One of the true pleasures of dance music over the five-plus years has been watching Shaquille O’Neil forge a post-NBA career path straight through the bass music scene.

DJ Diesel hasn’t been a vanity project, but a committed endeavor that’s established the four time NBA champion as a sizable (pun intended, of course) force in both live shows and releases. His Shaq’s Fun House and Shaq’s Bass All Stars Festival have become staples of the bass circuit, and he’s a regular at genre festival like Lost Lands, with his summer dates including Elements Music & Arts Festival, two editions of the traveling festival Breakaway, Miami’s hedonist club E11even and many more.

This month also marks the six year anniversary of him being famously spotted moshing in the crowd at Tomorrowland 2019, with O’Neil later telling Billboard that he simply loves the “game seven energy” of bass.

O’Neil’s latest project is his M.D.E. EP, with the project’s name being an acronym for “most dominant ever.” Out today (July 18) on Monstercat, the nine song release features collabs with a collection of hard-hitting bass mongers including Virtual Riot and Ivory. Here, O’Neil shares a bit about each track and collaborator.

“M.D.E.” (with Rzrkt)

This record came together when I went to Rzrkt and asked him to help me produce an epic show intro. It needed to be cinematic, as if it was the beginning of a war movie. I wanted to feel like I was going into battle; something that was slow with nice plucks in the beginning, then ramping up into high intensity. Once I witnessed how crazy the crowd went when they heard it live, I knew it would also be perfect as my EP intro. I really love the female vocal that lies behind it all. This is probably the most dominant record on the project.

“Animal” (with SampliFire and Ivory)

Andy [Ivory] and I have produced some of my biggest records, “Run It”,  “Moshpit,” now “Animal,” and a bunch of unreleased music coming soon. We are constantly cooking up new stuff from WIPs, to live edits, to even a joint sample pack that is on the way. Sammy (SampliFire) and Ivory are super close friends, so when we were all at Lost Lands, I told them we all needed to get in the studio together ASAP. Fast-forward two years later and now “Animal” is on this EP. For what it is worth, if you think Ivory and SampliFire are good bass producers, you should hear some of their new hip-hop beats.

“Damage” (with Virtual Riot)

I think everyone knows that Virtual Riot is a legend in the bass scene. After meeting for the first time at Electric Forest, we stayed in contact and started sending each other new music. Only a little time went by before VR came to me and suggested doing a drum n’ bass record, which I had never done before. Somehow, to even my surprise, we struck magic and put out one of the most sonically eclectic records in my discography. Even though this record is already released, we still send each other new music regularly.

“Run It” (with Ivory)

Ivory is the only collaborator to have multiple songs on my EP. That is probably because he sends me so many of his IDs and he never misses. He is the bass music Steph Curry… and I love Steph Curry.  “Run It” came together after I heard one of Ivory’s drum n’ bass IDs that had a really old-school hip hop intro. It spoke to me and I instantly knew I had to hop on this instrumental, which is why I made the first lyric of the song “Hop on the instrumental with ease.”  This is another record on the EP where the second drop is insane. The sound design is incredible, and is something you will hear across all Ivory songs.

“Pay Respect” (with GorillaT and Fraxure)

The minute I first heard of and saw GorillaT I knew he was special. I love his unique sound and contagious energy.  GorillaT also introduced me to Fraxure at Red Rocks, all I can say is this dude is a beast of a producer.  It was at that moment we knew we needed to make a song together. I wanted to try something aggressively wonky that’s  a perfect hybrid of our sounds.  I think “Pay Respect” does just that.  On our  second drop, we even dabbled into a bit of UKG.

“Bring the Pain” (with Layz)

Ahh yes, Layz, the bass meteorologist! Layla (Layz) and I have been friends since I entered this bass world. She has always been an avid fan of the DJ Diesel brand. And when we realized that it wasn’t going  to fly, that we didn’t have a record together, so we sat down and tried to produce the hardest song possible. Our goal was to bring the storm to the moshpit. I think, mission accomplished. Also, Layz, is the only person who has the audacity to pour a bag of chips on my head without consequences. If you don’t know what I am talking about, go to my @DJDiesel Instagram.

“Fadeaway” (with Benda)

Benda’s music has been a staple in my set since day one. In my opinion he is one of the best producers in the game. As you can see in “Fadeaway,” he is a phenomenal songwriter. The guy’s had me feeling like Travis Scott on this track. This dude is one of my ride-or-dies, which is why we got that line into the lyrics. Benda is yet another producer who crushes hip hop so we wanted to add that vibe into the song… I am a very busy man but I make time for the things that matter to me, hence the lyric, “I got time today.”

“Throwin’ Bows” (with Perry Wayne)

This collab with Perry Wayne has been long overdue. “Throwin’ Bows” actually started off as a remix to my record “Moshpit,” but after hearing the first version I knew I needed to jump on this and make it an original with my boy Perry. The dude has a very unique brand and produces very aggressive music which I absolutely love. I wanted to keep the vocal minimal so we could let the song shine. Perry has been on multiple of my shows including my Shaq’s Bass All Stars Festival, and I can testify that he’s as violent in the studio and on the decks.

“Show Em” (with Neotek)

Another song that has been in the making for a long time. Neotek is one of the best upcoming artists in my opinion. He is young and hungry, something that I completely understand and appreciate. The dude moved across the world from Australia to the bass capital, Denver, to pursue his dream. That is real dedication. This song has been supported by some of the biggest acts in bass music, including Excision and Sullivan King. Neotek has an arsenal of unreleased music. I am lucky enough to have access to these bangers, and play them in my sets all the time.

In our Latin Remix of the Week series, we spotlight remixes that the Billboard Latin and Billboard Español editors deem to be exceptional and distinct from the rest. We might not publish a review every week. This is our selection today.

Marking the 10th anniversary of Joan Sebastian passing, Colombian-Mexican DJ/producer and multi-instrumentalist Sinego breathes fresh life into the Mexican legend’s iconic catalog with his latest hypnotic Afro House-infused single, “Un Idiota (Te Perdí).”

Out Friday (July 18), the remix is part of a three-track celebration of Sebastian’s timeless ballads, which also includes previously released “Sentimental (Sombras)” and “Secreto de Amor (La Noche).” The full set honors the enduring legacy of a musician whose heartfelt songs defined generations.

Originally a gut-wrenching ballad of regret and unrequited love built around accordion and banda-inspired instrumentation, Sinego takes a bold detour with his remix, replacing the earthy acoustic textures with flamenco-style guitar, moodier percussion and smooth electronic layers.

“’Un Idiota (Te Perdí)’ is a blend of my biggest inspirations: Joan Sebastian and the soulful guitar vibes of Sevilla, Spain,” Sinego said in a press release. “This is my way of reimagining what Joan’s music might sound like today, with a more cinematic twist. I rerecorded every instrument — except for the vocals — to keep things raw and organic. The goal? To bring some real artistry and emotion back into Afro House and house music.”

“Un Idiota,” which peaked at No. 2 on Hot Latin Songs in 2015 — the year of the icon’s passing — is a ballad that quintessentially captures the essence of heartbreak.

Sinego’s efforts are part of a collaboration between Craft Latino and Discos Musart designed to recontextualize Joan Sebastian’s music for a new generation. 

Stream all three Joan Sebastian remakes, including newly released “Un Idiota (Te Perdí),” below:

In 2023, Kesha completed her yearslong record deal with Kemosabe and RCA with the release of her experimental pop album, Gag Order. After its release, she parted ways with her longtime management, Vector. And by the start of 2024, she was ready for her next chapter: freedom. 

In February 2024, Kesha signed a new management deal with Crush (Miley Cyrus, Lorde). And fittingly, this July 4, she released her first album, . (Period), with the new team intact – and her first as an independent artist, releasing on her own Kesha Records and distributed by ADA.

“I am full of so much gratitude. Thank you for supporting me,” Kesha recently wrote on Instagram. “As an independent artist, I’m really floored by the amount of love and support yall are giving me.”

Crush CMO Dan Kruchkow recalls meeting the pop star for the first time, saying: “You could immediately tell her ambition, vision and competitiveness were not lacking in the least. That’s a very good first impression in our book.”

And it’s helped her deliver, big time. .(Period) debuted atop multiple Billboard charts and has placed Kesha on the biggest stages of her career, including tour stops at New York’s Madison Square Garden and Los Angeles’ Forum.

“We are as ambitious as she is and the goal was to make everything bigger than [it had] previously been,” says Kruchkow. “We’ve checked quite a few boxes off the last 12 months.”

“It’s been really exciting to see both her lifelong fans and all aspects of the industry join Kesha in this new phase of her career,” he continues, crediting press, streamers, radio, social media partnerships and fashion and beauty collaborators for supporting the artist throughout this rollout. “It was all a risk, but there’s no reward without that and now it’s only going to get bigger.”

This week, Kesha’s first independently-released album debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Album Sales, Vinyl Albums and Top Dance Albums charts. What key decision(s) did you make to help make that happen?

For starters, launching her first ever independent release as a surprise on July 4 set it off real quick. But the result is a culmination of well over a year of planning and executing on Kesha’s vision. Her having the freedom to do whatever she wanted (godbless ADA!) was a huge driver of the plan. We have no guardrails, which for us at least, makes it very fun and empowering. 

She earned her career best sales week on vinyl. What was the strategy and why was vinyl a priority?

This all started with a fantastic album. Then you add in Keshas’s creative behind the packaging, colors and even the names (which are definitely NSFW). And finally, now that vinyl’s become a super viable and important format again, this all made the perfect combination of physical release for super fans.  Fans want to own something, collect it, play it, show it off. And they are.

This was her first rollout with a new team — what challenges and opportunities did that bring?

The obvious challenge is that its new for everyone and we had to establish systems and all the boring stuff but once that locked in we approached everything with the concept of no idea is too big or too crazy. We’ll figure it out. Nothing is off limits.

Kesha is headlining some of the biggest stages of her career — including the Forum and, next week, Madison Square Garden. What made now the right moment to take on these iconic venues?

For starters, she made an incredible record that we knew her fans, new and old, would love. The early signs were there once we started releasing new music. Her catalog quickly started to react as well and hasn’t stopped since. A surprise appearance at Coachella and major set at Lollapalooza last summer really locked in the potential we all saw. The fans were hungry. All that, coupled with Kesha’s new freedom and personal ambition, we knew we could take risks — and booking her biggest headline tour ever was one of them. Our partners at CAA and Live Nation delivered big time and now Kesha is playing to these tremendous crowds — 22k sold out in Chicago, sold out MSG, 18k sold out at opening night in Salt Lake. It’s a freight train.

What’s next for Kesha?

World domination! She’s hitting the UK and EU to play to her biggest headline crowds ever there next year with more territories to be announced soon. On the music side of things, we’re really just getting started and have already released a deluxe album. There’s several songs we’re working at the moment in different ways and we might have more to come sooner than later. Expect to see Kesha very busy for a long time to come.

Last Week: How Royel Otis Readied Their First Billboard No. 1

Billboard’s Friday Music Guide serves as a handy guide to this Friday’s most essential releases — the key music that everyone will be talking about today, and that will be dominating playlists this weekend and beyond. 

This week, Alex Warren is far from “Ordinary,” Jessie Murph delivers on her promise and BTS bring us back to live. Check out all of this week’s picks below:

Alex Warren, You’ll Be Alright, Kid 

With the success of “Ordinary” eclipsing even the wildest expectations, Alex Warren now has the opportunity to establish an enduring foothold in popular music — and You’ll Be Alright, Kid, a new album that features his No. 1 smash as well as previously released collaborations with Jelly Roll and ROSÉ, fleshes out the boom and gravel of his voice, with opener “Eternity” in particular operating in the same emotional songwriter register as his breakthrough hit. 

Jessie Murph, Sex Hysteria 

“Blue Strips” may have been the viral smash-turned-top 20 hit that finally delivered Jessie Murph to the mainstream, but the singer-songwriter has spent years honing her pop persona and hopscotching across genres with ease; Sex Hysteria contains plenty of the earworm hooks that made Murph’s voice ubiquitous over the past few months, but more importantly, the new album places her fierce spirit front and center, and gives her the widescreen platform that she deserves.

BTS, Permission To Dance On Stage – Live 

Although the long-awaited, full-throttle return of BTS is expected for 2026, Permission To Dance On Stage – Live — the group’s first live album, which is taken from various performances during their 2021 tour — serves as a timely reminder of their global appeal, from their Hot 100 chart-toppers to their fan-favorite album tracks that still resonate a decade after their release.

Zach Bryan feat. Gabriella Rose, “Madeline” 

Two weeks after releasing a three-pack of songs, Zach Bryan has quickly returned with “Madeline,” a heartfelt collaboration with Gabriella Rose that also precedes a newly announced album, With Heaven On Top; Bryan remains as prolific as ever, but none of the recent material feels rushed or tossed-off, and Rose’s gentle twang nicely plays off his own delivery here.

Alex G, Headlights 

Alex G signing to RCA Records was both a big deal and a natural next step for the indie stalwart: as the singer-songwriter’s commercial prospects have steadily grown, new album Headlights contains the potential of a true crossover for his deeply felt, idiosyncratic tone, especially if songs like “Oranges” and “Afterlife” find the right rock-leaning audience.

Myke Towers, Island Boyz 

A press release for Myke Towers’ Island Boyz describes the project as “an album that doesn’t aim to fit into any mold, but rather to create its own language” — and across its 75-minute run time, Towers centers not just his Puerto Rican roots but the entirety of Caribbean music, reaching a new level as a mainstream artist through synthesis and experimentation.

Cam, All Things Light 

As a fresh generation of country artists has stepped into the spotlight, Cam has remained among the most consistent in her class, with new album All Things Light reflecting on personal struggles and offering hope to those in desperate need of it; it’s a different shade for the singer-songwriter, but the newfound urgency powers this collection.

Editor’s Pick: Nine Inch Nails, “As Alive As You Need Be to Me” 

Nine Inch Nails’ studio output has slowed down over the past decade as Trent Reznor has focused on scoring film projects (and become a fixture at the Academy Awards as a result) — and while “As Alive As You Need Be to Me” is attached to a movie, as the first taste of the upcoming Tron: Ares soundtrack, the single gloriously flexes the band’s industrial-dance muscle that recalls the highs of With Teeth, and Reznor spends the track sounding commanding, re-energized back in front of the microphone. 

In the sunlit boardroom of a sleekly understated West Hollywood hotel, the gentlemen of Above & Beyond sign hundreds of posters of themselves. The trio — Paavo Siljamäki, Tony McGuinness and Jono Grant — form an assembly line as they put their respective names (first, only) onto each image from the three inch stack, their silver Sharpies dulling from use.

Based in London (Grant and McGuinness) and Finland (Siljamäki) the guys are jet-lagged but a bit giddy from an interview they did earlier today with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, an occasion they flew to Los Angeles for, and for which McGuinness says they were “incredibly nervous.” They’re one of the most beloved groups in dance music, yet they seem gobsmacked by the mainstream recognition.

That interview, and this one, are puzzle pieces of an album campaign that launched in March with the announcement of Bigger Than All of Us, the trio’s fifth studio LP in a catalog going back to 2006. The campaign hit overdrive three months ago with a primetime performance at Coachella’s Outdoor Stage, a promo cycle that compounds upon itself here on the glass conference table as they sign posters bearing an image of that show.

In it, the trio appear in miniature at the center of a giant circular stage rig, a huge digital full moon rising on the LED wall behind them and a sprawling audience ahead. What’s cut out from the image is the additional 40,000 people who were in the crowd that night.

“We went to the stage the night before at the same time and there were about 10,000 people seeing the band there,” says McGuinness. He thought A&B would pull a similarly sized crowd. He was wrong. They walked onstage and “I Iooked out and it was just one of those moments where you go ‘Wow,’” he says. “I think it was one of the most extraordinary gigs we’ve done, seeing the people going on forever.”

Given that A&B has been commanding giant crowds for upwards of 25 years, since coalescing in the U.K. in the Y2K era, that’s saying something. At Coachella, the trio debuted a handful of never-before-heard album tracks, ramping up to a place of anthemic ecstasy over the hour. Watching via livestream from his living room in Los Angeles, the album’s A&R Dave Dresden was observing closely.

“I could feel the tension in them when they started,” he says. “They started with a song nobody had ever heard before, and it wasn’t really crafted for the dance floor, but they won that crowd over in a way that I wasn’t even expecting.” By the end of the set, Dresden was crying. Given the heart-on-sleeve vibe that’s long been A&B’s signature, he likely wasn’t the only one.

Out today (July 18) Bigger Than All of Us is the group’s first entirely electronic album since 2018’s Common Ground. (2019’s Flow State is a continuous mix of ambient music made for yoga and meditation.) The plan wasn’t necessarily to wait seven years between albums, but when the pandemic hit, the guys were in different locations and each just went about making a solo project.

When the trio started touring together again post-pandemic “it quickly became evident that we needed new music, because we were playing mostly old stuff,” says McGuinness. “It was like there needed to be a new Above & Beyond album, or there would be no more Above & Beyond.”

“If you don’t keep going, you sort of become a legacy act,” says Grant. “It was like, ‘If we don’t do a new album, what are we going to do? What’s the point?’”

“We could probably always play the major festivals,” Siljamäki continues, “but that’s not really as exciting as it is to go out there and play new material.”

So at a 2023 lunch with their manager James Grant, (who’s also Jono’s brother), they decided that It Was Time. Luckily, they had a lot of pre-existing ideas to pull from. Unfortunately they weren’t convinced any of them were very good.

This is where Dresden entered the picture. Half of longstanding dance duo Gabriel & Dresden, he’d long known James Grant and the crew at Anjuna, the family of labels (Anjunbeats, Anjunadeep and Anjunachill) that’s home to a sprawling ecosystem of artists and events, with A&B at the center. (James Grant is also the head of Anjunadeep.) Dresden says he’d previously “planted the seed” with James Grant that he’d be an astute A&R for the label, but he didn’t expect to work with its star act.

“I think they’d been working on the album for a year and weren’t feeling like they’d gotten anywhere,” says Dresden. “They needed outside perspective.”

He was offered the A&R role, but didn’t immediately say yes. Instead, he downloaded the audio book of Rick Rubin’s The Creative Act: A Way of Being, digested its messages about how to get the best from an artist, then spent a day listening to the complete Above & Beyond discography. “I really felt like I understood what they achieve in their records,” he says, “and I felt like I could do it.” He accepted the job.

The trio sent Dresden approximately 40 unfinished songs, and he sorted them into five categories ranging from “‘Sun & Moon’ Level,” (a reference one of their biggest hits) to “I don’t really understand this.” His benchmark for quality was specific: “The framework, he says, “Was that the songs need to be so good that people will be willing to tattoo the lyrics on their bodies.”

Siljamäki, McGuinness and Grant gave Dresden a few weeks to digest the music, then they had their first meeting. “They’d sold me on this idea they were lost,” says Dresden. “In that meeting I said to them, ‘I know you’re not going to believe me, but you already have an album.’”

“That completely changed the vibe,” says Siljamäki. “We had him saying ‘This track you did five years ago, this is really good, did you realize?’ He really helped bring us together.”

“What was great is that there were bits in there that we maybe believed in individually, but maybe the group didn’t believe it,” says Jono Grant. “Having Dave go, ‘This is a great song’ … Whoever didn’t make the track would listen up and go ‘Okay!’ He broke through the egos and the bulls–t and just got down to what’s really good here.”

Through this process, the guys saw that they had roughly two thirds of the album already done. From there, they scheduled weekly virtual meetings where they’d play through the progress of each song and everyone would provide feedback. “It felt a little bit corporate at times, but it was good to have some accountability,” says Jono Grant. “They sort of squeezed an album out of us.”

“We typically resist meetings,” says McGuinness. “We work together sometimes, but it’s very rare for all three of us to be in the room at the same time. That’s never been the way that we work. I work with Jono. Jono works with Paavo, then with me. There are different iterations.”

Amid process, they brought in their longtime collaborators Zoë Johnston, whose ethereal voice is arguably one of the calling cards of the A&B sound, as well as Richard Bedford and Justice Suissa. It’s essentially a given that these guests will be on any new A&B album. “We’re not reinventing the wheel every time we do a record,” says McGuinness. “Having those recognizable voices helps us with radio and helps us to signal that we’re back.”

Eventually, they had 16 tracks, and Bigger Than All of Us was officially completed in May.

The project, James Grant says, “is pretty much the most exciting thing that can happen on Anjunabeats,” with the label putting a third of its global team on the album campaign, from streaming to events to management to merch. In terms of success, he says there’s “no single factor that just changes the game and the campaign. It’s more a cumulative effect of doing lots of things well.”

A huge piece of the puzzle is the upcoming tour, for which A&B will take the same giant stage rig from Coachella to 13 North American amphitheaters from August to October, being one of only a handful of electronic acts able to play this level of venue. (Other acts at this level might include Odesza.) A&B fans are famously dedicated, and among the more welcoming crowds in electronic music, no doubt a trickle-down effect of the group and its focus on wellness, inclusivity and therapeutic crying on the dancefloor.

“I really feel like we have a voice that we need to use in the electronic world,” says Siljamäki, who’s been open about the period of severe burnout and depression he experienced during the pandemic, and how clubbing helped him come back from it. “What we created is so awesome that even if it’s hard, it’s worth going through the hard stuff.”

“The backbone has to be the love of music to keep me engaged,” says Grant, “But the responsibility drags me through the bits when I’m tired on tour and can’t get out of bed in a hotel room.”

This sense of responsibility extends to the core operation itself. “I feel that responsibility every time I go in the office and see how many people we’ve got working there,” says McGuinness. “Without Above & Beyond, Anjunabeats is a very different size company from the one that that we’ve got with us.”

But the size in question here isn’t just the number of Anjuna staff or the number of streams the album will amass or the number of posters sitting here on the table. Above & Beyond’s music is big and anthemic, but it’s also subtle and often understated — opening track “Stepping In” spends its first minute weaving together sounds of wind, bird calls and children playing before really lifting off. “Blood From a Stone,” like so much of the album, is as celestial and contemplative as it is thumping. When Above & Beyond talk about proportions, its never been just about numbers, but the weight of impact their music has on the individual and the global collective that’s its brought together. Ultimately, that’s the size that most matters.

Says McGuinness: “It’s not called Bigger Than All Of Us for no reason.”