Dame Lillard and Shaquille O’Neal Battle It Out
CelebsDamian Lillard is no stranger to the fire. Whether leading the Portland Trailblazers or behind the mic, Dame runs head first into battle. In an interview on Joe Budden’s podcast, Dame declared himself a better rapper than Shaquille O’Neal, who Dame said gained notoriety for his larger-than-life personality rather than his technical rapping ability. “I think he was viewed as Shaq People weren’t looking like this a real rapper. It was like, ‘That’s Shaq rapping.’ So, of course, it was a big deal.”
Shaq took Lillard’s comments as an affront and took to Instagram to release a response on wax, taking shots at Dame’s ringlessness several times over the 4 minute track over Dr. Dre’s “What’s The Difference.” “Legendary I’m a hip-hop scholar / I’m tryin’ to get a billion who gives a f**k about a D.O.L.L.A / Take ya time to respond, there’s no hurry / You’ll never be Westbrook, never be Steph Curry,” Shaq spat at the 4x NBA All-Star. Dame then released his response, a verbal flurry titled “Reign Reign Go Away” a coy reference to Diesel’s 1996 album “Can’t Stop The Reign.”
Whereas Shaquille’s disses equated to surface level “RINGSSS” talk, Dame cut deep, “Said yourself that I’m a Tesla, no longer need diesel gas/ Kinda like the Cavs ain’t really need Diesel ass/And even in Miami, won that on the strength of Flash”
To add insult to injury, Dame used the now famous meme crying Shaq meme born from his appearance on Hot Ones. Dame waited patiently for a response from the Big Aristotle but apparently had more to get off his chest and let the shots ring off with another diss song called “I Rest My Case” where Lillard takes shots at Shaq and any pundits that believed Shaq prevailed in their war of words.
On the track, Dame cleverly leverages Shaq’s record on the court and his underwhelming diss track, rapping “Raised real solid, I’m DOLLA but not for dollar sign/Only Dame you beat was 2000 and that was Stoudemire.” Much like Dame’s on the court demeanor, Dolla attacked Shaq relentlessly throughout the bought referencing his shoe line, his love for EDM festivals, and generally goofy persona.
But the Big Diesel isn’t one to go down without a fight, and after taking some ferocious blows, he came back with another verbal lashing towards Dame this time over Puff Daddy’s Victory. Shaq leans heavily on the familiarity of the instrumental, even co-opting Puff’s flow in the “intro” portion singing
“Yo, the sun gon’ shine forever/ All my statues and retired jerseys, I’ma live forever/Better now or never, kill Damon, my pleasure/ We see you lose every year, nobody do it better”
Shaq’s coworker Charles Barkley takes a stray as Shaq attacks Dame, spitting
“What, you think I wasn’t gonna respond?/ Droppin’ little grenades, I’m droppin’ them nuclear bombs/ Everybody gon’ hear this ether/ I don’t like your ass, I don’t like Charles Barkley either”
Dame has yet to respond to the latest diss track but with there still being a few days before the season starts there’s still a chance that Dame fires back at Kazaam.
