BEEEYATCH! Sorry, but I had to get that out of the way here, because Todd Shaw, that's right, the one and only Too Short, is coming to town. The raunchy gangsta-rap legend is doing two nights (Thursday, June 1, and Friday, June 2) at Chop Suey, backed up by a grimy local contingent consisting of Street Level Records' Sarkastik, Noc On Wood's Gator, dRED-i, Karizma, and M80. Something tells me these shows are gonna be sardine-hotbox packed if they're not sold out already, so do like album number eight and Get in Where You Fit In, homie.
Now, I know some of you fools may dog Short Dog out, but the simple fact is he's put out a whopping 16 albums, and six of 'em went back-to-back platinum, putting him at the level of Ice Cube, Jay-Z, and LL Cool J. Considering the fact that dude has barely registered a blip on commercial radio makes that feat even more extraordinary. Besides that, he's the undisputed father of one of rap's richest climes, the Bay Area. Even more significant, Shaw is the architect of the whole game-changing movement of out-the-trunk rap entrepreneurialism, for which the Bay is renowned, but is arguably the blueprint for the platinum rap dynasties of the Dirty South. Master P had famously soaked up Bay game with his No Limit Records store in Richmond, California, before he moved back to N'Awlins.
Short started off making custom tapes for anybody at $10 a pop ("Give me 10 dollars, and you straight get blessed/A rap all about you/called the special request"), and his hustle skyrocketed in '83 when he linked up with local label 75 Girls, with whom he'd put out four albums; in 1988, Short founded his own Dangerous Music, put out four more albums, and eventually signed with Jive Records in '92. His newest album, Pimpin' Incorporated, is the sixth he's released on his own Jive subsidiary, Short Records. Whew. Having relocated to the ATL years ago, Short is directly relevant to at least two very buzzing hives of rap activity now, and no doubt will continue to stay pimping this game till he grows tired of it.
Chop continues to bring you that hot shit: On Monday, June 5, peep Busdriver, Grayskul, Nite Owls, Map of France, Locke, and DJ Rosscoe. I highly recommend this, seeing as it's the very first performance for Barfly and Mr. Hill as the Nite Owls—and please, do yaself a major and don't sleep on their new album, either! I don't just say that 'cause I rap on it—it's fuckin' good. Pardon my conflicts of interest; I'm trying here. Aceyalone heads up a nice li'l bill Tuesday, June 6, at the Suey, also featuring the proudly geeky Ugly Duckling, the Procussions, Diverse, Mayday! & Wreckonize... You can probably expect Acey to rip some of his Magnificent City stuff, or maybe something off of any of the 12 projects he's dropping in any given week. All Balls Don't Bounce, man!
