Most NBA fans have probably seen the clip where the late great Kobe Bryant tells interviewer Patrick Bet-David that Shaquille O’Neal would have been the greatest player of all time if he had the Mamba’s work ethic. This sentiment was the default reaction of the NBA community to Shaq’s diversity of interests outside of basketball. The Big Fella attracted a lot of flak for starting a Hip-Hop career on the side after entering the NBA. His inclination toward music and acting found a new terrain in 1996 when the Lakers offered him an unprecedented $120 million deal. Shaq’s rap career saw collabs with some of the most iconic names in the industry, like Biggie, Nas, and Jay-Z, among others. His stint in LA also got him acquainted with some of the biggest names in today’s music industry, like long-time Lakers fan Snoop Dogg. Shaq recently shared the fascinating story of how the veteran rapper got started in the business.
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Snoop Dogg recently grabbed headlines for highlighting the flaws of the current pay structure in the music industry. Before the advent of streaming services, artists would get a share of the revenue from record sales. Now they barely make anything when fans stream their music on the biggest online platforms. “Can somebody explain to me how you can get a billion streams and not get a million dollars,” Snoop Dogg recently said. The revenue received by artists for every stream in a platform like Spotify is $0.003 to $0.005, which is then divided between the artist, the record label and the platform. Shaq underlined Snoop’s concern by sharing it on his Instagram stories recently.
Shaquille O’Neal shares the story of Snoop Dogg’s first song
The 1992 track Deep Cover marked the official music debut for Snoop Dogg in a record release. The track skyrocketed the trajectory of Suge Knight and Dr. Dre’s careers. It also paved the way for the meteoric rise of Death Row records.
Recently, Snoop Dogg explained the intriguing story of the inception of the popular track, which went with the movie Deep Cover released the same year. Shaquille O’Neal couldn’t help but share the fascinating tale to his millions of fans on Instagram.
“The way that song happened, we at Dre’s house at Calabasas, no furniture in the studio. He finna go to the gym. And he like, ‘I’m finna go to the gym, put this track on. We got to do this sh*t for the sound track. I don’t even know what the f_ the movie about. But I want my first lines to be[lyrics of the song]…Boom, he leaves,” Snoop Dogg said, during an interview on Big Boy’s Neighborhood.
“Suge called about two hours later, ‘Doggy Dog, look, I’m finna call with these people on the phone, they think the song is done, so I need you to rap your a** off till I say cut it off. Doggy Dog play the sh*t you and Dre did,” Snoop added, before splitting bars from the track, showing how it was all done.
Snoop used to ask Shaq for Lakers tickets
Rappers, actors and celebrities in LA have always had a close relationship with the Los Angeles Lakers. Spotting superstars of the music and the film industry sitting courtside during Lakers games is as commonplace as the sun rising. This fandom for the Lakers among celebrities reached its peak in the late 90s and early 2000s when Shaq and Kobe dominated the court.
So it’s not surprising to find out that Snoop Dogg was always asking Shaq for tickets to the Lakers games. The rapper himself admitted on the Lakers’ Hulu documentary, “I used to blow his a** up to get free tickets.” A lifelong faithful fan of the Lakeshow, Snoop really deserves a few free tickets now and then to Lakers games.
