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Yes, the rising Toronto rapper ShaqIsDope is named after Shaquille O’Neal

SHAQISDOPE with ICE CUBE, PUSHA T, EARL SWEATSHIRT, SAVANNAH RÉ and J-SOUL At Echo Beach (909 Lake Shore West), Friday (August 19), 6:30 pm, all ages. ***Note: This show has been cancelled. 


Three of the biggest names in rap are taking over Echo Beach next week to play one of the most eclectic hip-hop gigs of the summer. West Coast veteran Ice Cube, critical favourite Pusha T and doomy low-key MC Earl Sweatshirt might come from disparate eras, but their avid fan bases are united by love of hip-hop with strong wordplay.

It would seem like the ideal crowd for a rising local MC looking to leave a lyrical impression. Three local artists are opening the show: singer Savannah Ré, recent Cash Money signee J-Soul and ShaqIsDope (aka Shaquille Bastille), a 23-year-old rapper who hails from the St. James Town neighbourhood.

The young MC has been building a reputation with introspective singles like My Time, DWNTWN and The Weapon. In April he released the 12-track mixtape Black Frames and is spending much of the summer in studios around the city working on a follow-up EP.

He’s also been busy networking. During the NBA All-Star weekend in February, he scored face time with one of his heroes, Fabolous, and recently connected with Kardinal Offishall. The day after he met NOW at a coffee shop near Queen and Spadina, he was heading to New York City to attend a Swizz Beatz-curated concert in the Bronx.

It’s been seven years since he decided to focus on making music, and he feels like the hard work is finally paying off. Ahead of his opening gig at Echo Beach, Shaq spoke to NOW about the personal and musical forces that have shaped his sound.

His approach to wordplay is influenced by New York artists.

Born to Venezuelan and Trinidadian parents, ShaqIsDope grew up in a St. James Town apartment building and shared a room with his older brother, an avid hip-hop head who played a lot of New York rap. Although he was obsessed with Michael Jackson and R&B music as a kid, he found himself relating to rappers such as Fabolous and Big Pun. “I’m from a poverty-stricken area in Toronto, and the rappers I was listening to were going through the same things,” he says. “I always took something away from the message they were trying to convey.”

His mixtape Black Frames was like a form of therapy.

ShaqIsDope spent two years working on Black Frames, unpacking personal tales from his youth as well as formative romantic woes in songs like Still Open, Stay Focused and Innocent Youth.

“Black Frames was filled with a lot of pain. It’s a very dark project, but there are light moments, too,” he says. “A black frame solidifies a picture. The way I approached each song was as a picture of my life, so this was me putting a black frame over it, putting closure to certain situations, hanging it up, moving on with my life and setting new goals.”

He reps his Venezuelan roots.

Thanks to Drake and his OVO crew, Toronto’s mix of Caribbean patois and street slang has entered the American hip-hop repertoire. ShaqIsDope likes to tap into his Hispanic heritage in the studio, and for the final track on Black Frames, Bow My Head (A Morir), he hit up Caracas-based group West 9 Phamily for a collaboration.

“I reached out over Twitter. I told them my background, sent them the song and they rocked with it,” he says. “I mostly try to pull from Latin music, because no other rappers from the city are putting Spanish into their music.”

Yes, he is named after Shaquille O’Neal – and they even did a song together.

Shaq’s parents named him after Shaquille O’Neal, and in a bizarre twist of fate he wound up collaborating with the retired basketball legend on a remix of Future’s Karate Chop.

O’Neal apparently heard Shaq’s music on WorldStarHipHop.com and started following him on Twitter. So Shaq sent O’Neal a DM, and the 44-year-old – who released four studio albums in the 90s – hit him back with a request to collaborate.

“I sent him my email, and a few minutes later there was a Karate Chop freestyle by Shaquille O’Neal in my in-box,” he recalls. “I feel like I had the better verse – I might have to say that. But him just giving me the opportunity was amazing. From there my profile rose.”

His mantra right now is “Work work work work work.”

Shaq arrived for his interview with NOW downtown from a studio in Scarborough where he was working on his upcoming EP. That release will have a more celebratory feel than Black Frames and will feature production work by his go-to collaborator and DJ, Pitt Tha Kid, as well as American producer Jay 808. 

“I’m all about hard work. In and out, man. Sometimes I don’t even go to sleep,” he says. “I’ll stay up writing. Knock out a song later at night, and then eat food. Brush my teeth and get right back to it. So far this week I’ve been at it a ton – I’m so time-warped. I might even go back to the studio tonight.”

Get more Toronto concert listings here.

kevinr@nowtoronto.com | @kevinritchie

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