Shaquille O’Neal revealed that Ice Cube stopped him from releasing a song titled “That’s Gangsta” because he felt that the four-time NBA champion was more than what he was trying to portray on the record.
On an episode of The Big Podcast, Shaq and Cube recalled when the latter called an audible and decided to can “That’s Gangsta,” which was produced by Dr. Dre. According to Big Diesel, the West Coast rap legend was an executive producer for one of his projects and decided “That’s Gangsta” wouldn’t be released.
“Cube was executive producing one of my records,” Shaq said. “And he put me in the studio with Dr. Dre. I did a song called ‘That’s Gangsta.’ Cube heard it and was like, ‘Nope. We’re not releasing this.’ Dre did the beat.”
He continued, “I thought it was nice … And then I played it for Cube … He was like, ‘Shaq, you’re a fucking Laker, bro. I don’t want you talking about nothing gangsta. We not doing none of that shit.’ And it never came out.”
Cube gave Shaq his credit for being a “dope” rapper but claimed it didn’t make much sense for his brand that’s beloved by so many people around the world.
“Shaq is a dope MC, but I just felt the record was off-brand for him because, to me, he’s more than just gangsta,” Ice Cube said. “He’s loved by millions, loved by kids. He already established that. And why go backward when you’re already forward? You’re already a household name.”
Shaq thanked Cube for making the decision and added the lesson he learned was to stay true to who you are. “‘Cause I ain’t gonna lie. You guys wanna be basketball players, I wanted to be y’all growing up,” he said.
In addition to his successful basketball career, Shaq released four studio albums, with his first one, Shaq Diesel, going platinum.
