ShaqIsDope kicked his first freestyle at the tender age of 11 and has been stepping his game up ever since. Coming up inspired by lyricists like Big Pun and Fabolous, the 26-year-old Toronto native has stayed focused on his wordplay. “I’ll put this whole verse up on a stretcher/Came to catch a body, double homi'/Even better,” raps ShaqIsDope, who flexed his lyrical muscles for XXL’s Flex Zone series.

“I guess it’s true, your idols become your rivals,” spits the artist behind tracks like “Know The Feeling” and “For The Streets.” “Flow God, at this point I should just autograph a bible/I’m from Toronto, where we rapping for survival/See, you sound like Drizzy, well, that’s because he holds the title/And the Raptors, too/But in my hood it’s never pass and shoot/So what the hell I look like throwing an alley oop/You only beg if you plan to lose/So all of this talk like they can hang, y'all boys better grab a noose.”

ShaqIsDope recently teamed up with Miller Genuine Draft Design Lab to release his single “Feeling Like This” and is now looking forward to the next moves in his career. For his forthcoming project, expect the lyrical assassin to experiment more with sounds and melodies, while also letting listeners know where he's at in his life. “You’ll get personal updates about my life,” he says. “It’s me just tapping in and really telling them where I’m at with my career and what’s going on in my life and everything like that.”

Watch ShaqIsDope body his Flex Zone freestyle in the video below.

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