Ultimately, despite Kurtis Blow's loving tribute to Adrian Dantley and Hurt'Em Bad's "NBA Rap" (which actually predates Blow's song by two years), the Golden Age didn't produce much memorable NBA-related material. In part this can be attributed to the fact that Golden Age rap focused more on things like positivity and pretty girls and boogers (I see you, Biz Markie!), but I think it's mostly attributable to the fact that the NBA in the 80s was the last era of team-first professional basketball in the United States. As the 90s began and Michael Jordan started racking up championships, the NBA slowly became more about image than anything else. While the NBA was becoming more star-focused, hip hop was becoming grittier, more aggressive, and, yes, perhaps also more star-focused. The dawn of the modern era of rap begins, depending which coast you live on, either in the late 80s with the emergence of the N.W.A. or in the early 90s with records like Ready to Die, Illmatic, and Enter the Wu (36 Chambers).
Interestingly enough, at the very time period when both rap and the NBA were solidifying into what they are today (that is, somewhere in between 1990-1994) a twenty-year old center out of LSU was emerging as one of the sports world's biggest (both literally and figuratively) stars. Shaquille O'Neal won the NBA Rookie of the Year award in the 1992-1993 season after being drafted number one overall the previous year. After four years (and one Eastern Conference Championship) with the Orlando Magic, Shaq moved to Los Angeles to join the Lakers and quickly grew to be both the champion and media epicenter that we know him as today. Shaq's larger than life personality and tremendous success are important reasons why he has become rap's most-referenced baller, but the most likely explanation is the fact that his career rise was almost perfectly coincident with the growth of modern hip-hop.
It seems odd that Shaq should be ahead of Jordan in this (or any category), but it makes sense. Jordan's career was over before the 90s were and his curious decision to play baseball for a season may have made it hard to choose him as a representative of the dedicated lyricist. His grim, calculated drive to succeed made it harder to relate to him than Shaq, forever personable, star of silly movies and entertaining interviewee. Two more factors may also help explain the rap world's preference for Shaq: First, to put it bluntly, his name rhymes with a lot of things. It's really easy to incorporate it into a line seamlessly, especially since it's only one syllable. Heck, it even rhymes with my name. Secondly, Shaq remains the only NBA personality with a not-complete-failure-of-a-rap-career. Boasting a D-plus/C-minus flow and a dedicated public following, Shaq managed to release four (FOUR!) rap albums between 1993 and 1998. These weren't ignored or never-released Allen Iverson vanity projects either. Shaq Diesel went platinum and was almost entirely produced by Erick Sermon. Shaq Fu: Da Return featured guest appearances from Redman, RZA, Method Man, Warren G, and Keith Murray. You Can't Stop the Reign had three of the top 10 MCs of all-time on it as features: Jay-Z, Rakim, and Biggie. Respect went to number EIGHT on the Hip-Hop/R&B charts. I'm not saying has had a more successful rap career than Memphis Bleek, I'm just saying it's closer than it should be. Shaq even recorded a song with Michael Jackson, which is surely causing Kanye to turn in his pre-made, Egyptian-cotton-lined, Twitter-capable, $74 million coffin at this very moment. By the time Jordan retired as the undisputed Greatest Basketball Player of All-Time, Shaq was wrapping up his career as the Greatest NBA Rapper of All-Time.
All of this leads me to the creation of this blog, which is dedicated to documenting mentions of Shaq in rap songs. I've realized that rappers from every movement, geographic location, and era (except the Golden Age, of course) have shouted-out Shaq, so it's going to be a diverse list.
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