alana Chenevert wrote to open the song "Sway," a proclamation of manifestation.

Three years later, three years after quitting her job as an alt-weekly graphic designer and trading her Humboldt, California college town and a pair of degrees in journalism and anthropology for a Portland hip-hop career, it came true. Amine, the Portland rapper whose "Caroline" has crooned its way to 144 million Spotify plays, got the call for New York's "The Tonight Show," and he wanted to represent. He flew out Dodgr and Blossom, another deserving Portland artist, to join him on backing vocals for a politically provocative performance that MTV called "exactly the right move."

The next morning, sipping her tea, Dodgr sat in a Sirius XM studio chair in between Sway Calloway and satellite radio co-host Heather B.

"It was surreal, but it felt like I belonged there," Dodgr said over truffle fries and soda water at Northeast Portland's Radio Room, two months after the November appearance, as collaborator Neill Von Tally sipped a Belgian beer. "I was nervous, extremely nervous, but also the most comfortable I have ever been--on the radio, at least."

If Dodgr's ever nervous, she doesn't show it. Not on "Sway in the Morning," where over 40 minutes, she told her life story as a Los Angeles kid who witnessed the L.A. riots; explained the levels of her stage name (a nod to L.A., childhood nickname La Di Da Di, and her luck with persuasion); delivered a soulful a cappella freestyle in that singular, Auto-Tune-free voice; and parried questions about her sexuality.

"There's no reason to hide away from who I am," she told the "Sway" crew. "That's like saying, I'm not black. That's like saying, I'm not a woman. I am America, right here. I'm a black queer woman and I'm killing it. There's no way I wouldn't just put myself out there, just 100 percent."

At Radio Room, she was thoughtful and occasionally amused, correcting Von Tally as he tried to tell the origin story of romantically frustrated single "Oofda." The producer is her current partner in rap: he's a co-founder of the duo's label, Eyrst, which will release their collaborative album "Bone Music" on Friday, and the producer behind the album's subterrenean bass. The album, a conceptual effort inspired by Cold War-era contraband albums cut onto X-rays and blue collar toil, tells a front-to-back story: Dodgr's ambitions for it are, in a word, high.

"I want this album in particular to be treated like 'Oliver Twist' is treated," she said, a nod to Charles Dicken's 1830s novel, whose Jack Dawkins, the Artful Dodger, adds one more level to her moniker. "Like 'The Great Gatsby'... It's just way ahead of its time and it is already a classic in its own right."

The words land as simply as if she'd called the sky blue. Dodgr has no trace of arrogance or Kanye West-style egomania: just steel-armored confidence and a destiny to manifest. But she wasn't always like this: in college, she wondered if she should pursue forensic anthropology rather than the music she'd been making her whole life.

"Kendrick (Lamar) actually gave me the inspiration to pursue this as a career," Dodgr said. "When I first heard 'Overly Dedicated,' I heard a kid who was knowledgeable, and was putting his words together in ways that I hadn't heard in a long time. It was catchy and it was artsy, and I was like, 'Oh my goodness, the mainstream is ready.' It wasn't until he popped that I felt like, I actually had a space."

And then she found room in Portland.

The city's hip-hop scene has been through generations of music, struggle, and shots at the mainstream: before Amine, the U-Krew hit the Billboard charts with a pair of 1990 hits, and artists from Cool Nutz to Lifesavas have built careers here. Underground veteran Aesop Rock is a recent transplant. But Stumptown's long been overshadowed by the rest of the West Coast: Dr. Dre's Los Angeles, E-40's Bay Area, and even grunge capital Seattle, whose Macklemore might be more famous to the city's current teenagers than Nirvana.

But music industry ears have begun turning to Portland, thanks to Amine, singer and Warner Bros. signee TYus, and now Eyrst--an independent label with an NBA benefactor.

The label grew out of Von Tally's collaboration with Martell Webster, the former Trail Blazers draft pick: connected by a mutual friend, the producer spent a summer in Webster's home studio, working on the beats that led to his 2014 mixtape "ARTT."

Von Tally, aka Anthony Villella, is a Portland native with the studio in his blood: his father, Larry, runs boutique, beloved microphone maker ADK. The last time Paul McCartney was in town, Dodgr bragged, Larry hand-delivered him one.

Like Dodgr, it took other roads to lead Von Tally back to music.

"I was working in emergency medicine and I really wanted to travel the world," he said.

After time in Ghana, the trauma of the career began to take a toll. He realized art might be another way to reach people and headed home. When he started showing Webster Portland's raft of talent, the opportunity became obvious.

"Ripley Snell, who's on the label, and I ended up joking about the fact that someone like Jay Z... is managing basketball players, and what would it be like to flip the script," Von Tally said. "In a big way, it was a leap of faith."

But Webster agreed, and in a few weeks, Eyrst had quietly begun. The studio was rechristened as Eyrst Studios, and turned from a home to a scene as the label picked up one artist after another: Blossom, Myke Bogan, Ripley Snell, solo projects from TxE's Epp and Calvin Valentine, Maze Koroma and Webster himself.

"We felt like we needed to make a splash," Eyrst president Taylor Dutton said over coffee at Bushel and Peck Bakeshop on a Tuesday morning, alongside colleague Sean McDonald. "We knew we had the opportunity to be working on this full-time, which is somewhat of a rarity in Portland, and we wanted to take full advantage of that."

Von Tally, Dutton--fresh out of the University of Oregon--and engineer Justin Longerbeam were the label's initial staff, with McDonald, Bogan's manager, joining soon after. Eyrst went public in 2015, and has released singles and EPs since as its artists test the waters.

2017 could be a make-or-break year: starting with "Bone Music," Eyrst will release its first batch of full-length albums, some the fruit of years of studio work. And after funding and hosting the project, Webster will take a step back to spend more time with his family, leaving the label to stand on its own feet.

"It's inspired me incredibly," Webster said over the phone. "The artists we brought on have grown so much in the last two years. It makes you want to do better for yourself."

"He's giving us a final investment that is more than kind," Dutton added. "And totally should be enough to get through everything we need to, to get to the next level. That's the goal, see where we can get this year and go from there."

As Eyrst makes its moves, hip-hop's Portland takeover has expanded--to monthly events such as The Thesis and Mic Check, and local labels from the five-year-old Futro Collective to Fresh Selects, whose Kenny Fresh is Dodgr's co-manager.

"(It) takes a lot to happen to really put a place on the map," Von Tally said. "But I think that a lot of those steps, especially in the past, maybe, 3 or 4 years have really started to occur... It's a bit undeniable if you're from Portland."

It does feel like there's something in the air. After the interview, I walked out to Alberta and dug through my backpack as a woman in a green hoodie stepped over with a question, the winter wind whipping around us.

"Was that The Last Artful, Dodgr?"

It was.

"I missed the New Years' show," she said, giddy, explaining she's been trying to see her perform. "I saw she got announced at Pickathon."

It's true: in August, Dodgr will perform for the first time at the Pickathon festival, the Happy Valley event known for its curation--and its usual attention to guitars. But it also booked Blossom and Bogan in 2016, giving Eyrst a particular spotlight.

"It hit me when Cool Nutz was like, 'Wow, Myke, congrats on playing Pickathon, there's been hip-hop acts for years trying to get on this,'" McDonald said. "We didn't realize that we were one of the very first to do it."

A few days after the truffle fries, Dodgr and Von Tally played a sold-out show at the Doug Fir Lounge, opening for Shy Girls, the buzzy local singer-producer. The crowd, slick, twenty-something, and ready for a night of R&B angst, probably weren't expecting a party, but the duo brought one. Dance crew House of Aquarius joined the pair on stage as Dodgr showed off her own moves, limited only by a too-short microphone cable.

"2017, we going wireless," she said, tugging the mic.

The audience laughed and cheered, and after a set including Dodgr's own Spotify breakthrough, "Squadron," they shouted back the "Bone Music" release date on cue.

"When's my album coming out?" she said.

"February 3!"

She made them shout it again.

-- David Greenwald

dgreenwald@oregonian.com

503-294-7625; @davidegreenwald

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