Too $hort
Players come and go, but the game remains the same. Lasting in that game requires knowing yourself, sticking to your guns, and never ever compromising.
With 30 years under his belt, 15 million Soundscan sales, 6 platinum certifications, 4 gold certifications, collaborations alongside both Tupac and The Notorious B.I.G., countless sold out shows, and hundreds of guest appearances, Too $hort cracked the code to hip-hop immortality.
From Drake copping his “Blow The Whistle” lyrics and flow on the double-platinum DJ Khaled smash “For Free” to G-Eazy’s public reverence, this legend’s influence permeates every corner of modern rap. If West Coast hip-hop ever gets its own Mount Rushmore, he deserves to be right next to Dr. Dre, Tupac, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, and E-40—preferably smoking a blunt.
$hort’s 20th full-length and first for his own O.G. Records and Empire, The Pimp Tape, once again asserts the icon’s spot at the top by embracing everything listeners fell in love with way back in 1985… “I don’t make music for the radio or anything; I make music for my fans,” he explains. “Sometimes, I ask myself, ‘Who the fuck is Too $hort?’ Often, I’ll take a five-hour road trip and listen to a bunch of old Too $hort albums. That’s my homework. It’s not the songs everybody knows, but the shit that made the albums platinum. I’ll remember, ‘This is what this character is supposed to talk about.’ It’s a formula. In order to get into that space, I’ve got to think about Oakland. I’ve got to talk a lot of shit. It’s got to have a lot of bass. It’s got to be a personal conversation between me and one other person. Then, it’s got to have this real sneakyeducation. It doesn’t have to sound educational, but you learn something and get prepared for the world. Every rapper has a magnetic personality that makes you gravitate towards him. You could call it mojo. Mine has always been some real educational shit talking over bass.”
In the midst of celebrating his 30th anniversary during 2015, he began working on what would become The Pimp Tape. Encouraged by longtime collaborator Mistah F.A.B., he tracked countless ideas at his Los Angeles home studio before bringing everything to his newly opened Boombox Headquarters downtown in order to properly record. Along the way, his identity came into focus clearer than ever. “I never set up this character to be an age,” he explains. “It’s never, ‘I’m a young pimp’, or ‘I’m an O.G. pimp.’ It’s like, ‘This is the game, period.’ It’s just all of my life experience.” He introduced the album with the star-studded, slick, and sizzling “Ain’t My Girlfriend” [feat. Ty Dolla $ign, Jeremih, & French Montana]. Over a swaggering West Coast strut produced by Drumma Boy [T.I., Drake], $hort lights up lyrical barbs with humor and heat between a soulful hook courtesy of T and standout cameos from Jeremih and French. Upon arrival, it quickly racked up over 1.3 million Spotify streams and 1.3 million YouTube/VEVO views in addition toreceiving acclaim from Complex, HotNewHipHop, and more.
“After we finished ‘Ain’t My Girlfriend,’ I was traveling around, and the fucking song was playing in all of these strip clubs across the country already,” he laughs. “I knew it had something. It was a good warm-up to usher the album in with real star power.” Elsewhere, Dr. Dre blesses “Game Taught Me” with a powerful drop before the Zaytoven [Future, Gucci Mane] production takes over and $hort cinematically recounts, “Three decades in the rap game.” He incites the best in his guests with Snoop Dogg and 2 Chainz going hard on the club-stomping “Tables,” and Chanel West Coast firing off rapid bars on the bass-heavy “Twerk Train”—which he describes as a, “a conga line of female twerkers…no guys allowed.”
During the Latin-inspired “Sexy Dancer,” DJ Khaled provides wise words after $hort’s unmistakable catchy cadence. “I just made some Too $hort music,” he reiterates. “It’s like always. There’s a nostalgic factor with the title. People love to tell me, ‘I still got the white tape.’ Now, they got The Pimp Tape.
This is an alter ego for many people—including me. He does all of that slick shit you wish you could do. He represents that pimp-hood-James-Bond fantasy without the violence.” Keeping the Bay Area top of mind, he preceded the record with the collective Hella Disrespectful: Bay Area Mixtape. From the bass and piano groove of “Save All That Love” [feat. Mozzy, Nef The Pharaoh, Mistah F.A.B.] to the scorching verse interplay of “Sidepieces” [feat. G-Eazy, Ezale], the 22-track collection collates established and up-and-coming Northern California MCs in one explosive and engaging package.
“I wanted to wet everybody’s palette a little bit like, ‘Guess what I’m back’,” he says of the mixtape. “At the same time, it was about connecting with the new Bay Area. There’s a whole slew of guys killing it up there. I know I can use my platform to help them. When The Pimp Tape comes, the one group of motherfuckers I want on my side is The Bay. I support them, and in return they give me so much love. If I can help some careers in the process, that’d be amazing.”
Simultaneously, he continues to build his own empire. With a 30th anniversary concert film anddocumentary on the horizon, upcoming clothing and cannabis collaborations, a forthcoming memoir entitled Know When To Leave The Party, and all kinds of content blasting out of the Boombox, he’ll be quite literally everywhere in 2018.
For that ubiquity, he’s still just that kid who moved up to Oakland in 1980 and picked up a mic galvanized by Melle Mel and blaxploitation flicks like The Mack. Nothing’s changed. “When they hear The Pimp Tape, I want people to know hip-hop is timeless,” he leaves off. “It was supposed to be a fad. It was supposed to be a dance that went away. It’s the most popular genre in America now. I want them to know you can make hip-hop for a whole career and even longer. I’m not stopping anytime soon. I’m still Too $hort.” – Rick Florino, November 2017