Shaquille O’Neal is a man of many talents. One of the most dominant, if not the most dominant NBA players in history, Shaq certainly needs no introduction. He is a 4-time NBA champion with multiple broken blackboards and terrorized defenders on his portfolio.
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The 7ft 1″ legend, since his retirement, has taken his knowledge of the sport and built a name for himself as one of the most loved analysts on TV. But apart from his jobs directly related to the NBA, O’Neal has a few more tricks up his sleeve.
An entrepreneur, a DJ, and an actor, O’Neal has tried his hands at so many things over the years. But apart from his NBA career, only his rapping career reached a level of success deserving of the Big Aristotle.
O’Neal’s first album was called Shaq Diesel. Apparently, after the album’s incredible success, O’Neal was disheartened by the response of other rappers. He revealed how the album affected their behavior.
Musicians demanded $200,000 to record with Shaquille O’Neal
Shaq Diesel was an incredible hit. It sold over a million copies and earned the RIAA: Platinum award for it. However, the success also meant that other rappers and musicians, who had previously agreed to work with Shaq, were now demanding $200,000 to record with him.
This was shocking for O’Neal who didn’t understand the reason for the change in their behavior. According to the 7ft 1″ legend, the only two rappers who still remained unchanged were Biggie Smalls and Jay-Z.
Diesel revealed that Biggie and Jay-Z, even after the success of his first album continued to work with him for free. He also revealed that they told Shaq that he was a great rapper. Shaquille O’Neal wrote of this in his book ‘Shaq Uncut.’
“When Shaq Diesel came out, everybody played it. But now I’ve got my second record and I’ve got to travel to all these radio stations and studios to promote it. They’ve got a million basketballs lined up for me and if I don’t sign them, they won’t play the record. The first time around everyone wanted to record something with me. Now all of a sudden they’re calling up and saying they’ll do it but they want $200,000. There were two guys who weren’t like that. Biggie Smalls and Jay-Z couldn’t have been nicer. They did it for free. They told me, “Man, I love your work. You are a real rapper.”
Both Biggie and Jay-Z worked with O’Neal
Biggie, better known as the Notorious B.I.G., was an insanely famous rapper in the 90s. Meanwhile, Jay-Z was still an up-and-coming artist who had yet not become as popular as he would be when the 2000s rolled in.
The two had one thing in common though, they both worked with Shaquille O’Neal on his rap album called ‘You Can’t Stop the Reign.’ Compared to his first two albums, this one wasn’t as well received but was clearly a much more ambitious project than before.
