DO NOT PROGRAM: TESTING — The Soundtrack of DeMar DeRozan's Life
Yes, he's straight outta Compton. But there's more to know about the Toronto Raptors superstar guard. His playlist can tell you
DeMar DeRozan strolls back inside the Air Canada Centre just hours after stubbornly willing his Toronto Raptors to a comeback home win over the surging Boston Celtics. Coach Dwane Casey termed the previous night's game a "bloodbath" after Toronto stirred and rallied from a 16-point deficit to stiff-arm what would have been its first three-game losing streak in more than a year.
.jpg?w=256 "Colts Jaguars Football")
The game reflected what is quickly becoming a DeRozan trademark: a series of smooth, perfected mid-range jumpers giving rise to an eye-popping stat line, this time a season-high 41 points.
Today, the team is off from practice. DeRozan is dressed in a bomber jacket, black hoodie and black pants. He bypasses the court for the Sher Club, an ultra-exclusive hangout inside the arena conceived by Drake. The 4,000-square-foot club is decked in extravagance, featuring blood-droplet chandeliers above and plush, red-velvet couches below. Music bellows from inside, spreading a subtle hum through the area, including the champagne room, which features tufted white leather couches and mirrored walls lined with Dom Perignon. This afternoon, the club is reserved for DeRozan, the proud Compton, California, native bumping his head to a Jay Z track. He’s here to talk about one of his first loves.
"No matter if I'm having a good day, a bad day, whatever type of mood I'm in, I could always be in my own space and find that type of music to get me through the day or put me in the mood I want to be in," he says. "I credit music to everything by far, because it's the one thing I dissect. I listen to give me a mood, give me a feeling that I need. It's always been that way. It was always my outlet of making me feel OK from hearing somebody else going through something I can relate to or somebody going through something worse and you realize, well, my day ain't that bad."
He is enough of a fan of both Kobe Bryant and music to say that "Kobe was Jay Z when he came out [with his rap album K.O.B.E.]," while adding, "That's just me being biased."
Music and Compton sync together like, well, DeRozan and an elbow jumper. "I always gravitated to every artist that made it from Compton," he says. "When I was young, it was DJ Quik, the MC Eihts, to now it's the YGs, the Kendricks. Everybody who came from the city, I automatically could relate to everything they was talking about. They may say a certain street and I knew exactly what they talking about or a certain place or a certain park. It always hit harder than if I was listening to somebody from the Bronx or something."
B/R Mag recently invited DeRozan to curate a playlist of the songs that tell his life story, from California to Canada and all the lessons along the way. Here's what he had to say:
“Dear Mama”
Tupac Shakur
Diane DeRozan had prayed for a child for years. She developed fibroids on her uterus—benign tumors that are common among women, but especially black women—and having a baby seemed a near-impossibility until she gave birth to DeMar through an emergency C-section in 1989. The family nicknamed DeMar, "the Blessed One."
"Man, that's the most self-explanatory song you could think of, especially me being my mother's only son," DeRozan says of Tupac's classic ode to moms everywhere. "She couldn't have kids. She had me when she was 35. It was late and it was one of them ones to where my mama almost lost her life having me. I always looked at my mom at the highest of standards.
"When I heard that song, I'm talking about from when I was a kid, I understood why you love your mom so much, what a mother means to a son. That song was a reflection of how I looked at my mom from all the things we went through, to how hard she worked for me to have a pair of shoes or for me to have a shirt on my back. That song hits homes with it."
"I CREDIT MUSIC TO EVERYTHING BY FAR, BECAUSE IT'S THE ONE THING I DISSECT. I LISTEN TO GIVE ME A MOOD, GIVE ME A FEELING THAT I NEED. — DeMAR DeROZAN
"
"No matter if I'm having a good day, a bad day, whatever type of mood I'm in, I could always be in my own space and find that type of music to get me through the day or put me in the mood I want to be in," he says. "I credit music to everything by far, because it's the one thing I dissect. I listen to give me a mood, give me a feeling that I need. It's always been that way. It was always my outlet of making me feel OK from hearing somebody else going through something I can relate to or somebody going through something worse and you realize, well, my day ain't that bad."
"No matter if I'm having a good day, a bad day, whatever type of mood I'm in, I could always be in my own space and find that type of music to get me through the day or put me in the mood I want to be in," he says. "I credit music to everything by far, because it's the one thing I dissect. I listen to give me a mood, give me a feeling that I need. It's always been that way. It was always my outlet of making me feel OK from hearing somebody else going through something I can relate to or somebody going through something worse and you realize, well, my day ain't that bad."
"No matter if I'm having a good day, a bad day, whatever type of mood I'm in, I could always be in my own space and find that type of music to get me through the day or put me in the mood I want to be in," he says. "I credit music to everything by far, because it's the one thing I dissect. I listen to give me a mood, give me a feeling that I need. It's always been that way. It was always my outlet of making me feel OK from hearing somebody else going through something I can relate to or somebody going through something worse and you realize, well, my day ain't that bad."
“He Got Game”
Public Enemy
Listen to the lyrics of this Public Enemy anthem—It might feel good/It might sound a little somethin'/But damn the game if it don't mean nothin'—and picture a young DeRozan with his back to the basket, working on his turnaround jumper.
"First of all, it's from one of my favorite movies, He Got Game," DeRozan says. "It's one of them encouragement songs. I always applied it as a hoop song. You got game, he got game. As I got older, he's talking about the world. It's bigger than just a game, and I think that song really stuck with me because you start to realize it was a movement. It was everything in the whole world. Even when I was young, I used to play it and it used to give me that encouragement, that kind of confidence that I needed to go out there, to want to play basketball."
"First of all, it's from one of my favorite movies, He Got Game," DeRozan says. "It's one of them encouragement songs. I always applied it as a hoop song. You got game, he got game. As I got older, he's talking about the world. It's bigger than just a game, and I think that song really stuck with me because you start to realize it was a movement. It was everything in the whole world. Even when I was young, I used to play it and it used to give me that encouragement, that kind of confidence that I needed to go out there, to want to play basketball."
"First of all, it's from one of my favorite movies, He Got Game," DeRozan says. "It's one of them encouragement songs. I always applied it as a hoop song. You got game, he got game. As I got older, he's talking about the world. It's bigger than just a game, and I think that song really stuck with me because you start to realize it was a movement. It was everything in the whole world. Even when I was young, I used to play it and it used to give me that encouragement, that kind of confidence that I needed to go out there, to want to play basketball."
"First of all, it's from one of my favorite movies, He Got Game," DeRozan says. "It's one of them encouragement songs. I always applied it as a hoop song. You got game, he got game. As I got older, he's talking about the world. It's bigger than just a game, and I think that song really stuck with me because you start to realize it was a movement. It was everything in the whole world. Even when I was young, I used to play it and it used to give me that encouragement, that kind of confidence that I needed to go out there, to want to play basketball."
"First of all, it's from one of my favorite movies, He Got Game," DeRozan says. "It's one of them encouragement songs. I always applied it as a hoop song. You got game, he got game. As I got older, he's talking about the world. It's bigger than just a game, and I think that song really stuck with me because you start to realize it was a movement. It was everything in the whole world. Even when I was young, I used to play it and it used to give me that encouragement, that kind of confidence that I needed to go out there, to want to play basketball."
"First of all, it's from one of my favorite movies, He Got Game," DeRozan says. "It's one of them encouragement songs. I always applied it as a hoop song. You got game, he got game. As I got older, he's talking about the world. It's bigger than just a game, and I think that song really stuck with me because you start to realize it was a movement. It was everything in the whole world. Even when I was young, I used to play it and it used to give me that encouragement, that kind of confidence that I needed to go out there, to want to play basketball."
.jpg?w=480 "Colts Jaguars Football")
