Filed under: Black Music Month
In the 1980s, when most hip-hop that didn't originate in East Coast cities like New York and Philadelphia was looked at skeptically, West Coast rap icon Too Short was slowly building a local buzz in the streets of Oakland.
His twangy vocal tone, straight forward delivery and miminalist, bass-thumping 808 beats stood in deep contrast to rap's prevalent focus on complex lyrical patterns and metaphors. But by slinging mixtapes from his car trunk and rocking various parties in the Bay Area, Too Short (born Todd Shaw) quickly became a hometown hero.
In 1983, Short released his first proper album 'Don't Stop Rappin' and in the subsequent two years, he recorded three other albums on the local label, 75 Girls. He kept his lyrical content in the raunchy realm inspired by street hustling and the pimp game. He released his 1986 album 'Born to Mack', which is considered a West Coast classic, on his own Dangerous Minds imprint and sold more than 50,000 units.
Short had built up a local following so undeniable that the major labels came running. (It was a business strategy that Master P and artists from the Cash Money Records would do almost a decade later.) Jive Records quickly signed him up and re-released 'Born to Mack,' which featured the deliciously explicit hit 'Freaky Tales.' By 1988, when Jive released his fifth album, 'Life is...Too Short', the Oakland MC really capitalized on his cult status. The album sold more than 2 million copies, opening hip-hop to a new burgeoning rap scene in Northern California and cementing its embrace of pimp aesthetics.
In an interview with Cocaine Blunts, he explained what that album meant to him: "To this day if anybody asks me, I always say 'Life Is Too Short' is my favorite too short album and that's because at that time I considered myself to be... there wasn't no big money or whatever, it was on the line. And I stepped up to the plate and hit a home run. I remember those days in the studio thinking to myself like 'this is the chance'. It's probably equivalent to a minor leaguer getting called up to the big leagues and doing good. 'Life is Too Short' album sold like 300,000 copies the first three weeks.
Jive never even advertised em. The first thing they ever did to promote me was they printed up a poster that said something about 'Life Is Too Short - 300,000 sold in 3 weeks' and that's when RCA finally got behind me. RCA used to do all Jive's promotions back then. And it was no looking back, the album went gold, I went on tour with Eazy E and NWA, we toured the whole summer, got off tour, the album went platinum, it was just the moment. I never looked back after that, we did six platinum albums in a row in six years."
His 1990 hit 'The Ghetto' was proof that Short could also sound just as convincing and vital talking about social ills as he did rhyming about women. And despite announcing a brief retire in 1996, his subsequent albums have all at least been certified gold, if not platinum. His 2006 album 'Blow The Whistle' showed that he could evolve with the times as it features the sound of the hyphy music movement popular at the time.
In recent years, he's regarded as a respected veteran who can be relied on to provide great guest verses. He's made cameos on songs by Notorious B.I.G., Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, Lil Kim, among many others.
Influenced...Snoop Dogg, Souls of Mischief, Jay-Z, 50 Cent, The Pack, Lil B the Based God, Cali Swag District, Odd Future, among others.