In the last year or so, Shaquille O’Neal – one of the greatest basketball players of all-time – has delightfully bewildered the electronic music community and blown away headbangers with his rise as DJ Diesel, becoming one of the most deliriously satisfying new acts in bass and trap music.
But let’s be very clear: this ain’t some celebrity-DJ gimmick. Shaq was spinning records as far back as 1988, carrying crates of vinyls to DJ at parties in high school and college. Three decades later, at Lost Lands 2018, he put the whole EDM scene on note when he delivered a surprise set of filthy riddim to the wooks, proving just how hard he legitimately throws down.
While he kept DJ equipment at home all those years, he stepped away from DJing upon switching his musical pursuits towards rapping. After winning Rookie of the Year playing on the Orlando Magic team in 1993, Shaq followed that up with the release of his first rap album “Shaq Diesel”. In the spring of ‘94 it reached one million sales, and to this day remains the only album by a professional athlete to attain platinum status. His subsequent rap albums, in late ‘94, ‘96 and ‘98, achieved moderate success.
In 2014, three years after retiring from the NBA, Shaq snuck through the back of the production area of the TomorrowWorld music festival, 30 miles outside of Atlanta, Georgia. Promoter Joe Silberzweig discovered the 7’1”, 325-pound giant and showed him around. As his first immersion in the EDM scene, Shaq found himself so in awe of the tens of thousands of music fans of different cultures and languages all vibing together, he decided there that he’d return to DJing. As someone who literally went hard in the paint for 20 years, evolving his hip-hop background into hard and heavy bass, trap and dubstep was a natural progression for him.
Shaq persisted in sending his new mixes to Silberzweig to convince the promoter of his status as a real-deal DJ, and his wish came true as he got booked for TomorrowWorld 2015 and Silberzweig signed on as his manager. DJ Diesel’s first single, the collaboration with Kryoman “My Squad Is Lit” – a kinda goofy yet eminently catchy trap-banger – came out in fall 2015. Shaq was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in April 2016 and then hit a huge milestone for his new career a few months later as he performed at Tomorrowland in Belgium.
The concept of Shaq as a DJ and party curator was launched upon the public in full force for Miami Music Week 2018, with Shaq’s Fun House merging the All-Star’s larger-than-life personality, over-the-top style and kinetic music showcases. Taking a MMW party to a more extravagant level with carnival attractions and circus elements like cabaret dancers, the event included Diplo, Steve Aoki, A-Trak and Carnage, making big enough waves that the EDM scene in-general became aware of Shaq’s new direction. He began expanding with more gigs across the U.S., in other countries, and befriending and working with notable DJs.
Many people automatically assumed Shaq’s star-power to be the driving factor of the DJ Diesel brand and his musical capabilities only average. That is, until social media reacted in a shocked frenzy declaring Shaq to have laid down one of the most face-meltingly gnarly sets of Lost Lands 2018. Then they had to see for themselves. So Decadence Arizona gave people the opportunity with the headling set on New Year’s Eve, pairing DJ Diesel and NGHTMRE together for a midnight b2b to ring in 2019. Shaq has called NGHTMRE the “Larry Bird of trap music”, and since opening the year together, they produced the savage blaster “BANG” with Lil Jon.
This has truly been a banner year for Diesel as he’s transformed into a titan of trap and bass. Shaq’s Fun House grew into a raucous gamechanger with a Super Bowl celebration in Atlanta featuring Migos, Diplo, Tiësto, Lil Jon, T-Pain and even Cirque Du Soleil! But that was only the lead-up to his balls-to-the-wall MMW return less than two months later, where Diesel scored a slam dunk with some of his previous Fun House cohorts as well as Armin Van Buuren, Kaskade, NGHTMRE, Oliver Heldens, Jauz and more. To kick off the summer, he conquered the legendary venue of Red Rocks, too, leaving the crowd in shambles and outshining headliner Dillon Francis by a longshot.
In a resurgence of the unstoppable momentum that led him to three-straight NBA championships from 2000-2002, Diesel came full circle in July as he crushed the main stage at Tomorrowland. Considering the TL mainstage primarily hosts house and techno DJs, a bass/trap artist there is rare; that Shaq played it is absolutely historic. Consequently, the U.S. seemed to have owed him more respect as a DJ, which manifested at Imagine Music Festival in Atlanta, Georgia when Diplo bailed on his Friday-night headlining spot at the main stage. Shaq has become an icon in Atlanta in recent years (he’s even a sheriff’s deputy in a neighboring county), so he was the perfect replacement.
The Diesel brand of bass-driven trap and dub booms with an electrifying pace, dynamic variety, invigorating drops and cheeky flavor. Just as Shaq feeds off the lively energy of the crowd, it’s hard not to be endeared and engaged by how much fun he’s personally having. He even made a grand entrance in an outfit with two glowing jellyfish hanging above his shoulders. His fiendish shouts of “Where’s my mosh pit?!” and “Break that fucking rail!” elicit giddy excitement within the audience, and catching a glimpse of him (or participating) in the mosh pit he personally joins at the end of his sets offers a moment of pure glee.
Diesel will be slaying Decadence Colorado on New Year’s Eve, and if we’re lucky, he’ll be bringing in the new decade at midnight. Tickets start at $161.75 after fees for night one, $193.15 after fees for night two, and $285.38 after fees for a two-day pass. The Trap Monster awaits you!
