Shaquille O’Neal Talks Debut EDM Album as DJ Diesel, Playing Lollapalooza for 100,000 Fans: ‘It Gives Me the Feeling of a Playoff Game’
variety.comJazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Shaquille O’Neal is one of the biggest basketball stars in the world, but there’s another side to him: DJ Diesel.
As Diesel, he’s been playing the DJ circuit around the world for a few years, and he’s just released his debut album, “Gorilla Warfare.” His sound is best described as a mix of EDM, rock and hip-hop, and “Warfare” features 10 tracks with fellow DJ collaborators, including Jessica Audiffred, Crackdat aka Christian Smith, Hairitage, CELO, VRG & Blackway, Soltan, Kompany, TRXGGX, Rated R and Chassi & Kozmoz.
In a Zoom conversation with Variety, Diesel says, “These are some of my favorites, and I wanted to use my platform to showcase other people to the world and help these young kids out.” Diesel says that while all of his collaborators were inspirational, Audiffred, who worked with him on “No Fear,” especially impressed him. “Everyone needs to be scared of her.
She played for me and I told my crew we need to watch out for her. She goes hard,” he says. Diesel worked closely with his friend and producer Brian Bayati to carefully curate the tracklist and in narrowing down which artists to spotlight.
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