Former basketball player Shaquille O’Neal has released a dubstep album under the alias, DIESEL.

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The ten-track album, out now on Monstercat, is called GORILLA WARFARE and features a host of collaborators such as Crankdat, Jessica Audiffred, Hairitage and CELO. Listen to it below:

GORILLA WARFARE by DIESEL

Since retiring from professional basketball in 2011, Shaq has dived into the world of dance music following an inspiring trip to Tomorrowland in Belgium in 2014. He then DJed himself as DIESEL at the US edition, TomorrowWorld, a year later.

“Dubstep for me has always been an escape. A way to show the world there is more to Shaquille O’Neal than just basketball.” Shaq says regarding the album. “I love this genre and community so much and my album is proof of that.”

“Working with the underground cats like Crankdat, Jessica Audiffred, Hairitage and Celo was an eye-opening experience,” he continued. “Together we created some of the hardest-hitting bangers ever. After over 2 years in the making, we are all so proud of this body of work and cannot wait for the world to listen to GORILLA WARFARE.”

While Shaq’s recent musical endeavours have been more dance-focussed, his rap career in the 90s resulted in four albums – Shaq Diesel (1993), Shaq Fu: Da Return (1994), You Can’t Stop the Reign (1996) and Respect (1998). Shaq Diesel even achieved platinum status after selling over one million copies.

He’s not the only unexpected non-musician to dip their toe into the EDM community. In 2022, Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, released a track called Don’t Doubt Ur Vibe, which followed a 2019 hip-hop track called RIP Harambe.

This year, another unexpected name, Manchester City footballer Jack Grealish, made his long-anticipated DJ debut after teasing the name ‘DJ Grealo’ on Instagram. He played alongside Oliver Heldens, as part of a metaverse performance.

Find more Monstercat releases via music.monstercat.com.

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