Yelawolf has had an unlikely supporter in Shaquille O’Neal dating back to the early days of his career, and he gave the legendary NBA player his flowers this past weekend.
Following a post from Shaq at All Star Weekend that used Yelawolf’s “Pop The Trunk” as the soundtrack, the former Shady Records rapper shared the video in a post of his own on Sunday (February 19) in tribute.
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“honored to say @shaq’s been one of my biggest and personally most impactful supporters,” Yela wrote. “he made me ( and I do mean made me ) meet him at a club in ATL years back when TrunkMuzik just hit .. and he told me ‘Wolf your gonna have lots of haters .. but never stop doing you !!’ .. it was surreal.”
He continued: “SHAQ for one has a king like presence let alone giving you some big homie advice .. that Always stuck with me though .. and I haven’t even mentioned it til today .. love you SHAQ .. thank you for that moment and thank you for this post GNG !!! even I forget from time to time how this all started in the first place !! POP THE TRUNK”
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One person not in his corner, however, is Yelawolf’s former labelmate Royce Da 5’9″. The latter caught a lot of people off guard when he publicly dissed Yela on The Allegory single “Overcomer” in 2020, calling him a “vulture” and “punk ass.”
In a later interview with Genius’ For The Record video series, Royce provided a bit more detail on the situation – though he didn’t divulge what exactly went down between them.
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“He was a friend of mine,” Royce said. “I felt disrespected by something that transpired, and that was just the way I chose to deal with it. I felt like I could’ve dealt with it in a few different ways. I chose not to because I don’t want to promote negativity. I don’t want to engage in silly, public, back-and-forth beefs. And I did feel like I needed to hold him accountable.”
Royce went on to explain he felt Yelawolf waited too long to reach out to hash out their differences.
“There wasn’t a communication line between us,” he said. “The window of opportunity for us to communicate closed, and it’s because he didn’t initiate it. So I just felt as friends, you would initiate that communication and give that clarification to me. But that never happened.”
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He then admitted Yelawolf tried to get in touch with him following the release of “Overcomer,” but evidently he wasn’t feeling it.
“He reached out,” Royce said. “Oh yeah, after that he reached out. We didn’t speak, but he reached out after that. I don’t wish him nothing but the best. I don’t wish any ill will on him or anything like that. But I took offense to what he did and I moved on. It’s not the first time.”
As for Shaq, he recently opened up about a song featuring himself, JAY-Z, Nas and the late Notorious B.I.G. that never saw the light of day.
The Big Diesel made the revelation during his appearance on Drink Champs back in October when N.O.R.E. asked him about the decades-old track.
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According to the four-time NBA champion, the original song featuring all three New York rap titans was never released due to clearance and publishing issues. The song was titled “No Love Lost” and featured the four aforementioned names and Lord Tariq.
