While Richmond rapper White Dave has had his songs featured in soundtracks for weighty and dramatic films like “Black Panther,” “Judas and the Black Messiah” and “Creed,” all three of which were led by his all-star director brother Ryan Coogler (though White Dave notes this was not merely nepotistic opportunity), his latest offering helps score a film that’s higher on the joy than heart-pumping suspense.

White Dave, whose name is Noah David Coogler, said Bay Area hip-hop star P-Lo reached out to him with an opportunity. He later found out it was a collaboration with P-Lo and fellow Bay Area icons G-Eazy and Damian Lillard (Dame D.O.L.L.A.) on a track for the soundtrack to “Space Jam: A New Legacy” (in theaters this Friday). P-Lo sent him a beat with a hook, while he was also provided some guidelines that it be basketball-inspired but also representative of where he was from, the Bay Area.

“It made me think that it was going to be some type of basketball-themed Bay Area anthem, for the Warriors or something you could play at a stadium,” White Dave said.

Coogler wrote and recorded five different songs over the beat and sent it back. Some weeks later, his manager forwarded him some document to sign for licensing deals.

“I’m like, ‘What are we cooking up?’” Coogler recounted. “He said, ‘That song that you worked on is going into ‘Space Jam.’ It was a pretty exciting kind of thing for me because … anytime my brother makes a movie, I’m not guaranteed anything. I gotta go through the vetting process like everyone else.”

Ryan Coogler didn’t direct the sequel to the classic Michael Jordan and “Looney Tunes” mashup,  but he did produce it alongside basketball star LeBron James (who also stars in this film, alongside Oakland native and NBA star Lillard, who’s also a rapper).

“About That Time” was finished remotely at White Dave’s home studio in Richmond, the city where he was raised with his brother. Dame D.O.L.L.A. and G-Eazy recorded their parts separately. The name of the song is a callback to Lillard’s “Goon Squad” character in the film, who wears a clock on his arm—and that itself is a callback to Lillard’s famous clutch performances with time running out on the court.

“Towards the end, all of the artists were all sending [producers] last-minute stuff,” he said. “Man, it’s an honor and a privilege. I’ve been a fan of G-Eazy for a long time. He actually went to my high school. I graduated from Berkeley High. G-Eazy went there, and he graduated a couple years before I did. I’ve been a fan of Dame since he was at Oakland High. I was following him when he was at Weber [State]. He was ballin’ out there. When he started ballin’ in the NBA, it wasn’t a huge surprise to me just because I had been following him all along. Anytime I get to connect with other Bay Area artists and expand the brand and connect with their fanbases, it’s really a cool hook-up.”

White Dave approached “About That Time” the same way he approaches life when opportunities present themselves. He was prepared and ready to do the work. He currently has several plates spinning, and not all of them are even in music—he’s currently screenwriting a horror film with plans for even more, he’s done podcasting, and he’s got the long-term foresight of a mogul, with much grander goals (more on that in a bit).

But since he was a child, it was his older brother, Ryan, who both inspired and empowered him to make art.

It was Ryan Coogler who got Noah his first keyboard and four-track recorder, and then more professional equipment—after he realized that’s what inspired him. When Noah and Ryan, who’s four years older than Noah, were kids, the younger brother would provide the music for his older brother’s home movies. In 2005, when Noah was 14 or 15, he scored a short film Ryan directed called “Eyes Like Mine.” It was the first time he wrote music that would be heard by more than family and friends.

“I come from a musical family and I always kept the idea [of] being a rapper, but what kid doesn’t? Just like playing in the NBA, you know?” he said. “And all of a sudden, it happened.”

Noah David Coogler was living in a one-bedroom apartment and attending Sacramento State University. His more conventional—but no less inspirational—goal was to be a teacher. Then one day, when he was 23, he received his first check for one of his songs that had been picked up for a film, and was dumbfounded.

“‘Hey, yo! I really made this off of one record that I made in my living room?” he recalled. “‘Let’s go! Let’s keep doing this. Let’s see where this goes!’”

He recounts dropping out of school, to the dismay of his parents, on song “Hella,” off his 2017 album The Season of the Rich.

The older brother also helped the younger find his stage name. In high school, Noah’s peers would sometimes tease him for his perceived eloquence and alternative interests. They would call him “Oreo” (Black on the outside, white on the inside) or Carlton Banks.

“The way it works with urban youth—I don’t want to say Black youth because it’s not just Black—how you talk, perception, is everything,” he said. “I’m seen as talking super proper, amongst my peer group. I went to private school from K to eight. My parents were also big on perception. They were like, ‘Look, we can’t have you out and about talking like you don’t have no sense about you.’ Not that people who don’t talk like me don’t have sense, but you get what I’m saying?”

The private Catholic school he attended through the eighth grade was in Oakland. Some of his classmates didn’t have a favorable reaction when he told them he lived in Richmond.

“They’re like, ‘If you talk like that, there’s no way you’re from Richmond,’” he said. “‘Because you talk like that, you must be smart or you must come from money.’ … I was into like Pokemon and stuff, and I admit that I was an alternative-type kid, but it’s all about how people want to box you in and people want to label you. If I don’t want to play basketball at lunch, and I’d rather play Yu-Gi-Oh! or some shit, it’s like, ‘Aww, bro, he’s not really Black. … It was definitely something that I paid attention to.”

Ryan Coogler suggested that White Dave take that name to turn something negative into something positive.

Over decades, the two brothers have developed a strong chemistry as a creative force while staying strong within their family.

“He’s able to tell me things in a constructive way, and I don’t take it personal. I think that that’s good for life and good in a working environment,” he said. “Anytime you take things personal or internalize things too much like, it can really affect how you view yourself, and it can affect your relationship with others. I value that we’re able to be open and honest with each other on both fronts. … Of course, anytime you work with family, it can get dicey, but I think what’s good is that we have a strong enough foundation, and we know everything that we’re working towards. We have similar mindsets, and I think that prevails all.”

Both brothers, as well as their youngest brother Keenan Coogler, who’s on White Dave’s creative team, understand how to become successful and then stay successful, which entails blocking out noise, he said. And for that trait, he credits his parents, Jocelyn and Ira, who still live in Richmond and Pittsburg in the East Bay.

“I really gotta shout them out for me and my brothers having such a happy relationship with each other,” he said.

In addition to the numerous placements, which include independent film Kicks (with Mahershala Ali) and the videogame “NBA 2K17,” White Dave has released three full-length albums and five EPs. He’s currently working on a fourth LP that he has said he hopes to release later this summer. For the last four years, he’s also released an EP on smokers’ holiday 4/20. He views these projects as a way to have some light fun and grow his fanbase.

For the songs on these records, the most recent of which is April’s Porch Sessions, he writes to make the songs an easy listen and a way for listeners and himself to let loose. The latest offers up cuts for getting high (“Odor”), hanging with friends (“Hotel Motel”) and having a good time with the opposite sex (“Peek”). This time, he allowed his creative and management team to select the songs on the EP. He likes to film his videos around the Bay Area, and Porch Sessions is no exception.

“The subject matter isn’t too intense; they’re not over the top or anything; they’re just perfect for the holiday,” he said. “Also, it’s like super current. The music that I was making for the past couple 4/20s was music that I was making right up to the deadline of being able to get my album on the streaming sites at the right time.”

But Noah David Coogler has more than hip-hop in his short or long-term plans. Right now, he’s busy writing a screenplay for a stalker-themed horror film. The fear of being followed is an underplayed card in horror moviemaking, he said, name checking “It Follows” as a lone recent exception. He said the combined paranoia with the realization that someone really is out to get you is one of the scariest things people can experience. Horror film tends to go in waves (see: zombies) and is currently stuck in a rut of “the devil possessed me” films, he said, adding that he’s sick of those.

Coogler has no plans to direct, however, and will stick to screenwriting.

“Directing is a headache and a half. I’ve seen my brother nearly put himself in the grave directing films, man,” White Dave said. “I couldn’t handle that type of stress load. I could not. Writing, no problem. I’ve been writing since I was 3. I love writing, coming up with ideas, cool concepts, putting them on paper—perfect. But sitting down and directing that many people—being in control of that many people—brings on anxiety. Just talking about it makes me sweat.”

First, he said that he was likely to finish writing the script and then shop it to the highest bidder. His main interest in the project is getting his story down on paper. And if the film just happens to turn out well, that’s even better.

But if only he knew a talented film director; someone like a Ryan Coogler!

“Maybe I’m exposing our hand too early, but we definitely want to get into the horror game; and we definitely want to get into the romantic comedy game,” he said. “The way that I work is I record all of my ideas, and then I write them down, so I have a vocal script, if you will, of a romantic comedy that I’m going to put into production after I do my horror film. We are definitely trying to get into these genres of film because, sometimes, I feel like they’re lacking a little bit. Like, it’s been a while since I seen a really good romantic comedy. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a really good horror film. It’s something to do, and it’s creative work. At the root of my soul, at the root of my heart and soul, I’m a creator.”

Even when it comes to his music, White Dave is thinking big and planning much more than what even his existing fans may be expecting.

“I don’t want to make rap forever. For the time being, that’s what the people want. The customer’s always right,” he said. “I’ve made every genre. … I really can’t wait to really show people what I can do creatively.”

Follow editor Roman Gokhman at Twitter.com/RomiTheWriter.