Todd Anthony Shaw (born April 28, 1966), better known by his stage name Too Short, is an American rapper who started his career at the age of fourteen in Oakland, California.
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 Don’t Stop Rappin’, on the local label 75 Girls. With his 1988 release, Life Is…Too Short, he began infusing replayed established riffs (rather than samples) with his beats. It was then that he began to develop a noticeable fan base and a string of platinum albums. Too Short’s songs are principally recognizable for their emphasis on Pimpin’ and related sexually charged topics. With the rise of gangsta rap in the late 1980s/early 1990s, his style found a natural place in mainstream rap. Too Short’s popularity peaked in the 1990s with Short Dog’s in the House in 1990 and Shorty the Pimp in 1992. The latter included songs such as “No Love from Oakland”, “Hoes,” and “Step Daddy,” all of which deal with his exploits as a pimp.
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.
Subsequent work was primarily collaborative, including work with Diddy, The Notorious B.I.G., Scarface, Jay-Z, & Snoop Dogg. He appeared TWDY’s hit single “Player’s Holiday” from their 1999 debut album Derty Werk as well as the Priority Records compilation Nuthin but a Gangsta Party. 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. 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),
In 2004, his earlier 1990 single “The Ghetto” appeared on popular video game 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. 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.
Solo Discography:
1983: Don’t Stop Rappin
1985: Players
1988: Life Is…Too Short
1989: Born To Mack
1990: Short Dog’s In The House
1992: Shorty The Pimp
1993: Get In Where You Fit In
1995: Cocktails
1996: Gettin’ It (Album Number Ten)
1999: Can’t Stay Away
2000: You Nasty
2001: Chase The Cat
2002: What’s My Favorite Word?
2003: Married To The Game
2006: Blow The Whistle
2007: Get Off The Stage
2010: Still Blowin’
Interviews:
4/5/10 Text/audio interview with Baycentrik
3/24/10 Text interview with Hiphopdx
4/27/09 Text interview with houseofhiphop
8/28/07 Text interview with XXL
8/1/92 Text interview with The Source
Links:
Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/tooshort
Twitter: http://twitter.com/TherealTooShort
