In a new extended interview with Yahoo Entertainment, our man Shaq talked about how both basketball and music are important puzzle pieces of his super-busy life. Thanks to Yahoo for the info for this post.
O’Neal’s love of hoops and music both started early. He says when he was very young, his father made him write out ideas – from “A” to “Z” – of what he wanted to be when he grew up. “Like, ‘B’ was for basketball player. ‘C’ was a cop. ‘D’ was a detective. ‘E’ was entrepreneur. ‘G’ was a gangster, believe it or not. ‘H’ was house husband — I wanted to marry a rich princess!”
Of course the “B” idea worked out pretty well for the young O’Neal. We all know his dominant career spanning two decades in the NBA… winning multiple Championship rings in the process.
But if the young Shaq really did write down “detective” for his “D” selection, he seems to have missed the mark. Perhaps at that young age, he didn’t know about another possible “D” … that being DJ! Shaq told Yahoo that as early as the age of 14, he attended a Public Enemy concert, and it’s been one of his favorite music-related memories for years.
That started Shaq on his DJ and music career. He says he saved up money from the odd jobs he did as a kid and spent about $200 to buy a couple of turntables from a local pawn shop. That led to DJ gigs at local high school and college parties.
While he enjoyed the DJ work, obviously his main career was basketball, but that didn’t stop Shaq from making some music on the side as well. The Shaq says the call came from record company Jive Music: “But I got away from [DJing] when Jive said, ‘We’ll give you $10 million, we’ll do three albums.’ I was like, ‘Um, I’ll do it’” No kidding!
That led to Shaq’s surprisingly successful hip-hop career in the 1990s, coinciding with the peak of his NBA fame. Being in Los Angeles probably helped! The big man enjoyed several Billboard Hot 100 hit singles and albums for Jive Records that sold gold or even platinum.
Still, the DJ thing never left Shaq’s mind. Fast-forward to the TomorrowWorld electronic music festival, where Shaq was in the crowd to see and hear the likes of superstar DJs Tiesto and Skrillex. Shaq was hooked – again: “I was like, ‘You know what? This right here is what I want to do!’”
Just this week, Shaq is back in the music-world spotlight, releasing a dubstep album called GORILLA WARFARE. It’s his first full-length studio album in 25 years, on Monstercat Records.
Shaq told Yahoo it was dubstep music that helped get him out of a mild depression after he retired from professional basketball in 2011. “I don’t like to use the D-word,” he says, talking about “depression.” “Because I know a lot of people are really going through that stuff, and I really have nothing to make me feel like that. But yes, I was definitely in a funk. … Music was the only thing that got me [out of it].”
Sure, the experiences are very different. But Shaq says the rush of playing high-level professional basketball and being a DJ on stage in front of a huge crowd make for a comparable rush: “When I DJ, it gives me the same adrenaline rush as a playoff championship game. That’s why I do it. For 10 years after I retired, I didn’t have that. I would get it in spurts. I’d go to a restaurant, and [fans would yell], ‘Shaq!’ — and then done. I needed more. So, when I went to see Tiesto perform for 100,000 people, hit that, I was like, ‘I’ve never seen nothing like this before. … This feels like a championship parade.’”
As for the new album, GORILLA WARFARE includes tracks with – in Shaq’s words – “10 incredible collaborators.” There’s dubstep up-and-comers like Celo, Hairitage, and his “favorite,” Jessica Audiffred. As Shaq says, “I just want to make sure the kids have a great time and we come with the music that they like. I know if I would’ve used my celebrity status, I would’ve been in and out real quickly. But they can tell that we take it seriously and we do a good thing. I think when they call me the ‘Dubstep Dad,’ that’s saying, ‘We know you’re old, but you are a cool dad. So, we accept you, Dad!’”