This is a bizarre story that isn’t just a rumor and involves an actual court case proceeding now. A music promoter and former gang member testified at a preliminary hearing that he was kidnapped and robbed by seven gang members in 2008. According to the victim, a former associate of Shaq’s, he was robbed, beaten and ordered to hand over a sex tape he was in possession of that allegedly showed Shaq having sex with several women who were not his then-wife, Shaunie. The victim claims that he threatened to release the tape when Shaq failed to pay him for referring music artists to Shaq’s label. All of this is pretty damning, but despite his assumed involvement Shaq has not been charged with anything at all and it’s likely he won’t be charged. The seven men have been arrested and charged with robbery and kidnapping.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ … Ladell Rowles — a member of the Main Street Mafia Crip Gang in L.A. who is friends with Shaq — along with 6 other members went on a search and destroy mission in L.A. on February 11, 2008. They believed a man named Robert Ross had the sex tape and they tried getting it back with the help of a gun or two.

According to the police report, the 7 gang members met up with Ross at a convenience store — Pink Dot — on the Sunset Strip. The men allegedly surrounded Ross’ Rolls Royce Phantom with guns drawn, jumped into Ross’ car and ordered him to drive to Rowles’ house in South Central L.A.

Once there, Rowles allegedly pistol whipped Ross and demanded that he turn over the sex tape. Ross said he would get the tape and bring it back to them. The 7 men then allegedly took Ross’ Rolex, diamond chain and earrings, along with $15,000 in cash — then let Ross go.

The 7 men have been arrested and charged with robbery, kidnapping and other crimes. They are currently in the middle of a preliminary hearing and being held in jail.

We’ve learned LAPD detectives interviewed Shaq to determine what, if any, involvement he had in the alleged crimes. When the case file went to the D.A. Shaq was not listed as a suspect.

Now here’s the interesting backstory.

Ross has a history with Shaq. Shaq and his business manager, Mark Stevens, have a record label and allegedly told Ross they would give him a 50% cut in any artists he brought to them. Ross claims he delivered Ray J to Shaq but got cut out of the deal.

Ross told cops after his falling out, he threatened Shaq by telling him about the sex tape, threatening to release it unless Shaq paid up.

As for the tape, Ross claims Shaq brought women to Ross’ home and had sex with them while he was married to Shaunie. Ross told Shaq a “security camera” captured the action and it was all on tape. But Ross told cops the security camera recycles periodically and the video no longer exists.

And there’s another twist. Around the time Shaq and Ross had their falling out, Shaunie separated from Shaq and Ross claims he began having an affair with her. Ross claims Shaq hired a private investigator to tail Shaunie and the P.I. caught the two together.

[From TMZ]

That’s ripe that the guy had an affair with Shaq’s then-wife Shaunie too! It’s all very twisted.

CNN’s story on this backs up TMZ’s claim that the sex tape was being used as a bargaining chip by the victim, but they also write that “prosecutors said they have not verified the sex tape, purportedly showing the retired basketball star having sex with several women, actually exists.”

In early 2010 three different women who were mistresses of Shaq during his marriage to Shaunie came forward. (Shaunie and Shaq filed for divorce in 2007 but reconciled until Shaunie reportedly discovered he was cheating and filed again in November ’09). There were text messages to women named Latosha Lee, and Vanessa Lopez, and another mistress named Dominica Westling told her story to Radar. There were surely plenty more and Shaq probably thought he was being so smooth and discreet about it all. Don’t they always until they get caught.

36 year-old Phoenix Suns center Shaquille O’Neal performed an amateur rap at a NY Club on Sunday in which he took pot shots at former LA Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant and suggested that Bryant was responsible for his divorce. The refrain for the song was “Kobe, tell me how my ass taste[s]” and the lyrics included a suggestion that Shaq may have cheated on his wife, Shaunie, with whom he filed for divorce last September. Shaq raps “I’m a horse, Kobe ratted me out, that’s why I’m getting divorced.”

TMZ reminds us that Bryant said in 2003 during his rape trial that he “Should have done what Shaq does … Shaq would pay his women not to say anything.” That was well before Shaq filed for divorce so Bryant must have done something else that he thinks sabotaged his marriage.

ESPN reminds us that the Lakers without Shaq lost the NBA Finals 4-2 to the Boston Celtics, which seems to be what Shaq is referring to when he says “last week Kobe couldn’t do without me.”

Here’s a transcript of Shaq’s rap if you can’t listen to the video above:

You know how I be, last week Kobe couldn’t do without me
I call myself big but I’m not as good as Biggie.
I call myself big because I live next to Diddy.
Excuse me, Diddy live next to me, so in the hood dog I feel like B I G
Because if Biggie was still here… [unintelligible]
It’s like a white boy trying to be more nigga than me…
It’s like Patrick Ewing having more rings than me..
It’s like Kareem saying to himself he’s better than me.
Now stop, think about that, it aint about that, it’s about B I G aka big Shaq
Now that’s the difference between first and last place
Kobe, nigga, tell me how my ass tastes
Ok, Kobe, tell me how my ass tastes
Ok everybody, Kobe, tell me how my ass taste
I’m a horse, Kobe ratted me out, that’s why I’m getting divorced
He said Shaq gave a bitch a meal
I don’t do that, because my name’s Shaquille
I love ‘em, I don’t leave ‘em.
I got a vasectomy, now I can’t breed ‘em
Kobe how my ass taste?
Everybody, Kobe how my ass taste?
Kobe, you can’t do without me
Everybody, Kobe how my ass taste?

[Transcribed from video originally posted on TMZ and shown above]

I love how he says “I got a vasectomy, now I can’t breed ‘em.” Shaq says he was just freestyling and that it was all meant in jest.

Reached by ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith on Monday, O’Neal issued the following statement: “I was freestyling. That’s all. It was all done in fun. Nothing serious whatsoever. That is what MC’s do. They freestyle when called upon. I’m totally cool with Kobe. No issue at all. And by the way, don’t forget, six albums, two platinum, two gold. Anybody who knows me knows I’m a funny freestyler. Check the NBA DVD when I was rapping about Vlade Divac during my first championship run. Please tell everybody don’t make something out of nothing.”

O’Neal and Bryant do have a history of feuding, however, which started even before the Lakers split them up. Bryant bristled when O’Neal called him his “little brother.” At one point, Bryant questioned O’Neal’s conditioning.

Soon after being traded by the Lakers, O’Neal didn’t hide his disdain, calling Bryant a “clown” and a “joke.”

In recent years, however, the war of words has quieted, and O’Neal even went on record as saying that Bryant should have won the 2007 MVP award.

[From ESPN]

I totally forgot that Shaquille O’Neal had a rapping career in the early 90s. According to Wikipedia, he put out Shaq Diesel in 1993, which reached platinum status and was #10 on the Hip Hop chart, Shaq-Fu: Da Return in 1994, which went gold, You Can’t Stop the Reign in 1996, also gold, and Respect in 1998. He also had a greatest hits album, The Best of Shaquille O’Neal, which came out in 1996 along with music on the soundtracks of Kazaam and Steel. Do you this guy would not have a rap career if he wasn’t a basketball superstar?

Here’s You Can’t Stop the Reign from 1996. Most of his songs seem to center around how great and how rich he is: