Watching Shaquille O'Neal perform at Lollapalooza in 2019 was a surreal experience. It's rare to see someone go from rattling backboards to crowds in the tens of thousands, but O'Neal did so with the gravitas one would expect from a true Renaissance man.
O'Neal's foray into the EDM scene may have seemed like a pie-in-the-sky idea a few years ago, but he put his naysayers to bed after dropping a breakthrough Lollapalooza set as triumphant as his legendary NBA career. Performing as DJ Diesel, he graced the stage of the quintessential music festival and went on to play a set that was emblematic of a real genesis, like a butterfly emerging from a (gigantic) cocoon.
After he kicked things off with a hypnotic intro edit of Kanye West's "Jesus Walks," all hell broke loose. What followed was a thunderous song-cycle of trap and dubstep bangers from the likes of his bass music counterparts, such as Space Laces' "Kaiju," Herobust's "WTF," and the aptly-titled Zomboy track "The Beast."
Moreover, he seamlessly tapped into his hip-hop roots, dropping DaBaby's "Suge (Yea Yea)" and Huey's inescapable "Pop, Lock & Drop It," among others. Selections aside, Diesel also flexed his beat-matching muscles as a DJ, fluidly oscillating between trap, house, and a slew of other electronic sub-genres across the BPM spectrum.
You can watch DJ Diesel's full Lollapalooza 2019 performance below, exclusively via EDM.com.
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