Hip hop group Coyote – consisting of rappers Ladies Love Guapo and Ricky Blanco – recently made an appearance on Power 106 Los Angeles where they discussed their upcoming projects. During the 12-minute video uploaded on YouTube, Guapo and Blanco spoke about their recent collaboration – RINGS – with Shaquille O’Neal.
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When asked about their experience of working on a project with Shaquille O’Neal, Coyote revealed some details of the song. Putting a graphic image in the viewers’ minds, they disclosed that Shaq was ripping Charles Barkley’s head off in the Celebrity Deathmatch-inspired music video.
“Big Diesel, man, ripping off Charles Barkley’s head… Got inspired by Celebrity Deathmatch growing up. So it’s got that little vibe to it and all in all the song is a straight banger if you ask me… You gonna hear it everywhere,” Blanco said.
Further, Guapo claimed that the song was only something that “winners” could relate to.
“It’s a song only winners can relate to, man. If you ever got a dub then you could relate to,” Guapo said.
Without Barkley being berated in the music video, it seems as though Guapo took a subtle shot at the NBA legend.
As seen toward the end of the video, after O’Neal’s character hit a long-range shot, he went on to decapitate Barkley and dunk his head in the basket.
Truly, the video encapsulates Shaq’s relationship with Barkley. Also, audio of Shaq and Barkley quarreling has been added at the beginning of the song.
Shaquille O’Neal collaborated with Coyote before as well
RINGS isn’t the first song that Shaquille O’Neal has collaborated with Coyote. Back in 2023, the Big Aristotle linked up with the LA-based rappers for the song 3 Lokos.
Talking about how this collaboration came to existence, Love Guapo told TMZ:
“[Shaq] was like as long as it’s some hardcore stuff, I’m down. So we made a hardcore hip hop ’90s-type song and we’re like ‘Bro, let’s send it to Shaq,’ and he got on it, did his thing, he spit like 32 bars. He went off!”
Merely a few hours after hearing the beat, an enthusiastic O’Neal shared his verse.
“4 hours later he FaceTimes us and he shows us his verse and he went crazy! He’s rapping better than 90% of rappers out there.”
Shaquille O’Neal’s rap game being so good isn’t surprising. As early as in the 1990s, Shaq was in the studios and recorded four albums with Shaq Diesel going platinum. In more recent history, O’Neal dissed fellow NBA superstar and part-time rapper Damian Lillard.
While Shaq might be one of the best basketball players ever, his rapping cannot be undermined. It won’t be surprising to see O’Neal spend more time in the studio and collaborate with more artists.
