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In 1992, the Orlando Magic drafted Shaquille O’Neal with the first overall pick in the NBA Draft, and the legendary big man wasted no time picking up where he left off after absolutely dominating the competition during the three years he spent at LSU.
There was little doubt Shaq had what it took to hang with the best players in the world, and he proved he could do exactly that over the course of an inaugural campaign where he secured Rookie of the Year honors and became the first first-year player to be selected to an All-Star Team since some guy named Michael Jordan managed to do the same.
Shaq obviously put a ton of time and effort into developing his game, but it was clear from early on that he wasn’t simply satisfied with being known as one of the most electric players in the league.
It didn’t take long for him to set his sights on the entertainment industry, which included a foray into acting that kicked off when he starred in 1994’s Blue Chips before the critical and commercial disaster that was Kazaam essentially marked the beginning of the end of his attempts to become a leading man.
However, he had a bit more success with his foray into another realm: the world of hip-hop, where he was more than able to hold his own while pursuing a surprisingly successful career, which a lot of people have forgotten about by now but is worth being remembered.
How Shaq took the rap world by storm in the 1990s
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A number of NBA players have dipped their toes into the hip-hop waters over the years; Damian Lillard has released a steady stream of music over the course of his career (including a song where he fired some shots at Shaq), and Ron Artest and Allen Iverson each released a full album in their prime (which probably didn’t thrill former commissioner David Stern).
However, they have nothing on what Shaq was able to achieve after stepping into the booth in the 1990s.
In 1993, O’Neal dropped his debut album in the form of Shaq Diesel, a 12-track record featuring multiple guest appearances by Phife Dog of A Tribe Called Quest.
While it was far from a classic, the first single “(I Know I Got) Skillz” peaked at #35 on the Billboard Hot 100 (the second, “I’m Outstanding,” would hit #47), and it generated enough interest among listeners to eventually be certified platinum by the RIAA thanks to the more than one million copies that were eventually sold.
In 1994, we were treated to a follow-up after O’Neal teamed up with Jive Records for a second time for Shaq Fu: Da Return, which boasted an opening track featuring Method Man and Red Man and another song where he was joined by West Coast legend Warren G.
His sophomore effort wasn’t as successful as his freshman one, but it still peaked at #67 on the Billboard 200 and sold more than 500,000 copies en route to going gold.
Shaq signed with Interscope prior to the release of You Can’t Stop the Reign in 1996. It was far and away his most star-studded effort yet thanks to contributions from Jay-Z, The Notorious B.I.G., Mobb Deep, Rakim, and Bobby Brown, but it failed to measure up to his previous efforts on the commercial front and peaked at #82 on the Billboard 200.
1998’s Respect marked the unofficial end of Shaq’s rap career. While the album itself peaked higher on the charts than the previous one, the content itself was largely forgettable—although it does feature Kobe Bryant serving as an uncredited hype man on the intro to one of the songs.
That largely marked the end of Shaq’s foray into the world of rap, as he now seems a bit more content with DJing as a side hustle after ending a 20-year musical hiatus with a pivot to EDM in 2018.