The Shaq Renaissance

For anybody who doesn’t know, Shaquille O’Neal likes to rap. Hell I’ll say it, Shaquille O’Neal has bars.

He joined the NBA in 1992, but he couldn’t stay away from the mic. Releasing his first album, Shaq Diesel in 1993, Shaq went platinum. Give it a listen if you have the chance, it is very much a product of the early 90’s but it pretty OK. He went on to release 3 more rap albums, but none of them reached the heights of this first album. It should be noted, these are legit rap albums. There is some goofy stuff, like a track with Kobe Bryant on 1998’s Respect. But he also had legit MCs on various albums, including Phife Dawg, Method Man, RZA, Redman, Notorious B.I.G. , and Peter Gunz (among others). Even crazier, the man writes his own rhymes. As certified by Def Jef, Peter Gunz and fucking Redman.

Let’s move forward in time a bit. At some point, Shaq decided he wanted to get in to creating EDM music. Showing up at TommorrowWorld in 2015, Shaq decided to go all in on EDM music. Using the name DJ Diesel, he started his own yearly festival, Shaq’s Fun House and has performed at various other shows. He even released an EDM album, Gorilla Warfare. Overall, he seems to be having fun.

But this isn’t the EDM community, this his HipHopHeads. So let’s talk about The Shaq Renaissance. As far as I can tell, his apparent return to rap started 6 months ago when he uploaded Bodies Freestyle to his youtube channel. A few days later, he was on King Talk. Next he showed up on a track with Z-Ro, Stop The Rain. Then he appeard on 3 Lokos with Coyote. Most recently, he has a verse on the Shaq & Kobe Remix with Rick Ross, Meek Mill and Dame D.O.L.L.A. What is really crazy is that except for the Shaq & Kobe Remix, I think Shaq might have the best verse on all of these songs.

So why am I posting this? I think people need to know this is happening. I also think Shaquille O’Neal might be building up to an album release which honestly, will probably be pretty good. Not AOTY or anything, but worth a listen. The Shaq Renaissance is coming. The most dominant player in NBA history is back in the rap game and if we don’t watch out, he might dunk on us all.