Shaquille O’Neal has a charm that makes him an instantly likable person in the first meet. Fans also love to see him and his versatility as he has always been involved in multiple things. Apart from hooping and making rap music, Shaq acted in movies whenever given a chance. DaBaby recently revealed his first introduction to the Big Aristotle with the movie ‘Kazaam’, starring Shaq in the lead, on his ‘The Big Podcast with Shaq.’
The rapper hilariously seemed to mispronounce the name, constantly referring to Kazaam as ‘Shazam’. When asked about his first time seeing Shaq, the rapper replied, “I remember when he did Shazam. I probably know that movie word for word bro, you know what I’m saying?” Interestingly, Shazam is also the name of a music discovery app that allows users to identify music based on a short sample played using a microphone on the device.
Host Adam Lefkoe and Shaq were extremely amused hearing DaBaby’s response. Lefkoe tried pointing out that he must have mistaken the movie for the popular music app. However, DaBaby seemed unfazed and even highlighted that the developers must have confused it for Shaq while naming the app. In a fit of jest, the rapper even suggested the Big Fella sue the makers and claim royalties for using Shaq’s identity,
“Shazam bit off. They mix Shaq with the damn movie. They bit his style! You need to go get your damn money! You need to get your money man. I might have turned you to something Shaq. Lawyers y’all tuning in? That definitely has something to do with him. That’s the reason why I downloaded the app.”
Shazam was acquired by the tech giant Apple in 2018, who closed the deal for about $400 million. Lefkoe and DaBaby later talked about how almost every fan confuses the movie ‘Kazaam’ for the app Shazam, somehow relating it with Shaq’s name. Perhaps, if the Big Fella might as well decide to pursue the case after DaBaby’s advice, he could even bank several million dollars to his name from a trillion-dollar company. But what if the 4-time NBA champion’s name really inspired it?
Is Shazam actually named after Shaquille O’Neal?
The movie Kazaam was released as a musical fantasy comedy film in 1996. Shaq played the lead role of a 5,000-year-old genie who appears from a magic boombox to grant a 14-year-old kid three wishes. Even though the film was a box-office flop, grossing only $18.9 million on its $20 million budget, it has become a cult classic among basketball fans and American households, over the years.
On the other hand, Shazam was first launched in 2002 in the UK and was known as ‘2580.’ It was a shortcode users dialed from their mobile phones to identify music. They would then receive a response in the form of a text message containing the song title and the artist’s name. The app has developed further into iOS and Android and is even integrated into other products such as Apple Watch and Snapchat.
Co-incidentally, Shaquille O’Neal also completed his three-peat with the Lakers around the same time when the app was launched. Could it be that the developers found inspiration in naming their app after the Big Fella? Not quite so. The developers founded Shazam Entertainment Limited in 1999 and perhaps might not particularly have thought about Shaq and his movie while naming it.
