Review Summary: Shaquille O'Neal's final full record had some slam dunks, but overall falls short of making the game-winning shot.
Shaquille O'Neal was beginning to turn a new page in his life in the mid '90s, with having just left the Orlando Magic to join the Phil Jackson-led regime of the Los Angeles Lakers. He was also hoping to do the same with his rap career, releasing his comeback album in 1996 with "You Can't Stop The Reign". Despite a minor radio hit with "Still Can't Stop The Reign", his comeback record never materialized to the commercial successes of his first two albums, failing to garner anything from the RIAA and becoming a huge commercial bust. Considering his vast improvement in his rapping technique and versatility which was pretty obvious in that album, it just didn't get the attention it deserved which is likely due to the high in-fluctuation of hip-hop albums during that time. Despite the commercial failure, "Big Shaq" refused to take defeat and was once again hard at work in the studio while managing his NBA career with the Los Angeles Lakers. Along with forming his record label Tw.Is.M (The World Is Mine) which would be short lived, two years later in 1998 Shaq released what would be his final studio album "Respect" which would be a 18-track collection of then-new material by the NBA legend which contained, unlike in his first three albums, mimimal star-studded appearances with only DJ Quik and fellow Tw.Is.M signee Peter Gunz being the stars while it is mostly occupied by unknown signers and rappers. While "You Can't Stop The Reign" showed some well-needed improvements, "Respect" didn't build up on those improvements, sticking to what worked and not even attempting to perfect it. It also showed some regressions, signs of the old Shaq that caused his first two albums to be massively panned clearly visible. This certainly isn't anything like "Shaq Diesel" and "Shaq Fu: Da Return" which were absolutely bad, but it isn't great either like his third record by a long shot.
"Respect" does have it's share of good moments that do display the side of Shaquille that many wished he just stuck with. One of those highlights is the R&B track "Make This A Night To Remember", with Shaq rapping at full-throttle and doing a very fine job with his swagger delivery and effusive flow. With a tight beat that is reminiscent of "It Was All A Dream" a little bit, and along with a memorable chorus done by Chicago R&B group Public Announcement and a spectacular second verse by Peter Gunz, it certainly stands out as one of the better tracks O'Neal has done in his short-lived rap career. Another highlight is the party track "Pool Jam", with a iconic intro by Shaq and just classic lyrics from O'Neal. With a G-funk inspired beat that is sure to get you moving in no time and perfect for a pool party, O'Neal continues to deliver with his impressive flow with the backing instrumental along with memorable and incrediably catchy lines like "Fill up the pool with lots of water/Don't worry pops I got your daughter" and "Take off your shoes and socks/Your bottoms and your tops you don't need it/The pool's heated you wanna be conceded beat it/I'll be in the jacuzzi getting treated/like a king". Just another classic track for the NBA legend, unfortunate that it never became a radio hit at all as it had all the qualifications for it to become one. "Fly Like An Eagle" features a jazzy, street sound that once again displays Shaq's interesting and impressive rhyme delivery and features another dope guest appearance by the rapper Trigga. Could've been a potential hip-hop hit as well, but got pushed to the curb with the mass production of hip-hop hits during the time like Fat Joe's "What's Luv?" and Puff Daddy's "Can't Hold Me Down" to name a couple.
"Respect" isn't devoid of its bad moments, displaying the side of Shaquille that had his first two albums massively panned by critics. He still hasn't been able to find his own distinctive sound, with this one charting towards the glossyness of the jiggy era which just happened to be a commercial music trend at the time. Considering that this is his fourth record and he is still following whatever is working with other artists within the genre shows his lack of originality which only causes this album to go downhill. The only thing Shaq did in this entire album was in pretty much every intro to a track he was saying "Wah Wah Waaa Waaa" or something, which while trying to stand out a little bit there it just backfires and comes out as corny and comedic, you just couldn't take him seriously when he was doing that. His attempt at doing what Biggie did throughout his storied career with his onomatpoetic vocables before starting a verse just never meshed well with his music. Like in "You Can't Stop The Reign", some of the guest appearances feel absolutely unnecessary and unwarranted like Sonja Blade and K-Raw in "Deeper" for one. Obviously Shaq has been recruiting these top names on his albums over the years in an attempt to make sales even larger considering people knew names like Quik and Jay-Z, but their presence on some tracks just degrades the album a bit more than it should be so it honestly never really made a difference on making this record any better. "The Bomb Baby" is another example with guest rappers K-Raw and the Deadly Venoms, it just doesn't work and his cover of "Blaq Superman" just comes off as album fodder. Just like in his previous three albums, he had some beats borrowed and while he had some hits with them, he certainly had plenty of misses in the process as well with its generic jiggy schlock sound that was pretty prominent in the album.
Overall, Shaquille O'Neal's fourth record "Respect" comes off as an decent hip-hop album that just never exceeded the standard of "You Can't Stop The Reign". While not meeting the standards of his past album, he still outdoes his first two albums by a long shot so with that said it makes it something to think about listening to. Certainly their is some pretty great moments which makes this album somewhat intriguing to listen to, not just because its "Big Shaq" but because of the incredibly groovy "Pool Jam" and "Make This A Night To Remember" coming out as a couple of standout tracks. Unfortunately that's all she wrote, because a good amount of the album is either dull, or just too funny to be actually taken seriously. Humor is always a good thing of course in music, but it always felt like Shaq was trying to be really serious in his music which is why listeners felt so turned off by it. Shaquille O'Neal's rap career will sadly be remembered for never taking off like it probably should have, considering that not all his music was average or sub-par because he did have some pretty good tracks like "Still Can't Stop The Reign" with Biggie Smalls and "It Was All A Dream" with Peter Gunz. Unfortunately he just did it at the wrong time, one where hip-hop was truly envolving as a genre and quality stuff was being thrown out there for the listeners. He also never earned much recognition from the core rap community, which was likely due to whether he was conciscous of doing it or not, essentially waging a cultural war on behalf of hip-hop for his authentic, explicit-free music. It is pretty interesting considering that now with artists like Shad getting props by fans for his cuss-free, intelligent lyricism in their music while Shaq was basically alienated for it but then of course you had Will Smith doing great for the same thing as well. For die-hard Shaq fans this may just be a purchase you want to make, but for the rest of the world give it a listen or two before determining that. It just felt like that the producers were having a good time making this than the listeners had hearing it because it came at the cost of musical intergity for them. The fact that Shaq used his overwhelming power as both a celebrity and fan-favorite NBA player to show to the world during his music career the fundamentals of hip-hop, with its tight beats and catchy rhymes, rather than generic pop-rap is the main reason why he deserves more respect as an artist. It is truly unfortunate that he decided to hang the rap career in 2001, because he probably would've corrected these issues just as he did with his then-horrendous rapping technique on "You Can't Stop The Reign" in 1996. One of the more underrated rap careers of hip-hop and deserving of it, along with easily calling him the best rapper-athlete of all time with no other athlete having even come close to replicating his success, Shaquille O'Neal's final full record was an average hip-hop album and for good reason because he missed the game-winning shot here.
