Shaq Diesel

Shaquille O'Neal

Jive Records, 1993

http://www.shaq.com

REVIEW BY: Alfredo Narvaez

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 11/27/1998

Okay. I'll admit it. Way back when, I bought this album. I was young, dumb and looking to waste some bucks. Now, I know better.my_heart_sings_the_harmony_web_ad_alt_250

Basically, this album can be seen as a concept album. The concept? Shaquille O'Neal is the biggest, baddest, toughest, best player ever--in basketball or in any other aspect of life. Now, Dennis Rodman notwithstanding, it's hard to argue with Shaq's presence on the basketball court (well, except at the free-throw line). But not all of his talents need to be shared outside of the basketball court--i.e. Steel.

Look at what I mean. The titles of his songs go from "(I Know I Got) Skillz" to "Game Over" to "I Hate 2 Brag." Besides filling out the now-standard hip-hop cliches of misspelling, Shaq attempts to show just how good he is. How? By comparing nearly everything in life to basketball. And that joke runs cold after the tenth minute of listening to it. "Do you want me to shoot it?/Do you want me to pass it?/Do you want me to slam?" C'mon. While he's supposed to write about what he knows about, I'd hate to know that basketball is the only thing there is on his life.

I'll give him this much credit. He knows that he's not the best rapper around. So he asks fellow rappers Fu-Schnickens to guest star in "What's Up Doc? (Can We Rock)." The trade-offs are amusing and the song is catchy. (Quick question though: Whatever happened to Fu-Schnickens???)

Shaq has gone on to make more albums and from what I've heard and read, he has improved. That's good. However, from this starting point, you couldn't have guessed it. I hope that he has learned to incorporate more of his life into his music than just basketball. After all, he may be out for a while and there has yet to be light seen for the basketball season. (That's another story.)

Rating: D-

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© 1998 Alfredo Narvaez and The Daily Vault. All rights reserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without written permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of Jive Records, and is used for informational purposes only.