Shaquille O'Neal
Photo: Scott Gries/ Getty Images

Last week Shaquille O'Neal served up a double scoop of hosting duties. Early in the week he got in the vocal booth with his good friend DJ Kay Slay to host the mixtape Celebrity Status 2, and on Friday he threw his own shindig for the release of the new video game "NBA 2K6."

Slay spun records like Tony Yayo's "So Seductive" while Shaq played "2K6" as the Miami Heat on one of several Xbox systems placed throughout the night's venue, New York hot spot Slate.

"I got affiliated because they gave me a call to be on the cover," said O'Neal, explaining his involvement with the game. "I gladly accepted for all the kids from the projects — Newark, the Bronx. I've got three kids of my own, so it's gonna be a big surprise to them. But it's a great game. We got a lot of technology involved. It's different from any other game coming out."

What makes the game stand out the most is its larger-than-life cover boy. Playing with the animated Shaq is exactly like watching the real thing.

"I was very involved," said O'Neal of the game-making process. "I had to put on a motion-sensor suit and do all my moves — like the crazy walk after I score, all the celebratory stuff. In the game, my [skill] ratings are very high. I got all the moves — I can even step out to shoot the three."

The Miami Heat officially start their season November 2 against the Memphis Grizzlies. Shaq says he loves the hip-hop music he's been hearing lately, but even though he still has some time off, his only contribution to rap will be in monetary form. He's helping to fund a label started by his manager, Money Mark, and Kay Slay, but he won't be putting out any albums of his own.

"Nah," he insisted. "I just been chilling. Every now and then I may spit a verse, but I did five albums. I was blessed to spit with my favorite artists: Nas, the Jiggaman, the great Notorious B.I.G. I had fun in the game. I was the first to do it and do it right. Being a basketball player [who raps], I was the only one to do it correctly. Others have tried, but they can't do it like the Diesel."

Celebrity Status 2 is on the streets now. "NBA 2K6" will be in stores September 27 for the Xbox and PlayStation 2. The game is also in development for the Xbox 360.

• Shaquille O'Neal

Bone Cusher (file)
Photo: Arista

In the cartoons, Superman always left the whole partner thing to guys like Batman. The real-life Man of Steel — the one in the NBA, anyways — has always been into tandems, from Jay-Z to the Wu-Tang Clan to Notorious B.I.G. Even with the start of basketball season approaching, Shaquille O'Neal is finding time to lay some guest vocals in the studio.

This time, the Diesel has teamed for a new club anthem with a fearless Atlanta body breaker who's big enough onscreen to stomp skyscrapers. "We're getting Bone Crusher's album right," So So Def CEO Jermaine Dupri said from Atlanta. "We got this remix in for his first single — it's him and Shaquille O'Neal on a record called 'Super N---a.' "

Earlier this year Bone announced his next album would be called Fight Music, and he's put out a string of white-label singles in support of the project, even shooting a video for "Take Your Clothes Off" with the Ying Yang Twins. Dupri, however, insists "Super N---a" is finally the right record to launch Crusher's album.

"We're gonna run with that," J.D. said. "Bone Crusher, he's got some philosophy that everything he talks ... one word he says means a bunch of different things. 'Never Scared' means that you ain't never scared of nothing, not just fighting. This record is the same way. It's presented in a gangsta mentality; 'I walk around like I got a "S" on my chest.' We took the little 50 Cent line. But every person feels they got a lot of super in them. Not that they can leap from tall buildings in a single bound, but the fact that 'I'm super at this.' People call me a super producer. If you ask [Bone], he'll give you a whole slew of meanings of what 'Super N---a' is.

"Shaq, he feels like he's Superman," Dupri continued. "I don't know what his reasons are, but that's his whole thing. He's got [the Superman symbol] on his car, on his bed, all that."

The "Super N---a" remix has already been shipped to DJs, and Fight Music, according to Bone's label rep, will drop in March.

• Bone Crusher
• Shaquille O'Neal

Outkast's Andre 3000 (file)
Photo: WireImage

The list of presenters for the MTV Video Music Awards just got longer — 7 feet and 1 inch longer, to be exact.

Shaquille O'Neal joins Brandy, Nick Lachey, Shakira, Evanescence's Amy Lee, Mase, Beastie Boys, John Mellencamp, Omarion and Queen Latifah in the latest crop of celebrities confirmed to take the stage as presenters at the 2004 VMAs.

Upping the fashion ante are Outkast, who come on board to perform at the annual event. The Polyphonic Spree, meanwhile, will fill the ambient orchestral slot at the August 29 show, taking place at Miami's American Airlines Arena.

Outkast and the Polyphonic Spree join previously announced performers including Usher, Kanye West, Yellowcard, Lil Jon, Jet, Petey Pablo, Hoobastank, Jessica Simpson, Ying Yang Twins and Terror Squad featuring Fat Joe.

The newest batch of presenters helps add a bit of athleticism, style and an old-school vibe to a list that already included Jennifer Lopez, Hilary Duff, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jimmy Fallon, Will Smith, P. Diddy, Paris Hilton, Lenny Kravitz, Tony Hawk, Ludacris, Ashlee Simpson, LL Cool J and Jon Stewart.

Jay-Z leads the nominees this year, with six nods for his "99 Problems" clip including Best Video of the Year, Best Male Video and Best Rap Video. Jay's pal Beyoncé, as well as No Doubt, Usher and Outkast, follow close behind with five nominations each.

The highly coveted Viewer's Choice Award will be determined this year by the VMAyhem Viewer's Choice Playoffs, which allowed MTV.com users to narrow a list of 40 videos down to five nominees through head-to-head video battles. The nominees for this year's Viewer's Choice Award are Christina Aguilera's "The Voice Within," Good Charlotte's "Hold On," Linkin Park's "Breaking the Habit," Simple Plan's "Perfect" and Yellowcard's "Ocean Avenue." Voting for the nominees begins Wednesday (August 18).

Also announced on Wednesday are a number of MTV events taking place in Miami in the days leading up to the VMAs. Among them are Saturday's VMA Kickoff Event, to be held at Margaret Pace Park from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., with performances by Mario Winans and Carl Thomas. MTV will also unveil its legendary Moonman, which has been given a Miami makeover.

On August 27, MTV will host a VMA Block Party on Club Row from 7 p.m. to midnight with performances by Pitbull, Lil Scrappy, 8Ball and MJG, and Kevin Lyttle, among others. Lil Jon, Chingy and Xzibit are among the artists slated to make appearances at this pre-VMA event.

• 2004 MTV Video Music Award Presenters and Performers
• VMA '04 Red Carpet Fashion
• VMA '04 Backstage: Usher, Kanye, Jay And More
• VMA '04 Onstage: Usher, Jessica, Shaq, Christina, Nelly, Fat Joe, Alicia, Stevie, Outkast, More
• VMA '04 Behind The Scenes

• OutKast
• Mase
• Shaquille O'Neal
• Nick Lachey
• Brandy

• Shaquille O'Neal
• Chris Rock
• Kid Rock

Photo: Rooftop Entertainment

It looks like NBA All-Star Shaquille O'Neal has his bags packed for an imminent trip out of L.A. — and if Virginia rapper Skillz has any say, the Diesel will be out of the rap game for good, too. Skillz has teamed up with DJ P Cutta & DJ Whoa for a special version of Cutta's popular Street Wars mixtape series. This one's titled Street Wars: The Finals (Skillz vs. Shaq), and almost the entire mixtape is dedicated to Skillz dissing Shaq.

If you remember, round one of the saga popped off last month when Shaq apparently leveled the first blow against Skillz on DJ Sickamore's Drop Another Day mixtape with lines like, "I don't care how mad your skills is, you can't serve me." Shortly after, in an interview with MTV News, Skillz said he was not only going to retaliate against number 34 after the NBA finals, but he was going to try to humiliate him (see "Shaq Attack On Mixtape Track Has MC Skillz Striking Back").

The time is now.

Skillz vs. Shaq starts with the MTV News segment where the story of the back-and-forth was reported, then Skillz unleashes his first assault. Rapping over the track from Jadakiss' "The Champ Is Here," the freestyle champ says, "You versus me, that's a sad one/ I killed your rap career, as if you ever had one ... When you see me, have nothing to say/ Treat me like your lazy eye and start going the other way."

Skillz also responds to the Internet rumors that the whole lyrical beef with Shaq was just a publicity stunt and that Skillz, in fact, wrote Shaq's initial dis. Skillz denied it and further explained this Friday morning (July 9) to MTV News.

"Somebody from a Web site in V.A. [Virginia] — without even asking me — put it up, like, 'Yeah, we spoke to Shaq's people and it's all a publicity stunt to make a buzz for Skillz,' " he said. "They said I wrote for him in the past and that my payment was for him to do a rap dissing me. That would make me the dumbest ghostwriter in the world. How you gonna pay me for a rap with another rap? I never wrote for Shaq. "I don't know where that would come from."

After listening to Skillz vs. Shaq, it's very difficult to imagine that O'Neal would agree to the kind of tongue-lashing he receives. Although Skillz stays away from the rap-beef M.O. of today — where MCs threaten to kill you, your family, your labelmates and your next-door neighbors — the V.A. line-thrower does go for the jugular with fun, spirited punchlines.

There's a freestyle where he raps over 50 Cent's "Back Down" beat, telling Shaq, "That garbage you mumbled over the track/ I can write for Yao Ming, and he'd probably sound better than that/ The Lakers' dynasty, that's over, n---a/ That goes for you, Payton, Malone and Kobe, n---a."

The most humor-filled moments on the mixtape come via "99 Free Throws," a freestyle that uses the flow pattern and instrumental from Jay-Z's "99 Problems."

"99 free throws and you won't hit one/ When you at the foul line, I feel bad for you, son," he jabs. "Once a rappin' ball player tried to dis me in his flow/ Not a rappin' ballplayer in the sense he could rap/ Well, actually none of them are really good at that ... You know the type/ They got cake, so they hype/ Got a bunch of yes-men telling them they sh-- is tight."

"Some people may say [that doing a whole mixtape about Shaq] is a bit much, but I'm the rebuttal guy," Skillz explained. "I'm responding to somebody. There was a lot of things I wanted to say and couldn't fit in one song. After I did 'The Champ Is Here,' I was done — then '99 Free Throws' just came into my mind. The beat for 'Back Down' was so hard, I said, 'Let me give him a good five or six songs.' "

Skillz is heading to Paris Friday for a couple of weeks of touring, and he just returned from Spain. The MC said word of his and Shaq's feud has even reached there.

"People that don't even speak English were like, 'Shaquille O'Neal,' " he laughed. "I'm sitting there like, 'Yo, this is huge.' I didn't expect that kind of attention from it, but it's not going to go on. It's not no big beef to me. You won't hear nothing else from me if I don't hear nothing else from Shaq. I just had to respond."

• Shaquille O'Neal

Skillz
Photo: MTV News

For the past few years, the most we've heard about Shaquille O'Neal on the hip-hop scene is via references from rappers like Fat Joe on "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah." But evidently the NBA's man of steel, who debuted on the mic in 1993 with the LP Shaq Diesel, has regained a Jones in his big bones for spitting rhymes.

On a recent mixtape by DJ Sickamore called Drop Another Day, #34 raps a freestyle about going after the Timberwolves' Kevin Garnett and the Spurs' Tim Duncan and apparently takes aim at Virginia MC Skillz, formerly known as Mad Skillz.

"I don't care how mad your skills is, you can't serve me," Shaq raps. "You don't like Deez? Take off my throwback jersey." O'Neal goes on to say, "You're the fourth-best from Virginia/ Guess what? I don't f--- with scrubs either/ ... I don't know what you look like/ You be spitting metaphors like you're a geek."

"I just thought the freestyle was hot," said Sickamore, who did not want to reveal where he got the freestyle from. "NBA players usually get fined if they curse, but Shaq's being gully."

"I got home and a couple of my friends had called me and said, 'Yo, there's a mixtape with Shaq dissing you,' " Skillz said Friday (June 11). "It sounded ludicrous off the top. Why would Shaq be dissing me? I listened to it a hundred times to make sure. It's evident he was talking about me. I have no idea why, but that don't really matter. He threw the first blow. That's a heavy blow. That's a big dude."

Unlike Garnett and Duncan, Mad Skillz's name isn't explicitly said by O'Neal, and the Diesel was unable to be reached for confirmation. However, Skillz is sure he was called out by Shaq, and he plans to holla back with his own dis.

"I wouldn't even answer Shaq back if he didn't think he could rap," Skillz huffed. "I think he actually believes he's nice. It's a mismatch. It's gonna be funny."

Though Skillz said his words will be laced with humor, he hopes to remove any smile Shaq may have on his face. He wants to destroy the basketball star's rap career.

"That's what I'm out to do," said Skillz, whose biggest record is probably Aaliyah's "Are You That Somebody" remix. "People know me as far as rap battles. I don't hold nothing. I'm real serious about my lyrics, and when I come out, I come swinging.

"He's not an MC," continued Skillz, who called Shaq-Fu one of the worst ever on the mic. "I don't think anybody I know respected him or even looked at him as an MC. He's OK. He was OK back in the day, but for him to wait that long before he rapped at all, then rap against me, that's sad, Shaq. You ought to be worried about the [Detroit Pistons'] Wallace boys, not me."

Skillz said he's a heard a theory about why O'Neal might want to throw jabs at him. At the top of the year, he released the underground cut "The Rap Up 2004," on which he made fun of another Laker, Kobe Bryant, by calling his alleged rape of a Colorado woman "the dummy move of the year." Skillz also took a piece of 50 Cent's "Wanksta" for his rap, saying, "Damn, Kobe. In high school you was the man, Kobe."

"I don't know how close him and Kobe are," Skillz said. "What I said about Kobe in 'The Rap Up' ... I didn't make none of that up. 'The Rap Up' is a summary of what happens in the year. [Shaq] might have been trying to take up for Kobe, but even Kobe wouldn't have taken up for Kobe."

Skillz said he's had his response written for some time but hasn't had time to record it. He's been on tour with his friends the Roots. "Touring with the Roots and playing with the band, you can't get no better than that as far as a hip-hop band is concerned," he said, beaming. "Performing with them is the pinnacle of performing."

A free agent since Rawkus folded a few months ago, Skillz has a new track called "Take It Back" on the Roots' Okayplayer Presents: True Note Vol. 1. He shot a video for it last week.

• Shaquille O'Neal
• Skillz (Rap)

P. Diddy
Photo: MTV News

You might have to put up with sleepless nights caused by wild parties and parking obstructed by visitors' Bentleys, Benzes and tour buses, but living next door to P. Diddy could really be a hoot. At least according to his video for "Bad Boy for Life," which depicts Diddy and his famous playmates spreading the love. "You've got this perfect middle-American town," Diddy said of the video's concept, which he conceived with director Chris Robinson. "They keep their doors open and everybody gets along with everybody. There ain't no parties thrown. Everybody goes to bed at 9 o'clock. Then P. Diddy and the Bad Boy Family move in. You see how the cultures mix and we're all able to get along." Stopping by to check out PD's digs in the video are Mike Tyson, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Dave Navarro, Travis Barker from Blink-182, Xzibit, Ben Stiller, sportscaster Pat O'Brien and Shaquille O'Neal, who plays Diddy's cousin.

"We're definitely taking it back to when you wanted to see a Michael Jackson or a Puff Daddy video," Diddy said of the clip. "You knew it was going to be something different. This video is like a mini-movie. It's not like I just called my friends for cameos; they all play parts." The video will premiere July 10, the same day his third album, The Saga Continues, hits stores. Offscreen, it's highly unlikely you'll be able to borrow a cup of sugar from your friendly neighborhood Puffster any time soon. Diddy said he'd be visiting fans and peers this summer before mounting a full-scale tour early next year.

"We definitely have big tour plans," he said. "We want to take it out in January. We're going to start showing up in different cities to warm up and try out material in certain clubs and small venues. There will even be surprise guest appearances at other people's shows."

• Diddy
• Snoop Dogg
• Ice Cube
• Dave Navarro
• blink-182

Shaquille O'Neal
Photo: Josephine Close

WEST HOLLYWOOD, California — It ain't easy being Shaq.

Being one of the most celebrated players in NBA history is so difficult, in fact, that Shaquille O'Neal recently teamed up with members of Korn and 311 to record the mad rock rant "Psycho" on which the Lakers center vents about the snags of stardom.

"'Psycho' is just the other side of me — the side that I'm really not allowed to show," the hoopster/rapper said Monday at the Key Club, where the Lakers were celebrating their second consecutive NBA championship. "It's just how I get sometimes. I get stressed out, and I get pent up." Korn bassist Fieldy and 311 singer/guitarist Nick Hexum and drummer Chad Sexton accompany Shaq on the track.

"He wanted to make a rock track where he's just going off, ranting and raving as this character called Psycho," Hexum said. "He's going off about all the pressures that are on him and how he just has to bust out sometimes." Shaq declares in the song, "I want y'all to hear me/ Respect me and fear me/ Ahh, I suggest you don't get near me/ I'm psycho, and I don't think clearly." The randomness of his ranting at times recalls an Eminem outburst, complete with lines bound to make listeners laugh: "Critics, when you hear this, don't say jack/ I'm the sh--; I was born out my mother's a-- crack." Shaq said "Psycho" is readymade for slam-dancing, something there'll be plenty of on his upcoming U.S. tour. The rapper will hold a contest called Take Down Shaq, offering $10,000 to any audience member who can knock him down.

"I love all types of music — I love rock music, I love people going out there and slam-dancin', and 'Psycho' is a definite head-banger, banger-boogie, slam-dance-type song. And if anyone can knock me down in a slam-dance competition, I'll give 'em 10,000 out of my pocket." "Psycho" will not appear on Shaq's upcoming album, Shaquille O'Neal Presents His Superfriends, Volume 1 (September 11), but it'll be available in limited numbers through select stores. The same approach was used for his Lakers victory song, "Shaq's Tribute to the Lakers (It Takes Two)," which samples Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock's classic "It Takes Two" (see "Shaq Turns To Hip-Hop Classic For Lakers Tribute").

Nicole Scherzinger of Eden's Crush was invited to sing the tribute track's hook on the advice of 311's Hexum. "Shaq loved Nicole because she's just radiant and sang her ass off on the song," Hexum said. Shaq thanked 311 for their help on "Psycho" and "Shaq's Tribute" by appearing in the reggae-punk band's video for "You Wouldn't Believe." "He's a lot of fun to hang out with," Hexum said. "He's always making everybody laugh." Although he performed "Shaq's Tribute" at a victory parade for the Lakers earlier Monday, Shaq left the entertainment up to Jane's Addiction frontman Perry Farrell and up-and-coming Los Angeles hip-hop group Latin Froz at the Key Club party. Farrell delivered a typically eclectic DJ set of jungle and trance mixes in a private room downstairs, while Latin Froz got the upstairs dance floor shakin', with even the Laker Girls out there getting down.

Latin Froz, whom Shaq invited to perform, will release the single "Metelo" to radio next month, with an album due in the fall.

Shaquille O'Neal Presents His Superfriends, Volume 1 features contributions from hordes of artists, including the Roots' Black Thought and ?uestlove, 112, Ludacris, Common, Mos Def and Angie Stone.

• Shaquille O'Neal
• 311
• Korn

Shaquille O'Neal
Photo: Trauma Records

Although Shaquille O'Neal has been doing his share of trash talkin' during the NBA finals, when he got into the studio recently it was nothing but love.

On "Shaq's Tribute to the Lakers (It Takes Two)," the Los Angeles Lakers center gives shout-outs to his teammates, including Kobe Bryant, with whom he had feuded earlier in the season. Nicole Scherzinger of Eden's Crush sings the hook on the track, which samples Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock's classic "It Takes Two," according to Shaq's Trauma Records publicist.

The song will not appear on Shaq's upcoming Shaquille O'Neal Presents His Superfriends album. Instead, it will be available to Southern California Lakers fans at Wherehouse music stores beginning Tuesday as the B-side to the single "Connected." The $5 fans pay for the single will count as a deposit for the album, due September 11.

The Lakers are up three games to one in their best-of-seven series with the Philadelphia 76ers. If Los Angeles wins Friday night's game, the Lakers will finish off with a postseason record of 15-1 — the best in the history of the NBA — and win their second consecutive title.

Superfriends will feature Ludacris, Nate Dogg, Next's R.L., Peter Gunz, 112, Boyz II Men's Shawn Stockman, Mos Def, the Roots' Black Thought, Common, Black Rob, Trina, Talib Kweli, and Angie Stone, among others.

• Shaquille O'Neal
• Rob Base & DJ E-Z Rock
• Eden's Crush

Shaquille O'Neal
Photo: MTV News

Not even heading into the playoffs with his fellow Los Angeles Lakers could distract Shaquille O'Neal from his love of rocking the mic.

It just slowed him down a bit. The NBA all-star is due to drop Shaquille O'Neal Presents His Superfriends on August 7, having secured a new distribution deal for his imprint, TWIsM, with Trauma Records. The album was originally due in July; the label said it had been pushed back because of the Lakers' playoff schedule.

Shaq has Superfriends, indeed; as with his four previous albums, O'Neal — who has recorded with everyone from Jay-Z to members of the Wu-Tang Clan — called upon the likes of Mos Def, Angie Stone, Twista, 112, Jayo Felony, Memphis Bleek, Talib Kweli and Ludacris for the LP, according to a Trauma rep.

Common, Black Thought, Black Rob, Joi, Next frontman R.L. and Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz have also signed on for the album, the rep said.

Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz, who scored big in 1998 with "Deja Vu (Uptown Baby)," will also finally release their solo records on TWIsM (shorthand for "The World Is Mine") as part of O'Neal's new deal.

So far Shaq has come up with eight tracks for Superfriends, including "Connected," featuring WC and Nate Dogg. The track is set for release on April 23, though a video is not in the works at this time; Shaq is more interested in getting an early buzz on the streets, the rep said.

Shaq records almost every night after Laker home games and sometimes stays in the studio until 6 a.m., the rep said, adding that while some people from the label have suggested Shaq tone down his recording schedule as the playoffs approach, he scoffs at the notion, saying it's his only outlet outside the arena.

O'Neal and the Pacific Division champion Lakers take on the Portland Trailblazers in the first round of the NBA playoffs starting April 22.

(This story was updated at 4:14 p.m. ET Friday, April 20, 2001.)

• Shaquille O'Neal
• Mos Def
• 112
• Memphis Bleek
• Ludacris

Routh, Bosworth, Shaq, Longoria And More Soar In For The "Superman Returns" Premiere

• *NSYNC
• Kiss
• Shaquille O'Neal