The New Year celebration in Tampa was larger than life. Shaquille O’Neal rang in 2025 with at least one of his six kids, Myles O’Neal, in South Florida. His NYE bash at Armature Works was a spectacle like no other. Fireworks, dance, and the Tampa Bay skyline highlighted DJ Diesel’s on-stage. Off-stage, he was typical Shaq. We know that thanks to some party heads out there.

Several attendees at this New Year concert started 2025 with a flex-watching DJ Diesel in action. Very quickly, the Florida communities online were filled with Shaq-ness all over.

One of the backstage updates came from the Tampa-based artist, Jerry Rodriguez. He usually makes celebrity portraits in his absolutely stunning signature tone. He did one for Shaq – not in his NBA persona – but as DJ Diesel, complete with O’Neal’s usual blank tank and hard on-stage smolder. The USP – it took Rodriguez only an hour to make this masterpiece.

Shaq saw it, loved it, and signed it. Rodriguez’s wife filmed it and he shared the backstage moment on his official social media pages emphatically declaring, “SHAQ signed my painting!!” We’re surprised Shaq didn’t buy that painting off him right there. He looked it up and down like a person stunned with talent.

He told Jerry something that wasn’t audible over the music. But Rodriguez wrote, “Starting off the year right! Thank you @djdiesel for taking the time to sign and take a picture with me! 2025 is going to be BIG…You can see Shaq’s reaction when I told him I did this painting in 1 hour!!”

Pied Piper Productions, the organizers of Shaq’s New Year party, apparently made the moment possible.

Shaquille O’Neal lit up Tampa with his friends

Shaquille O’Neal made New Year’s special for a lot of people. He featured as a guest at his son, Myles’ event at E11EVEN in Miami on Monday first. From there, the O’Neal Boyz were in Tampa to party at the bay from 8 to 2. His other kids – Shareef, Shaqir, and Me’Arah are in Florida too – were absent from his New Year’s bash but it didn’t look amiss.

Pied Piper Productions already had Henry Fong, Roxy Ferrari, DJ Camo, and Kelly Mae alongside the giant traphead. However, several attendees revealed Shaq surprised them all by bringing out one of his favorite collaborators, EXCISION.

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Former pro boxer, heavyweight champ, and Olympian, Riddick Bowe was at the party too. Several fans caught both of them offstage for pictures.

Tampa couldn’t have given the rest of the world bigger FOMO than having Shaq DJ them into 2025. Nevertheless, the kind folks on social media are thankfully there to help fill in the gaps.