There’s only one thing to do between breaks at work – a solo karaoke jam. Shaquille O’Neal is belting (somewhat) soulful tunes while the TNT crew is supposed to watch the in-season tournament. He’s not keeping it behind the scenes, though. He’s letting everyone on Instagram see he can sing (again, somewhat). The problem though, his literally hidden talent doesn’t convince anyone. Not even his niece.

His only backer is a fellow artist. Mere days before R&B Diesel debuted, a songwriting star was hyped to work with Shaq.

Shaquille O’Neal plays the masked singer

Shaquille O’Neal took a break from analyzing NBA games to jam behind the scenes. He let his 33 million Instagram followers know, “dat boy can sang” with his rendition of SWV’s “Rain.” The thing though, this acapella version of the verse is suspiciously good.

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So, the husky-voiced bass giant is not convincing anyone he’s turned into a smooth (and starkly thin-voiced) R&B crooner. Especially not Angel Reese. “you can’t sing unc,” she was comfortable enough to remind him.

His followers hilariously noted Shaq doesn’t even seem to know the lyrics. So he’s not “dat boy.” He’s the ultimate hypeman though. He’s been in the Bayou Barbie’s corner since day 1.

Not only did he knight her LSU’s GOAT and sign her to Reebok, but he also helped her weather the scrutiny of her absence during multiple games. “This too shall pass,” he told Reese during their regular communication. She revealed his pep-talk upon her comeback and thanked him for being there for her.

Reese reciprocated the favor by blowing the lid on his act instead of encouraging him. Only a true artist appreciates Shaq’s musical genius.

DJ Diesel’s partner to the rescue

We’d like Shaq to unveil his uber-talented background vocal artist singing unplugged. That’s not happening, though. Instead, his colleague from his other job, Luke Gawne, humored his lip-sync attempt with fire emojis.

The Chicago-based rapper collaborated with DJ Diesel for a new track this month. He revealed that O’Neal wrote his own verse – calling it “the hardest verse of 2023” – along with rapping it.

Shaq won’t have a hard time convincing anyone he’s a rapper when his song and music video with GAWNE drops on December 8. We’re looking forward to Angel Reese’s commentary on that.

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