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Too Short

Todd Anthony Shaw (born April 28 1966), better known by his stage name Too $hort, is an American rapper who started his career at the age of fourteen in Oakland, California. Too Short has sold about 11 million albums in the US alone with 17 albums released and an average of 600,000 copies per album.[1]

Biography

Shaw was born in South Los Angeles, California, and raised in East Oakland, California during his teenage years. In the early 1980s, Short produced custom raps (called "special requests") for people with his high school friend, Freddy B. In 1983, Too Short released his first album, Don't Stop Rappin', on the local label 75 Girls.[1] This and his next three releases featured raw, simple drum beats using a LinnDrum drum machine in the early 1980s, switching to mostly the TR-808 and TR-909 by the mid-to-late 1980s. In 1986, Too Short and Freddie B. founded the Dangerous Music record label to distribute his music regionally.[1] Dangerous Music later changed names to Short Records, and then Up All Nite Records. With his 1988 release, Life Is...Too Short, he began infusing replayed established funk riffs (rather than samples) with his beats.

Subsequent work including Get in Where You Fit In (1993), and Cocktails (1995), dealt with similar issues. He retired from full-time solo rap with the 1996 release of Gettin' It.[1] He later married Erica Escarcega in 2000. Now they reside in their Taos, New Mexico home with their four children.

Subsequent work was primarily collaborative, including work with Diddy, The Notorious B.I.G., Scarface, UGK, Jay-Z, and Snoop Dogg. One of his noticeable collaborations during this period was on the track "The World Is Filled..." on the classic Notorious B.I.G. album Life After Death; he comes in on the third verse after Diddy & Biggie. Being featured on the album introduced him to a wider audience as well, due to his typical style contrasing greatly with the Mafioso theme of the album. He also appeared on TWDY's hit single "Player's Holiday" from their 1999 debut album Derty Werk[2] as well as the Priority Records compilation Nuthin but a Gangsta Party.[3] After these appearances, he began working on his eleventh album, Can't Stay Away. The album included guest appearances by 8Ball & MJG, Jay-Z, Jermaine Dupri, Sean Combs, E-40, Daz Dillinger, Lil' Jon, Soopafly, Scarface and B-Legit.[4] Too Short relocated to Atlanta in 1994, but he really didn't begin working with a more diverse variety of southern artists until 2000 including Lil Jon. Once 1999's Can't Stay Away was released, Too Short fully came out of retirement and released a number of new albums within the next few years, most of them taking on a crunk or Dirty South type sound, as he had become involved in the Southern Rap scene. However, he didn't totally give up on his trademark funk grooves or sexually explicit style. New albums released 2000-2003 were You Nasty (2000), Chase the Cat (2001), What's My Favorite Word? (2002), and Married to the Game (2003). These albums all charted fairly well, as they all were in the top 71 of the Billboard Hot 200, but they didn't do quite as well as Too Short's earlier 1990s releases as none of them reached the top 10. [5].

In 2004, his earlier 1990 single "The Ghetto" appeared on popular videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, playing on West Coast hip hop radio station Radio Los Santos.

For his next album, 2006's Blow the Whistle, Too Short now took advantage of the new hyphy rap music that was emerging out of his original home base in Oakland, CA. This saw somewhat of a resurgence for Too Short as it peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 200, much better than each of his previous three releases. [5]. However, his subsequent releases, such as 2007's Get Off the Stage, have not been as successful.

On October 7, 2008 Too Short was honored by VH1 at the fifth annual "Hip-Hop Honors" along with Cypress Hill, De La Soul, Slick Rick and Naughty By Nature. [citation needed].[6][5]

In 2009, Too Short recorded for Daz Dillinger, Lil' Jon, Soopafly, Scarface and B-Legit.[7]

Influence

Although he is not usually considered a true gangsta rapper because the topics covered were usually solely about sex and rarely touched on other aspects of the "gangsta" lifestyle, Too Short nonetheless had influence in early and modern gangsta rap. Too Short's songs had a great influence on Ice Cube's (rapper and songwriter for N.W.A) early writing. [8] Following his relocation to Atlanta, he worked with a variety of snap and crunk artists. While most older rappers from the late 1980s-early 1990s (the so-called Golden age of hip hop) have criticized those genres for their lack of lyrical complexity or content, Too Short has been one of the few active in that time to embrace the new styles.[9] Because of Too Short's normal rap topic of pimpin', he isn't credited with making uplifting, positive and political songs. However, he has made several songs encouraging people to survive, stop drug use, not to be a gangster and get money. Such songs include famous hits, "The Ghetto" and "Gettin' It".

Too Short has influenced many rappers who claim themselves as a pimp such as Snoop Dogg. His flamboyant use of the word "Bitch" (pronounced as BeeITCH or Biatch) that he has used since the Born to Mack album has been picked up and emulated by various other rappers (and popularized in the mainstream by Snoop Dogg) and was turned into a popular slang vernacular used in other mediums, such as radio, television, and movies. Other artists have gained much influence from his lyrics which include E-40, Rappin' 4-Tay, Mac Mall, Lupe Fiasco, The Dogg Pound, Jay-Z, MC Eiht, Spice 1, Eminem, Young Buck, Turf Talk, 50 Cent, UGK, T.I., Dem Hoodstarz, The Pack, The Luniz, Ludacris, and among countless others. For his last albums Too $hort collaborated with many Southern Rap artists, included Lil' Jon. That gave a new Dirty South and Crunk sound to his works.

Up All Nite Records

Too Short runs his own record label—Up All Nite Records. Artists on the label include The Pack,[10] Dolla Will, Boo Ski, and Li'l J & Boi Payton, FX. In addition to creating Up All Nite Records, Too Short has been a mentor at Youth UpRising, a group serving at-risk youths for several years.

Too Short in film

Too Short played the role of Lew-bloc in the film Menace II Society.

Too Short has also worked in the adult film industry, with the 2003 film Get In Where You Fit In.[11]

Along with Snoop Dogg, Short was one of the only interviewees in American Pimp who were not current or previous full-time pimps, a testament to his contribution to the Pimp culture.

Discography

Main article: Too Short discography

References

  1. ^ a b c d Bush, John. Too Short - Biography. Allmusic. Last accessed Sept. 16, 2007.
  2. ^ TWDY - "Player's Holiday" - Allmusic.
  3. ^ Wilson, MacKenzie. "Nuthin' but a Gangsta Party" - Overview. Allmusic
  4. ^ Too $hort Adds Puffy Track To Upcoming LP. MTV: June 29, 1999.
  5. ^ a b c allmusic ((( Too Short > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums ))) Cite error: The named reference "autogenerated1" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  6. ^ [1]
  7. ^ Too $hort Adds Puffy Track To Upcoming LP. MTV: June 29, 1999.
  8. ^ Welcome to Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Black History
  9. ^ Bay Area beats - Music - The Phoenix
  10. ^ Montgomery, James; Richards, Yasmine. You Hear It First: The Pack. MTV: October 10, 2006.
  11. ^ get in where you fit in 1 - porn movie - iafd.com - internet adult film database
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