Before dropping out of school after three years to pursue a career in the NBA, legendary basketball player Shaquille O’Neal was DJing at his alma mater Lousiana State University. By the early peak of his basketball career with Orlando Magic, O’Neal was still making music and released his debut album, Shaq Diesel in 1993.
O’Neal released four more albums through Gorilla Warfare in 2023 and had a series of collaborations in between. In 1996, O’Neal was featured on “2 Bad” from Michael Jackson‘s 1995 album HIStory, A year later, O’Neal wrote the song “We Genie” for the soundtrack for the comedy Kazaam, which he also starred in. O’Neal also sang several other tracks for the film and was featured on the late Aaron Carter’s 2001 hit single “That’s How I Beat Shaq.” In 2010, Shaq also conducted the Boston Pops Orchestra at the Boston Symphony Hall.
Never pausing his music career, O’Neal started DJing around the world under the stage name DJ Diesel in 2014 and released a line of singles in the 2010s and 2020s. In 2023, O’Neal dropped his first rap single since the ’90s, “King Talk,” and released a remix of JRitt and Trina’s “Benjamins Deli,” “Shaq Pack,” ‘Rings,” and a rerelease of his 1996 single “You Can’t Stop the Reign,” featuring Notorious B.I.G. in 2024.
Here’s a look at five songs O’Neal co-wrote from his five albums, from 1993 through 2023.
[RELATED: Shaquille O’Neal Drops “King Talk,” First Rap Song Since the ’90s]
1. (I Know I Got) Skillz (1993)
Written by Shaquille O’Neal, Jeffrey Fortson, and Cecil Demetrius Womack Jr.
Despite mixed reviews, O’Neal’s 1993 debut album Shaq Diesel went to No. 10 on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart and peaked at No. 25 on the Billboard 200. On the album, three singles also charted on the Hot 100, including “What’s Up Doc? (Can We Rock),” featuring Fu-Schnickens (No. 39) and “I’m Outstanding” at No. 47, and the third single “(I Know I Got) Skillz,” which went to No. 35.
I dribble rhymes like Basketball-em’s
People call me E.T. (what’s that, Shaq man?), Extra-Tallem’s
You better than Shaq-tack, fool, shut up, liar
I lean on the Statue of Liberty when I get tired
Then I’ll punch you in the stomach, I don’t give a heck
(Hey yo, why you booger hook like that?) Yo, she breath on my neck
People walk around like, yo, they got charged
But I’m big like Gorilla, 6’7 ain’t large
I kick rhymes like Moo Duk Kwan Do
I smoke, smoke the mic-mic like Cheech and Chong do
You don’t like Shaq? Frankly, I don’t give a damn
I know I got skills man, I know I got skills man
2. “No Hook,” Featuring RZA and Method Man (1994)
Written by Shaquille O’Neal, Robert Diggs (RZA), and Clifford Smith (Method Man)
After the success of his debut album, O’Neal returned with Shaq Fu: Da Return in 1994. The album peaked at No. 67 on the Billboard 200 and No. 19 on the R&B/Hip-Hop chart with singles “Biological Didn’t Bother,” which O’Neal dedicated to his stepfather, Phillip A. Harrison, and “No Hook,” which went to No. 16 on the Hot Rap Songs chart.
Spectacular cardiovascular attacker
Shaq’s on the track with the Blackula
Puzzler! Rugged slugger, 40 oz guzzler
Gold nugget fangs punch holes inside your jugular
Veins, do it quick, before your brain get drained
With the horror you now have become stained
Ice cold, like the winter, Eskimo! Enter
The skill like a splinter! A decimal
Let’s have a festival, Wu-Tang Killer Bees, we
(Su!) Ah, intellectual
Styles break your mind!
Shine, n—a, shine!
We don’t need no hooks!
The Shaq Attaq has risen
Au concrete PM this is twism
Always and forever, forever always attack
I bring flava to ya ear like Craig Mack!
Life’s a B and then ya D, refer to Nasty Nas Illmatic
CD, #3 static!
You don’t want none, ya best to keep lookin’
3. “You Can’t Stop the Reign,” Featuring Notorious B.I.G. (1996)
Written by Shaquille O’Neal, Christopher Wallace (Notorious B.I.G.), Craig Williams, Chris Jones, Carl McIntosh, Jane Eugene, and Steve Nichols
For O’Neal’s third album, You Can’t Stop the Reign, the title track was co-written with the late Notorious B.I.G., who also appears on the song. The song samples the 1987 Loose Ends hit “You Can’t Stop the Rain” and features two verses contributed by B.I.G., which were later used on Michael Jackson’s 2001 Invincible song “Unbreakable.”
You can’t stop it, block it when I drop it
Anytime I go rhyme for rhyme on a topic
You ain’t even fit to step in Shaq’s arena
I look inside your mind and I see your shook demeanor
In your eyes, why are you surprised?
No matter how you try, not fly as Elliuqahs
The new edition, this is the end of your last night
In the daytime, you couldn’t see me with a flashlight
I crash flights on sights of my enemy
I’m comin’ through, and then I bomb your whole vicinity
Why they actin’ fakin’ jacks? You’re not a friend of me
I peeped your card, you’re not as hard as you pretend to be
Who want to spark it with the chocolate?
Macadamia, head clean to the cranium
You know the name, Shaq aim to maintain
Money on the brain, can’t stop the reign
You can’t stop the reign (You can’t stop the reign, no)
When it starts to fall (When it starts to fall)
There’s no one else to blame
You can’t lock that door
4. “The Way It’s Goin’ Down (Twism for Life),” Featuring Peter Gunz (1998)
Written by Shaquille O’Neal, Peter Pankey, and David Blake
O’Neals’ fourth album Respect went to No. 8 on the R&B/Hip-Hop Albums chart, “The Way It’s Goin’ Down” was the second collaboration featuring Peter Gunz and DJ Quik following “Strait Playin'” from 1996. The trio performed “The Way It’s Goin’ Down” on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno in 1998.
Now who’s that bringing that heat like D
e
Niro
Ride through your hood in a six-zero-zero
Cruisin’ at the low speed of 10
You could take a look
Make a U-turn and see me again
Big Shaq drop crews like Quick
Got a little more G’s
The one get ’em slick like Rick
Makin’ all you playa hata’s sick
Ballin’, actin’, rappin’, stackin’ chips
Got a personal vendetta
For those who oppose my dogs
Shut your windows and close your doors
Hold the walls, watch how the clean get gritty
Seven-One coming straight from the Brick City
And I’mma be Frank like Nitty
Even if I lose I’mma still get fi’ty
And you can ask Peter, call ’em on my Nokia
Or you can find him in the Bronx in a two-seater
The album also features O’Neal’s late Los Angeles Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant on the track “3 X’s Dope.”
5. “Warfare” (2023)
Written by Shaquille O’Neal, CELO, Brian Bayati, and Crankdat
When he released his fifth album, Gorilla Warfare, in 2023, it had been 25 years since Respect, and Shaq had already started DJing under the moniker DJ Diesel in 2014 after retiring from the NBA in 2011. A collection of more hardcore electronic songs, Gorilla Warfare is a product of his Diesel sets.
“The whole genre is energy,” said O’Neal in 2022. “I missed that once retiring. Bass music was the vice I was missing and desperately needed. ”
Start a riot, start a fight
Start a mosh pit, start from left to right
Meet in the middle, settle the score
Point that motherfucker out, let ’em know it’s war
Start a riot, start a fight
Start a mosh pit, start from left to right
Meet in the middle, settle the score
Point that motherfucker out, let ’em know it’s war
Photo: imageSPACE/Shutterstock
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