When UMass Lowell guard Anthony Blunt tore a PCL before the 2022-23 season, an overwhelming feeling of disappointment consumed him.
It was supposed to be his last year playing alongside his brother, Allin. Together, they were supposed to help the River Hawks qualify for March Madness. Instead, UMass Lowell fell one game short, and all Blunt could do was watch.
Fortunately, as one dream died, another reached new heights. Blunt, an up-and-coming rapper who goes by the moniker Ant Blunt, poured everything he had into his music career. He views that period of his life as a blessing in disguise, as he reframed his mind-set and focused on what he could control.
“It was a very difficult time for me with my mental health,” Blunt said. “Music was like therapy. It was my getaway.”
Blunt, who opened for Trippie Redd at Tsongas Center in January 2023, grew his following and invested more time into music videos. Now, he’s back on the court as a senior role player, seamlessly balancing basketball, rapping, academics, designing sneakers, and running a clothing brand. He’s dropping an album, called “Soul Searching,” Dec. 2, the same day the River Hawks host Merrimack.
His versatility amazes his teammates. On the court, they forget he’s a rapper, but his no-look passes offer a reminder. When he raps, they forget he’s a Division 1 basketball player. His fluidity and smooth delivery in each avenue connect the dots.
“Having that mind around me, and around our team, it gets our creative juices flowing,” senior guard Ayinde Hikim said. “On and off the court, he’s someone that we look up to. He’s definitely a leader on this team.”
Blunt, who grew up in Maryland, credits his parents, Alvin and Ursula, for making sacrifices to ensure their boys stayed safe. When his family moved into his grandmother’s house in Bowie, his parents slept on the floor so Allin could have a bed and Anthony a couch.
When Blunt veered down a “bad path” early in high school, his parents were there to help him return to his roots.
Rapping wasn’t initially on his radar, but some friendly trash talk at the lunch table changed everything. There was a heated debate about who could make the best song, and Blunt was confident. His friends were skeptical, but Blunt went to work.
He wrote more songs as a member of the school chorus and tried them out in a freestyle circle across the street from school. When people reacted positively, he put up the bit of money he had toward a studio session and made his first song.
A few months later — in the back of a truck, in between package deliveries during a UPS shift — he created the song “Stick and Move,” and his mind started racing.
“I was able to see what my potential was musically,” Blunt said. “That’s where the switch flipped in my head, to, ‘OK, I could probably do this.’ ”
When a stranger at the airport saw his UMass Lowell gear and chatted him up, listened to his music, and encouraged him to find a show, Blunt was intrigued.
Blunt, who knew just about no one in Massachusetts as a freshman, saw a flyer on Instagram that gave the person with the most comments a chance to open for rapper Foolio. Blunt begged everyone he knew to comment, and he even approached strangers at the mall to do the same.
He won the contest, opened at Smokehouse Tavern in Lowell, and was “high off life.” The promoter helped him land gigs opening for Asian Doll and Bizzy Banks, and suddenly he was on the rise.
Blunt started networking in Lowell, Boston, and Lawrence. He won a Concert Crave showcase event, out of nearly 50 contestants, and got to open for Shordie Shordie.
“I fell in love with it,” Blunt said. “The emotions that you feel up there, it’s an amazing feeling. From that point, I just got hungry with it.”
Teammate Quinton Mincey schmoozed the promoters for a Polo G show, and eventually they asked Blunt to open for Trippie Redd, who has 13.6 million followers on Instagram. Fans have started asking him for a picture, which he still can’t believe.
Blunt called rapping “a whole different type of pressure” than basketball, because all eyes are on him.
As Blunt’s rap career has skyrocketed, the 6-foot-2-inch energizer hasn’t lost sight of his hoop dreams. A 1,000-point scorer and two-year captain at St. Vincent Pallotti, Blunt dealt with injuries in high school but still earned a preferred walk-on spot at UMass Lowell.
He garnered America East all-rookie honors as a freshman, earned a scholarship, and appeared in all 31 games as a sophomore (3.5 points, 2.2 rebounds in 16 minutes per game). Now, he’s poised for a breakout season following the injury.
Balancing everything can get tricky, but Blunt wouldn’t have it any other way.
“He’s a very talented, well-rounded kid,” River Hawks coach Pat Duquette said. “He has a lot of different interests and a lot of talent in a lot of different areas. Obviously, being a Division 1 basketball player is one of those talents.”
Trevor Hass can be reached at trevor.hass@globe.com. Follow him on X @TrevorHass.