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“Kanye, Me and You Are the Same People…They Treat Us Like We’re Evil”: Shaquille O’Neal Had Love for Kanye West Long Before Net Worth Beef

Published 11/09/2022, 1:39 PM EST

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Recently, 4-time NBA champion Shaquille O’Neal and famous rapper, Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, made headlines together. West stirred up the beef between the two when he tweeted about Shaq’s business alliance. Shaq responded by asking Kanye to take care of his family. He even quoted a line from Kanye’s song, “I got more money than you, why would I listen to you?”  But long before this fight, the two were good friends. Shaq had also recorded a video of him singing for Kanye.

In 2015, Kim Kardashian rented out the entire Crypto.com arena( then Staples center) for Kanye’s birthday party. She invited a bunch of Kanye’s friends which included some celebrities like John Legend and Justin Bieber. The idea was that Kanye could spend his party playing ball at the home of the LA Lakers.

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It was a mega celebration with cheerleaders dressed in shimmy golden outfits with the Lakers logo. However, Shaq couldn’t make it to the party. Therefore, he sent Kanye a 90-second video to celebrate the grand occasion.

Shaquille O’Neal had nothing but love for Kanye West

In the birthday video, Shaq lipsynced to Kanye’s song Runaway. However, he added a few lines of his own. While wishing Kanye a happy birthday, Shaq rapped about Staples Centre. He sang, Staples Center, that was me, 2001 to 2003./ MVP,/ I did it by myself. /Can’t you tell by my accumulated wealth?

Read More: “Jay Z Was Right About Kanye West”: Shaquille O’Neal Shares “You Dropped Out of School Diss” That Broke the Internet

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Shaq then drew a similarity between him and Kanye. He stated that they were the same people. He said, “Kanye, Me and you the same people/ We under-rated, they treat us like we evil./ It don’t matter, happy birthday to you.” He continued to sing the lyrics to Runaway with the song playing in the background. Shaq recorded this video while in the car driving.

However, this isn’t the first time Shaq has expressed his love and support for Kanye. There have been two other instances when Shaq has recorded himself singing or dancing to a Kanye West song.

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Post-retirement, Shaq had a puppet series going on online. He’d hold a puppet version of himself and hold conversations while grooving to the music. Shaq once posted a video of his puppet and himself lipsyncing to Kanye West’s song ‘Can’t tell me nothing’.

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However, a forever fan favorite is when Shaq posted a video of himself dancing to Kanye’s song Fade. In the video, Shaq is seen mimicking the dance from the music video. He captioned this video, “feeling faded #remixchallenge can anyone beat this?” 

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WATCH THIS STORY:  Here’s how Ben Simmons, LeBron James, Shaquille O’Neal, and other NBA stars spent their first paychecks 

Do you think this duo can go back to being friends after the recent series of events? Let us know in the comments below.

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Written by:

Shriya Rajachandra

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Shriya Rajachandra is an NBA writer for EssentiallySports. She earned a bachelor's degree in Journalism, Psychology, and Communicative English. Shriya previously interned at The New Indian Express, but her favorite journalist, Marcus Thompson motivated her to start writing about basketball.
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Edited by:

Satagni Sikder