When the Doggie Jams concert was returning for the 2024 edition it had to be bigger. And it doesn’t get bigger than Shaquille O’Neal. He was the headliner of Greenville’s favorite annual event in 2022 when it returned after a hiatus. After a two-year gap, the organizers announced DJ Diesel would be back on the console for it. You know that crowd was something if Shaq returns.

Doggie Jams livened up Greenville again on April 12 at the Five Points Plaza. Murda Beatz was the opening act followed by the main piece de resistance, the NBA legend, and EDM titan himself, Shaq. He was the ultimate draw for the ECU students in the crowd.

“It’s a big party school, but we’ve never had anybody like Shaq pull up,” said an ECU student and basketball player. “This is my first year seeing Shaq so as a fellow basketball player I admire another NBA player pulling up.”

The event ran from 3 to 7 pm but Shaq is yet to give us some updates from it. It had to be epic, both because of its headliner and the significance of the event itself.

Shaq revives Doggie Jams event

The pandemic pressed pause on Doggie Jams as with all big events. O’Neal was already announced as the headliner in 2020 but that didn’t happen. It was revived in 2022, and Shaq honored his 2020 commitment. The 4000 attendees who bought tickets before the postponement were reluctant to seek a refund. But in 2022 they reused the same tickets to see O’Neal.

It’s a DJ event that began in 2010, a year before Shaq retired from the NBA and had yet to begin his dubstep career. Before it became part of Greenville’s culture, it was an annual celebration of the sponsoring restaurant Sup Dogs. The restaurant’s founder Derek Oliverio came up with the idea of a concert before he passed away in 2011. His family kept it going in his memory and Doggie Jams grew bigger and better. Proceeds from the concert goes to Uptown Greenville, a local nonprofit.

Derek’s brother, Bret said the event usually sells out local hotels. But the 4x champion took it up a notch in 2022. “To see Shaquille O’Neal walking down Fifth Street to me is going to be really cool,” he said before it actually happened on the day.

It overjoyed ECU students when Sup Dogs announced Shaq’s return for the 2024 concert. They might have more chances to see him because he is making sure to seize every opportunity to deejay and have crowds pumped.