Shaquille O’Neal is one of the greatest basketball players of all time, which is inarguable. Also inarguable: Shaq has used the platform he built up as a basketball player to show off one of the most unique personalities we have ever seen. There are stories of charity, of empathy, of all these things that make Shaq sound like someone who is larger than life.
He’s also great at popping up in things, as he’s remarkably comfortable being Shaq all the time. This manifests in a number of different ways, whether that’s his seemingly endless array of brand deals or that time he made fun of himself at the beginning of Scary Movie 4. His love of music is well-documented, too, and today, we wanted to take a look of one specific way Shaq has used his fame to cross over into the music world: His frequent cameos in music videos, which really are all over the place.
The gravity that Shaq brings to just about anything applies to music videos, and the funny thing here is that he popped up in some truly wild ones over the years — of course, his music career meant that he has appeared in plenty of them, but we have a number of examples of him making a cameo as one of the most famous people on earth. Here, we are going to dive into all of them, and try to determine how necessary it was for Shaq to provide his presence.
(Note: We used Shaq’s IMDb page as the primary source for this one, so while his Wikipedia page and this site both say that he appeared in the music video for “Still D.R.E.” by Dr. Dre feat. Snoop Dogg, we left that off because you never see him in it — the IMDb page for the song doesn’t include Shaq, either. However, “Still D.R.E.” is a legendary music video, so if you would like to watch it despite the fact that Shaq does not appear in it, you can do that here.)
“Make ‘Em Say Uhh!” by Master P featuring Fiend, Silkk the Shocker, Mia X & Mystikal
The video for “Make ‘Em Say Uhh!” is iconic, and leans heavily into Master P’s well-documented basketball career by taking place on a court. While a number of performers are playing basketball and celebrating on the floor, Shaq repeatedly pops up sitting courtside and loses his mind over what’s happening in front of him. Having an NBA player in the video, which came out in 1998, made a ton of sense, but no one would have had as much fun in this as Shaq did.
“That’s How I Beat Shaq” by Aaron Carter
Well, seeing as how this song is all about playing a game of 1-on-1 against Shaquille O’Neal, he kinda had to appear in it, ya know? Anyway, Shaq seems like he had the time of his life playing basketball against a 13-year-old Aaron Carter, and years later, the two linked up again to play 1-on-1 for the show Upload with Shaquille O’Neal, where he says nothing in his career hurt more than losing to Carter a decade-plus earlier.
“You Wouldn’t Believe” by 311
Shaq’s cameo here is fun, because it seems like a pretty generic music video where a band is performing a song in a big room, and there is no indication that Shaq is going to show up for literally any reason. And then, 311 start playing basketball, and Shaq pulls up and just plays with them for a bit. The music video ends with him picking up 311’s Nick Hexum so he can dunk. Years later, Hexum explained how they got Shaq in the video here.
“Bad Boy for Life” by P. Diddy, Black Rob, and Mark Curry
There are a ton of celebrities in this one, with names like Ben Stiller and Mike Tyson popping up in it. Shaq enters a little later in the video, as he plays basketball with Diddy while Diddy is wearing his jersey. Funny enough, Shaq is the second basketball player to make a cameo in here, behind Baron Davis.
“Dance with My Father” by Luther Vandross
Once again, the video for the famous tear-jerker by Luther Vandross features a collection of celebrities. While Shaq did not physically appear in this one, he’s one of several people who are pictured with a loved one — in his case, it’s Shaq holding one of his children. And again, he’s not the only NBA player in this, as we also get photos of Jason Kidd and his son.
“Vanilla Twilight” by Owl City
This is a guilty pleasure song for me, but until Thursday, I had never watched the music video. As you can guess, when I saw Shaq was in it, I nearly fell off of my couch. Anyway, the video features Shaq staring into the sky a few times, and him breaking the fourth wall and smiling is one of the last things you see. If anyone involved in this would like to hop on a call and tell me how this came about, please reach out.
“Don’t Wanna Know” by Maroon 5
There are a ton of costumes in this video, and Shaq’s involves him dressing in a purple and yellow get up while jumping around in a bedroom during a house party. Adam Levine, who is also wearing a costume, joins him. My hunch is that this is the first time Shaq ever wore this costume, and I hope it was not the last.
“Todo de Ti” by Rauw Alejandro
Most of the music video takes place at a roller rink, so as you can guess, when Shaq appears about two-thirds of the way through things, he is, indeed, on roller skates. He doesn’t look super comfortable moving around on them, but eventually gets going and hits the deck at one point. Whether he did that as part of a bit or he legitimately couldn’t stay upright because he is one of the largest people on the planet, well, who’s to say?