Shaq's album: A reign supreme, he's king

At age 24, Shaquille Rashoun O'Neal has done it all. First appearences would say that it's all about money and attitude as procliamed by O'Neal's third album, You Can't Stop the Reign. This album is a valuable resource in any quest to find out how the L.A. Lakers center has been so wildly successful in his extracurricular ventures.

To his credit are two movies, the Shaq Fu video game, the 10-inch Double-Slam Shaq figurine, a rap on Michael Jackson's History, and an endless barrage of commercials from such high-profile companies as Pepsi, Reebok and Allsport. O'Neal is also the national spokesperson for Reading is Fundamental, was voted Most Popular Athlete by 409 million Nickelodeon viewers in June, 1995, and was voted the Most Wanted personality for endorsements by Fortune 500 in 1994.

The Lakers gave O'Neal a seven-year, 120-million dollar contract to play for them instead of renewing his contract with the Orlando Magic. This contract was the winner in the recent who-can-make-what-rediculous-amount contest.

After all this, we average, hapless victims of our modern media-concious era must sometimes wonder how the 7-1 center has gone from 1993 NBA Rookie of the Year to household icon faster than a Penny Hardaway light-speed fastbreak jam.

At first glance money and attitude are all that matters to the Shaq-nomenon.

"Who wants to spark it, with the chocolate, macademia, hand clean to the cranium, you know the name, Shaq aim to maintain money on the brain, you can't stop the reign," O'Neal proclaims in the middle of the album's title track, setting up his invincible superman image while shamelessly throwing his money in everyone's face.

"What's the meaning of life, y'all should know, in my lifetime I need a whole lot of dough, bro, no need to get zealous, you jealous, say you jealous, I spike on that like Monica Seles," the lyrical giant spits out.

There is more to this album though, than just strutting and posturing. It seems that all too often the NBA stars that kids take as role-models end up being gamblers, wife-beaters, or at the mildest give none of their multi-million dollar earnings back to the communities that reared them. Not so with the 120-million dollar man.

The "little warrior" became Shaq-a-Claus during his time with the Magic to purchase and distribute toys to disadvantaged youths during Christmas and also served as Shaq-a-bunny for Easter. First-year Joe Vesalek recounted meeting the 305-pounder and described how on O'Neal's lunch break during the shooting of his upcoming movie, he went to Toys 'R Us, "bought a ton of toys" and went to a high school to hand them out - without press.

O'Neal seems to have fully realized his job as a role-model, dedicating the song "It Was All a Dream" to "all the little, bad knuckleheads running around, getting in trouble." In the middle of this song O'Neal gives a sparse account of his life as a young knucklehead, describing rap groups he grew up with. "I use to rhyme in the mirror...public enemy came out I had the clock, Heavy D rock him, Eric B, Ricky D, Scot LaRock and B.D.P., I never knew `em, but I used to look up to `em, battles in the park, I ran through `em."

Of course, O'Neal has to then go into another account of his assets, though he still mixes this with a positive message. "Somebody wake me up this can't be real, lookin' in the paper Shaq's about to make a hundred mil, somebody smack me, it's gotta be fate. 20-thousand square-foot crib on the back of the lake. Five movie deal with Disney, damn I'm gettin' busy, like Dizzy, Gillespie, 20 mil check from Pepsi, let's see...it was all a dream." This precedes a list of people O'Neal wants to "Rock, rock on." He chants, "To my home girl Nai-re, rock, rock on. To my little baby, rock, rock on. To all my homey lovers, rock, rock on. And to my favorite mother, rock, rock on. And to my damn daddy, rock, rock on. And to my golf caddy, rock, rock on...I'm following my dreams, and to all the little children, rock, rock on."

Other songs of note on You Can't Stop the Rain include "Edge of Night", which takes the chorus from Phil Collins' "Waiting for Night" and is sung with Bobby Brown, and "Just be Good to Me", a version of the S.O.S Band's late-'80s hit.

The album's songs range from more poppy arrangements to straight-up rap to rap with repopularized seventies throwback synth growls and even a talk-box on "Strait Playin'." There is a "Shaquille" intro: "Superman lives, I have returned!" an outro giving credit to Shaq's T.W.IsM. ("This world is mine") family, and two interludes. One, "D.I.V.A. Radio," is performed by Peaches and the other, "S.H.E.," is written and performed by S.H.E.

Also pervading the album is Enrico Consilus Gates, A & R director in the liner notes, and evil corporate Shaq in the "Still Can't Stop the Reign" video. Arguably the most profound song of the album, "Game of Death" starts with the line "Yo, Enrico gets 14 millia to shoot the chilla, arena is filled to capacity to see this thriller."

This song continues with, "I enter the dragon like I'm Bruce Lee, and next to the dragon like a million if I have to I'll kick Kareem. I run straight through your battlefield and if I have to it takes 20 seconds to make a meal." "Game of Death" also includes the line, "There's been a whole lot of talk about a man named Shaq, will he back down or will he aim for the catch? Will he rap, act, and play ball all together, will he fade away or dominate forever?"

Though overly self-congradulatory and with somewhat contrived messages of do-gooding, the album is still well-worked and inundated with clever witticisms and funky characteristcs. With so much money, so much attitude and an album like this, O'Neal's place in history is secured.

As he says in "Legal Money," "Age 24, y'all gonna see me in history books."