What we see? Dubstep mania in a mosh pit. What Shaq sees? Gladiator pit and he’s EDM Emperor who decides the fate. At least that’s the picture he paints. Shaquille O’Neal has performed to crowds that far surpassed the capacity of an NBA arena as a DJ. There’s a reason he chose this surprising career path after retiring. The big guy wants nothing more than to entertain fans. Sometimes he goes against his own rules to do it.

Shaquille O’Neal introduced the ‘old guys’ of The Straight Game Podcast to his new genre of music. Far from the East Coast rap Shaq Diesel was known for, DJ Diesel is the next big thing in EDM. Mike Bibby and his co-hosts were not familiar with Shaq’s description of, “Dubstep, EDM, Vegas music.”

Because they’re a bunch of athletes, Shaq explained in their terms. “because the kids there do it. It’s like a wild sports game.” For a general festival attendee, a sports game and rave don’t align. But Shaq makes it happen. “I make my kids get in the mosh pit and bite.” Okay…

O’Neal has deejayed at Lost Lands, Lollapalooza, Tomorrowland, a lot more venues, and even launched his own EDM festival, Bass All-Stars. Nowhere has he made his or any kids fight in the mosh pit. He does other fun stuff, like invite guys dressed like Spiderman on the stage, successfully make free throws into rims audiences hold up in the mosh pit, and have an attendee or two sit on his shoulders through a set.

His kids are also around. Myles, a DJ himself, is his frequent collaborator as one half of the O’Neal Boyz, EDM’s only father-son duo. Taahirah and Shareef have been on stage capturing the coolest momemts of having a world-class DJ dad for social media. So, we can conclude with confidence that O’Neal was merely joking about the situation.

Never have we seen Shaq instigate the Mosh Pit Wars. Still, there have been times that he had to enforce his rules in the mosh pit, though.

Shaquille O’Neal’s mosh pit adventures

Shaquille O’Neal went from dunking in an arena of 20,000 people to deejaying in front of 40,000 people in Lost Lands. Sometimes even he’s shocked by the energy of the crowd in festivals. Most know that sometimes things get out of hand in mosh pits.

There are several fan-taken clips on social media of Shaq stopping his set to manage the crowds or alerting organizers during an unsafe situation. O’Neal once narrated a situation that even scared him on The Big Podcast. A petite lady was hugging him at a festival when the crowd surged over them.

So Shaq channeled that MDE persona that terrorized the likes of Kevin Garnett and even Mike Bibby. “She fell, now she’s on the ground, and they’re stepping on her, so I gotta get violent,” he recalled. “But you tell people to move back, and they see you, but they (don’t listen), so now I throw a couple ‘bows.” The Big Shamrock elbow is pretty effective.

He also said, “I had an incident in Germany where a girl got messed up, and I had to take her to the hospital.”

53-year-old Shaq very bluntly barred Bibby & Co. and declared mosh pits a young people game. “Kids, they just they just want to release their energy. It’s fun, you know, ’cause remember you guys run the world. You guys have real jobs. At some point, you want to relieve that stress. So when I put on a show, you know, I’ve always had the mentality if people pay to watch you perform, always give them a show. So I try to make them fight, make them relieve that stress, and you know, just have a good time.”

And he was directly addressing a tween boy in the audience while saying this. So you know he’s in it for the smiles.