Shaquille O’Neal is a platinum-selling artist. Shaq went platinum with his first album titled ‘Shaq Diesel’ released in 1993. However, the journey to that point wasn’t an easy one, and unfortunately, neither was the outcome. Recently the Big Man talked about his experience of making music back in the day.

Shaq was in conversation with Mike WiLL Made-It on The Big Podcast. The 4x NBA champion has stated that he makes music for fun, for the love of it, and not because he wants to make money off it. However, this realization only came after Shaq got to see the dark side of the creative business.

Shaquille O’Neal unveils an ugly side to the industry

When Shaq was making waves in the NBA, his love for hip-hop music was well known. Soon, Jive Records approached the Big Man with a 3-album deal for $10 million. Since he was already passionate about music, taking the deal was a no-brainer for Shaq. He said, “When I did the first album, produced by Erick Sermon and Redman, they put me through the wringer. They taught me the music business.” The two pioneers of hip-hop were co-signing Shaq’s project, so they wanted him to come through with the talent for it.

“Sometimes I’ll be in the studio all night. Nah, do it again. Do it again,” Shaq recalled his grueling experience in the studio. One big positive in all of this was that despite his lack of experience in making music, Shaq was working with some of the biggest names in the industry and that was a conscious decision by the Big Man. Shaq said, “Every time I worked with a producer, I’d say ‘send me a beat’ and he was like nah, you gotta audition. So I’d have to come in and freestyle and have my stuff ready.”

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Despite the challenges along the way, Shaq still got to work with the people he admired. However, what put him off initially was the payout from the music that he was doing.

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As an NBA star at the time, Shaq was minting money so the cheque from his side hustle seemed even more insignificant. He said, “I did it for fun. I went platinum the first time. I was like damn this feels really good…when I got the cheque, I was like ‘This is it?'” After that, it was all about the love of music for Shaq and he never brought money into the equation.

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