Shaq Diesel Elizabethtown KY

Shaq Diesel

Shaquille O'Neal

Jive Records, 1993

REVIEW BY: Alfredo Narvaez

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 11/27/1998

Okay. I'll admit it. Way back when, I bought this album. I wasyoung, dumb and looking to waste some bucks. Now, I knowbetter.

Basically, this album can be seen as a concept album. Theconcept? Shaquille O'Neal is the biggest, baddest, toughest, bestplayer ever--in basketball or in any other aspect of life. Now,Dennis Rodman notwithstanding, it's hard to argue with Shaq'spresence on the basketball court (well, except at the free-throwline). But not all of his talents need to be shared outside of thebasketball court--i.e. Steel.

Look at what I mean. The titles of his songs go from "(I Know IGot) Skillz" to "Game Over" to "I Hate 2 Brag." Besides filling outthe now-standard hip-hop cliches of misspelling, Shaq attempts toshow just how good he is. How? By comparing nearly everything inlife to basketball. And that joke runs cold after the tenth minuteof listening to it. "Do you want me to shoot it?/Do you want me topass it?/Do you want me to slam?" C'mon. While he's supposed towrite about what he knows about, I'd hate to know that basketballis the only thing there is on his life.

I'll give him this much credit. He knows that he's not the bestrapper around. So he asks fellow rappers Fu-Schnickens to gueststar in "What's Up Doc? (Can We Rock)." The trade-offs are amusingand the song is catchy. (Quick question though: Whatever happenedto Fu-Schnickens???)