Shaquille O'Neal Presents: His Superfriends Vol. 1' (partially lost album; 2001)

Cover art for the album.

Status: Partially Found

Aside from being a basketball star, Shaquille O'Neil also had an acting career and a rapping career. His early music was commercially successful, though it tended to receive mixed critical reviews. After taking a three-year hiatus from music, in 2001 he started seeking out help from artists such as P!nk, Dr. Dre, George Clinton, and many others. His musical style became more ambitious, seeking to combine various styles of rap to create something new. In 2001, he intended to release what many believe to be his dream project, Shaquille O'Neil Presents: His Superfriends Vol. 1.^[1]

The album was originally set for release on September 11, 2001. Several singles were released for the album and were given to the "Shaq Team", a group of promoters that would distribute the singles to music critics to help build up hype. Some critics cited that the music itself was ambitious and impressive, but considered Shaq's rapping to be mediocre. The album was pushed back to an October 2 release before finally being shelved for unknown reasons.

Some of the singles were leaked after the album was shelved and can easily be found on YouTube. Most of the tracks, however, are unattainable and are probably never going to see an official release. One reviewer from AllMusic got the chance to listen to the entire album and gave it a 4/5 star rating, saying the album was surprisingly impressive; however, the critic has been forbidden to leak any of it.^[2] Bootlegs of the album are not known to exist.

On March 8th, 2017, a promotional copy of the album, simply titled "Shaq", was sold on Discogs for $999 USD. This promo contains a slightly different track lineup to the final album, but still includes many of the previously unreleased songs.^[3] The full promo has not made its way online, but a 6-minute video containing short samples of all the tracks has been uploaded to YouTube by a user named K Dub.