Did you know Kanye West's The College Dropout was actually Shaq Diesel reimagined? Just look at the...Well, forget it. Even some sort of ironic humor is a stretch. But we will say this: As much as Shaquille O'Neal's hip-hop career has been slept on, he does hold achievements that A$AP Rocky, Pusha T, Meek Mill, or many of the better rappers in the game don't have. He has a platinum-selling album in Shaq Diesel and a feature on a Michael Jackson album. The latter of which is sadly and literally impossible to match.
O'Neal is also the last great of a dying breed, and that's not talking about centers either. He's likely going to be the last NBA star to have a commercially respectable rap career. O'Neal definitely isn't a great rapper—dude was saying shit like "I'm hard like a 360 twice jam" and thought nothing of it—but there's some bars that are, dare we say, Kendrick Lamar-esque. Can you differentiate a Shaq line from a "real" rapper's? Prove it below.
1. Macklemore or Shaquille O'Neal: "Mom cracked a smile, Daddy gave a frown/I said to myself, I can't let them down"
2. Common or Shaquille O'Neal: "Reality brings forth realism/It's the man of steel/Organism Twism/I'm full of trisim"
3. Drake or Shaquille O'Neal: "I flow far from mediocre/And if we talking cards I will fold him with the poker'"
4. Eminem or Shaquille O'Neal: "Yo I Gets Busy, packs more Speed than K. Reeves/You best believe, my loot's stacked up like a RuPaul weave"
5. Kanye West or Shaquille O'Neal: "So unusual to be in this position/Everything I say everybody tryna diss ‘em"
6. Pusha T or Shaquille O'Neal: "No D-league, I'm like this close/'88 Jordan, leaping from the free throw"
7. Kendrick Lamar or Shaquille O'Neal: "All these destinations with split second acceleration/It caps enough time to witness you're gone evaporation"
8. A$AP Rocky or Shaquille O'Neal: "I'm coming for your neck, hey, I ain't indirect/They in debt, pay respect, now I'm coming to collect"
9. Meek Mill or Shaquille O'Neal: "In and out the flows, crossing over like I'm dribblin'/Runnin' laps round the raps, I'm tire like Michelin"
10. The Notorious B.I.G or Shaquille O'Neal: "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"