Looking to leverage the popularity of Shaquille O'Neal, but not to compete against their own upcoming basketball titles, Electronic Arts landed on the only logical compromise: A one-on-one fantasy fighting game. You can get the full post-game here.
I imagine most people probably come to the intuitive inclusion that “it’s Shaquille O’Neal’s nickname with “fu” at the end to evoke kung-fu, because it’s a fighting game.” This is actually only mostly true!
Everyone knows Shaq’s basketball career, this game and that one tweet where he goes “aaaahhhh (dats me yellin)”, but what people may not know is his forays into the world of hip-hop.
This is “What’s Up, Doc (Can We Rock)” by US hip-hop outfit, Fu-Schnickens. Fu-Schnickens were a very unique act most active in the 90s, known for a lot of lyrical embellishments evocative of Looney Tunes and other similar cartoons. The act was comprised of three artists who all took on a different stage name - they were known as Poc-Fu, Chip-Fu and Moc-Fu. According to the trio, “Fu” stood for unity, while “schnicken” was a made-up word that meant “coalition”.
At around this time, Shaq was doing some rapping of his own, releasing his first rap album Shaq Diesel in 1993. He’s actually a shockingly entertaining rapper in his own right, which got him in the studio to collaborate with Fu-Schnickens on “What’s Up, Doc”, where he got the final verse. As part of this collaboration, he was made an honourary member of Fu-Schnickens, bestowed with the name: Shaq-Fu!
Fun fact, he actually references this collaboration in another guest verse he performs in “3 Lokos” by rap group Coyote!
Lyrically, you are not a schnicken, you don’t get the fu
