It’s no secret the internet is absolutely obsessed with 90s nostalgia, which provides an escape from the reality of the real world with the cheery memories of happier times. However, for every Double Dare! and Disney Channel original film, there are relics that we’d prefer to forget, like purple ketchup and the boy bands that dominated the music scene around the turn of the millennium.
I’m pretty sure history will show the only real positive that came out of bands like *NSYNC is the Canadian tuxedo Justin Timberlake wore at the American Music Awards. While they might have dominated the charts at the time, No Strings Attached isn’t going to show up on any “Greatest Albums” list, and there’s a good chance we could have avoided the trend if it wasn’t for a person you might not expect: Shaquille O’Neal.
Earlier this week, Lance Bass told TMZ Sports Shaq helped spark his career as well as those of his bandmates not named “Justin Timberlake,” saying:
“Shaquille had a big hand in starting our career. We lived in Orlando and our first place that we recorded at was his house. All of our first demos and first songs were all from Shaq’s house. So yeah, he had a hand in creating us”
I was a bit skeptical of the claim, but my doubts were erased last night when Shaq confirmed Bass was telling the truth during the latest installment of The NBA on TNT.
According to For The Win, Shaq admitted he did a couple of aspiring boy bands a major solid by letting them record at his place, saying, “When they were young, they recorded their first album at my house, at the studio at my house — *NSYNC and Backstreet Boys. True story.”
Way to tarnish your legacy, Shaq.
