Shaquille O’Neal is a man of several talents, and one such was making rap records. Aside from basketball, Shaq liked exploring his other hobbies as well. In early 1993, Shaq started releasing his rap records and started it out loud with his debut album, Shaq Diesel. The album received platinum certification from the RIAA and was loved by his fans and music lovers. However, by the time he peaked in his rap career, Shaq realized that it couldn’t be his career because of the money involved in it.
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Shaq earned much more from his NBA contract than from selling his rap records. In 1994, Shaq’s annual salary was around $4,80,000, for which the Diesel compared his earnings from selling rap records as ‘tip earnings.’ Furthermore, Shaq struggled to fit within the industry as he could feel the ‘industry hate’ kicking in.
Fans initially criticized Shaq’s rapping abilities; however, some critics believed in his potential to progress gradually. After the release of his second album, Shaq was having difficulty promoting and asking radio stations to play his tracks. Some radio stations would even ask Shaq to sign basketballs for them in order to play his records.
In his autobiography Shaq Uncut, the Diesel revealed,
“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 3x Finals MVP also had difficulty collaborating with other artists or bringing in features for his tracks. In his autobiography, he mentioned how some artists would even charge up to $200,000 for a feature. All in all, Shaq seemed exasperated by these affairs and decided to concentrate on his basketball career instead.
Shaquille O’Neal has released five studio albums and one compilation album. Perhaps one of the greatest achievements in Shaq’s music career was to be featured as a guest rapper alongside Michael Jackson on the song ‘2 Bad’ from Jackson’s 1995 album HIStory. Shaq has now reconnected with his musical endeavours and started his journey afresh, as in DJing as DJ Diesel.
Shaq reveals Jay-Z and Biggie were the only ones to remain loyal to him
Jay-Z and Biggie, best known as Notorious B.I.G., were two of the hottest rappers in the 1990s. Jay-Z was still a young and upcoming artist who had not made it big until the early 2000s. Both the rappers worked with Shaq in the 1990s on his rap album ‘You Can’t Stop the Reign,’ which wasn’t as well received as his last two albums. However, this album was clearly a more ambitious project than the rest.
In his autobiography, Shaq mentioned Jay Z and Biggie and wrote, “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.”
Shaq is indeed a man of many talents, excelling and earning praise from all ends.
