"It ain't pop, it's called underground rap. From Oakland, California and the shit sounds fat."
-- Too Short, 1992



How do you keep coming up with ideas for lyrics after all these albums?

Too Short: That's a trip man. I think about that myself. Usually what I do is... I got so many raps that if I ever had a writer's block or just the things that I'm writing aren't the things that I want to say, I pull out my box; I got a box full of raps — I got a junk box and I got a box where it's all like nice and neat. But what I usually do is go in the junk box and I read the shit. Sometimes I'll steal just a phrase (from the box), or I'll steal a whole line, or steal an idea and rewrite it. I kind of like to let Too Short be Too Short. If I can't figure out where to send him, then I go say, "Where did he come from?" It usually helps.

You've been around so long consistently selling records. What do you think the key to your longevity is?

Probably the streets. It would have to be the streets because rap music was initially street music.

And still should be.

Yeah, you know what I'm saying? In my theory I think it should always be for the streets because without radio, without the clubs, rap can still survive. It can still survive just with the streets, and if you got that elements first, then whatever else happens... You know? If the radio wants to play my song, or the video station wants to play my video, or if I go to a club and hear it, that's okay. But you got to have the streets first. You can't just pick one or the other and leave the streets out. I think that I constantly stay in the streets and I constantly stay in touch with the people who I've always been in touch with.

Being that there's so much music coming out of the Bay Area, do you ever feel pressure to outdo everyone else?

No. You know why? I always knew, always when I was making homemade tapes off other people's beats, I always knew the shit I was doing was — if my shit wasn't better — it was just as good as all the good shit out. Even now I figure when 1989 came around, a lot of shit started hitting coming out the Bay Area. A lot of local tapes went over big. You know, I heard it from a few people: "Yeah, you know, I finna fuck Short up," and a lot of people like, "I'm finna go for that Short type shit My shit is better than his shit." I always knew that no matter how good anybody in the Bay Area got — 'cause I really don't trip on New York and L.A. as far as competition — but if anybody out the Bay Area would come up and do good, I would more or less want to be on their side so we can all say we all doing good.

What about Hammer?

Well, Hammer chose to be the outsider on this whole thing. Most of us Bay Area artists are friends with each other as a whole and as individuals. We all know each other.

Obviously there's a lot of animosity between most Oakland rappers and Hammer. Is it because he chose to be an outsider like you said, or is it more like he's a sellout?

Some people see him as a sellout. I see it for what it really is. When he was coming up, he was friends with everybody. You know, he was just Stanley. And when he got there, he turned around and badmouthed where he came from. A lot of people in Oakland are into Too Short. The man went on the American Music Awards and he said he wanted to thank all the people from Oakland that was doing good. I was sitting right there in front of him while he was saying it.

And you weren't in it.

And a lot of people got offended by that shit. So it was just a lot of things he did to disown where he came from and not really acknowledging. He always say Oakland, and he be hollering about En Vogue and all that, but you know.

Not a lot of people probably know this, but you're from L.A. originally, right?

Born and raised in L.A.

So how do you think your music might have differed if you'd never come up to Oakland? I probably wouldn't have started rapping if I was in L.A. 'cause I wasn't really living a street life down there. I was still a little kid when I was down there. I was out there, but I wasn't really thinking about hanging in the streets and being wild. All my shit came from Oakland.

Why do you think you don't sell records in the East?

'Cause my beats are too slow. You can't dance to them. I bet if I did a rap with a fast ass rap style — you know, some wiggedy rhyming shit — I could make the shit if I wanted to. I refuse to do it because I come from the funk. I just come from a funky background. In my house you used to hear Parliament blasting on the radio. That's the way I used to live.

Besides the Bay Area, of course, where do you like to perform the most?

I'd have to say Chicago, Memphis. That's some of the best shows time after time. Houston... I think I did more shows in Houston than anywhere.

Have you had any censorship problems?

A couple of times. Jive records will bleep your shit out if you say the wrong thing. 4Tay said on "Don't Fight the Feeling," "With a white bitch it don't take too long, and a Black bitch is always trying to turn you on." They bleeped that out. "White bitch don't take too long..." That made 'em mad. But see, then you get N2Deep and they say "get a Black broad" and that shit's on the radio. I talk real bad in my raps, and when that shit happened with 4Tay, I kind of said, okay, as a writer from now on I'm going to just say "bitch"; you can put the bitch whatever color you want her. That's just a little something I learned in the game. It's almost always like, when you talk about bitches the way I do, you can't really say one particular bitch so the bitches can say, "It ain't me, it's that other bitch." It's a psychological thing.

Is that a personal decision or a business one?

That's just things I learned writing and shit.

Something you feel is right?

Yeah, 'cause that pen is a muthafucka. A lot of rappers write their way into some fucked up shit.

What influences your rhymes?

Shit that people tell me. New slang words I hear, new trends and shit. Like I wrote "Step Daddy" 'cause for a while everybody was running around trying to fuck everybody's baby's mama.

Some people think you have a one track mind, but many of your songs deal with social issues and problems. Why do you think people focus on the bad rather than the good?

That's what's most interesting. You can be a Pee-Wee Herman and jack off in a movie theater — it will fuck everything up, right? After all the fun shit he did, muthafucka's having fun in a theater and they washed him up. I don't really get off into people's opinions and shit. I like to let that Too Short shit go as soon as I put the mic down.

Which raps do you prefer? Something like "The Ghetto" or your sex raps?

I like the dirty raps better man. Most people that like Too Short like the dirty raps the best. But see, muthafuckas don't realize it but on some of them dirty ass raps, as much shit as I say, a lot of that shit is giving you some game in there. It's trying to tell you how not to be a sucker in your lifestyle. Some of the shit I say is to the extreme, like I just stick my dick in a bitch mouth, but if you take the attitude and apply it, you don't necessarily have to stick your dick in her mouth like I said. By the end of the night you might get a blowjob or something if you push for it, you know? Instead if you went in there and just tried to get the pussy, try to go in there and get a little head before you get the pussy. Ask for it. You never know. I'm just giving you some game.

Anyone who knows you knows that you have a healthy respect for the old school. But how do you feel about the new school rappers?

The best part I like about the new rappers is the new styles. I like anytime somebody does something new and it sounds good. But I really can't get into that hip hop dancing thing. It's no offense to anybody, but Too Short personally, I just can't stand in a circle with my dreadlocks and take my turn rapping.

So what do you feel is wrong with rap now?

Too many people want to be instant celebrities. And too many people on the executive level of the music business don't recognize what would appeal to the street. They look at rap sales, what will sell. They don't know, so we get a lot of fucking bullshit in rap. It's wearing thin right now.



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