Shaquille O’Neal has put his Sherlock Holmes cap on, revealing that he’s trying to track down the cute viral Home Depot Girl — and he’s even made a freestyle about it.
Ariana Josephine, a.k.a. the “Home Depot Girl,” started making waves on social media earlier this month for both her videos and her profession, and Shaq took a moment to slide into Josephine’s DMs after she had gotten some backlash for allegedly shading sex workers.
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“Don’t let them peopl [sic] bother u,” O’Neal wrote to Ariana, according to screenshots shared by Legion Hoops. “Don’t read the comments stuff like that will drive you crazy.”
Josephine said she was grateful for O’Neal’s kind words, to which the NBA legend replied: “Have a great day tell all your boyfriends I said hello lol.”
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However, Shaq has now taken it one step further, and in a hilarious Instagram video attempted to track down the young Home Depot girl at her place of business, all while rapping about how he’s been slept on his entire career.
Donning Home Depot’s signature orange apron, the basketball legend took over the store, towering above the isles as he promotes his new DJ Diesel song, “I Know I Got It.” Shaq wrote in the caption: “JUST LAUGH PEOPLE, and have a wonderful day.”
People seemed to be feeling the track for the most part, including Anderson .Paak who commented: “OUTSTANDING,” followed by multiple fire emoji’s.
The new track comes after Shaq told haters in May to “kiss the ring” and announced his return to Hip Hop with new single “King Talk.”
Shaq is no stranger to the rap world having signed with Jive Records upon being drafted by the Orlando Magic in 1992, and releasing his debut album Shaq Diesel the following year; he was the first NBA star with a platinum plaque.
O’Neal released four solo studio LPs in total with the latter pair coming from a deal with Interscope Records. He hasn’t delivered a studio album since 1998 while also providing soundtracks to movies like Kazaam and Steel in the ’90s as well.
Not content with just rapping again, Shaquille O’Neal is also trying his hand at producing. In a TikTok video posted earlier this month, the NBA champion gave beatmakers and studio chefs a warning about his arrival in their domain.
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The four-time NBA champion can be seen cooking up his own tracks on an airplane with his headphones on, which suggests that he’s already in the process of learning the craft.
Whereas Shaq expressed his appreciation for the work producers do and even acknowledged that it requires a great deal of talent, he seems ready to take on the challenge. But it doesn’t stop there — the big man wants to be the very best in the field.