Before Big Shaq’s Official Music Video for Man’s Not Hot would blow up on Youtube featuring
huge appearances by Waka Flocka, Lil Yachty, and DJ Khaled
Before Big Shaq’s “The Ting Goes” became the biggest meme of Fall 2017, getting Shaq
mainstream buzz, by putting his lyrics on top of everyday situations for big laughs.
Before Big Shaq’s appearance on Charlie Sloth's Radio series Fire In the Booth brought
in over 11 Million views between Facebook and Youtube…
Before Big Shaq would get the attention from The OG Big Shaq, Basketball legend and broadcaster,
Shaquelle Oneil, who released a diss track claiming the name Big Shaq for himself.
And Before Big Shaq fired back with what some would say was weak response with a diss track
of his own.
Big Shaq AKA Roadman Shaq is a character creation from comedian Michael Dappah (Dap-Pah). A
british character comic not unlike Sasha Baron Cohen who plays many different characters
and performs not on a stage, but in real life situations. However Big Shaq and Michael do
seem to share many similarities, as the character frequently talks about his Ghanaian parents,
alluding to his real life roots. Michael’s newfound fame and music career are no mere
fluke however, as Dappah was involved in theatre as a child, and in 2014 received a university
degree in Theatre, Film and Television Studies. It wasn’t until 2017 that things really
blew up for him, as his performance on BBC’s Fire In The Booth made him not only a legendary
meme, but extremely famous.
What's going on guys? My name is Michael McCrudden documenting the life and career of Micheal
Dappah, and the meme The Ting Goes/Mans Not Hot here for you on Before They Were Famous.
These meme videos are becoming some of our most popular videos with Roll Safe, Cash Me
Outside & Salt Bae being big hits for this channel. As always be sure to let us know
in the comments down below who you want me to document next.
Michael Kwame O Dapaah was born on August 10th 1991 in Sutton England, growing up in
an area known as Croydon. Michael’s parents are originally from Ghana, in west Africa.
His father Joseph is a doctor, and he is the middle child, with a younger brother, Edward
who also appeared on his first appearance on Fire In The Booth. He also has an older
sister who currently runs a London based salon. Michael grew up close friends with famous
British Rapper Stormzy, who also found fame when he blew up during a performance on Fire
in the booth back in 2014.
As a kid he’d spent lots of his time watching Mockumentaryy series such as The Office, Ali
G, and Little Britain. This is where he discovered the art of loosely scripted Guerrilla-style
shoots drawing particular inspiration from Sacha Baron Cohen and the stunts he pulled
playing the character Borat.
Upon completing High School, Micheal made a pretty prophetic declaration across his
social Media Platforms when he posted this statement. “I am gonna be a superstar! Watch
me”. He then entered Brunel University in London, where he received his Bachelor's degree
in Theatre arts and Acting graduating in 2014.
The Ting wasn’t going Skra pee pee pap pap yet, as Micheal was honing his craft and characters
by keeping busy with a bunch of projects.
He was featured in an online web series called, Meet the Adebanjos, (ADDY BANJOS?) about a
Nigerian Family, then produced his own sketch show called I’m So Dapaah, and starred as
David T in another online series called ‘Them 3’.
Nothing was popping though until 2016 when Micheal started to collaborate with Director
and Film Maker Marv Brown. The two began to work on a Youtube series titled Somewhere
In London.
This series brought Micheal’s characters off his Instagram oage and onto Youtube, with
higher production value and under the guidance of a professional director. In addition to
Roadman Shaq, now known as Big Shaq, we got to see Micheal perform as an Uber driver slash
Doctor
and also as a Neighbourhood watch officer by the name of Patrick.
The series did well in England, getting between 300K to 400K views per episode prior to Big
Shaq dropping bars on Fire In The Booth. This series caught the attention of not only Charlie
Sloth from Fire in The Booth, but of Drake, who began to follow Michael before he went
Viral.
Big Shaq was known as Roadman Shaq before he hit it big. The character is based off
of british “Roadmans”... which is slang for the type of dude who would skip school
to smoke and sell weed.
Roadman Shaq appeared in a number of clips on Micheal’s Instagram, which before he
went viral, had a decent following of around 23 thousand followers. That’s pretty much
the exact same number of followers I have, which for me isn't because Mans Not Hot…
Its because I’m usually a sweaty mess in most of my photos…Real Talk…Man’s always
really hot! Things started to really turn around for Big
Shaq, when in August 2017 he was invited on to Charlie Sloth’s Fire In The Booth. He
appeared with his real life brother Edward, as a character known as MC Quakes… He spit
a similar styled rap, that was interrupted by Big Shaq. I know it’s confusing, but
Michael was playing both characters at the same time.
Big Shaq spit some classic lines that day that instantly caught fire. (Say Em STRAIGHT)
Such as, Two plus two is four, minus one that's three… quick maths. And Who can forget…
The ting goes skrrrahh, pap, pap, ka-ka-ka Skidiki-pap-pap, and a pu-pu-pudrrrr-boom…
Jeez, I promise I will never do that again…. I won’t rap. (Sweating, Nervous) Is it hot
in here? Im getting very hot.
In September of 2017 “The Ting Goes” instantly became a meme that grew into a global viral
sensation. People put Big Shaq’s rhymes with real life situations that got big laughs
and tonnes of views. Meme videos using the so called freestyle were getting millions
of views. Enough to gain the attention of Mainstream media…
How many views do I need to get mainstream attention?
I have millions of views and all I got was an invite on Dr Phil and weird prescription
for Moustache rides whenever Im in Texas.
Big Shaq was featured in and out of Character by some heavy hitters in Media, being featured
by Complex, Vice, A React Video by the Fine Brothers, and also a coveted write up in legendary
Hip Hop Magazine XXL. (Double X L)
Charlie Sloth put him on tour, and his live performance crowd reactions were just insane.
The world seemed to love Big Shaq, as the meme spread further across the globe, but
not all attention is good attention.
He then appeared on The Breakfast Club, out of Character as himself. One of the main hosts…
Charlamagne Tha God, dogged Dappah as he didn’t know that Big Shaq was just a character and
thought him coming to studio as himself was a bad idea.
Others started to question whether this act was actually bad for hip hop, and as Dappah’s
star grew, so did his detractors. One of them in the form of literal Big Shaq, Basketball
great, and not so great rapper Shaquelle O’neil who seemingly was pissed off that Big Shaq,
was using the name Big Shaq.
The literal “Big Shaq” dropped a pretty mean diss track on Dappah, who responded pretty
weakly on Bleacher Reports Youtube Channel with a diss track of his own.
However that didn’t seem to stop momentum, because on October 25th the official Music
video for Man’s Not Hot dropped on Youtube and started trending World Wide. The video
shot all over the world features Big Shaq at the 2017 BET Music Video Awards with Lil
Yachty, Wacka Flocka, Lavar Ball and DJ Khaled refered to him as a legens. At the time of
this recording the Video has over 15 Million Views and is still going strong.
He might not be hot, but his career is on fire…. (Cut To) What are we heating this
room with? Lava? I need a fan…. Aghhh…
As for the rest of the story, well that's pretty much it. Because this is Before They
Were Famous. My name is Michael McCrudden and we make all sorts of celebrity biographies.
This one was requested a whole bunch so keep them coming. Let me know who is next in the
comments down below. Check out these other suggested videos and I'll see you guys in
the next vide.