944

On Avoiding the Pitfalls of Success, the Gift that Keeps on Giving and the

944: So tell us, what was your biggest accomplishment under the age of 30?

TOO SHORT: Probably that I had laid ten albums, and of those ten, six of them had gone platinum, and I never intended on being a, you know, platinum artist. I just wanted to make some good music. It was a hobby, and it turned into a career, and it turned into a successful career. But I think the best accomplishment I made as a rapper, as a recording artist, is that . . . you get to the point where you make your first or your second album, and it gets a little . . . in this little gray area where you’ve got to be real to the streets, but then you’ve got all this money and this nice house, and how do you balance that? And a lot of rappers fall off at that point. I saw it coming, I knew how to handle it, and I handled it, and I did it well.

944: Then, how would you define success?

TS: By how you feel about yourself because I don’t think it’s a dollar amount or any one achievement. It’s just, when you wake up, you look in the mirror, are you satisfied or are you disappointed?

944: A lot of music artists, especially rappers, struggle between choosing the money or the mission, in terms of defining who your audience is. How do you respond to that?

TS: Well, I’ve always felt like my audience was one person. And if that one person is . . . I named that person “the Too Short fan,” whether you’re male or female. That one person is the only one I care about when I’m making a song. Is the Too Short fan going to like this song? Not me, not the world, but the one person that loves Too Short. Can I make a good song for that person? And that’s what I think about. So, if you listen back to my songs, it’s actually . . . I write it like a conversation, like I’m talking to one person. And I address you many times, like, “Yeah, man, you know what,” or whatever. That’s just how I . . . as a writer, that’s how I tap into . . . my style is to keep the focus on one person. So, if it’s a song directed to a female, and I’m like, “Yeah, you ‘nasty word,’ ‘nasty word’,” it’s not about all the women, it’s about her! And women have always told me, “That song ain’t about me!” And it’s true.

944: Where do you see yourself in five years?

TS: In five years, I’d like to just add to the Too Short legacy. The part that I missed out on was giving you, like, a good visual of what’s in my mind, whether it be me on camera, or if it’s just my vision on camera.

944: Does the legacy you’re building include working with any charitable organizations?

TS: Well, I work with a youth center. It’s called Youth Uprising in East Oakland. And I’m not an employee, I’m not the owner or the boss, but I’m always on call for events. But for awhile there, I used to be up there every other day just, you know, showing my face and being supportive of the kids. It’s for kids between 13 and 24 – it’s a really big deal, it’s not a small thing, it’s huge! I actually have a lot of friends . . . my lifelong friends, their kids are members, you know? It’s in a community that brought me up – Oakland California. It was never a question of, “Would I support it or not?” It’s really a good thing, though. They really do give you the skills to not go the wrong way in the streets, so I’m with that all the way.

944: Speaking of giving, what’s the best gift you’ve ever given someone?

TS: If you ask them, they’d probably say money. But if you ask me, I’d say I passed on a lot, a lot of knowledge in my days. I’ve taught a lot of people a lot of things that help them eat and survive. And, no matter what you think, that’s always been my number one mission in my life, to always hand knowledge back down because what I’ve got, everything I’ve got was handed down. I learned everything from somebody else. So I figure, why should I take it for me and not share it?

944: Let’s flip the script. What’s the worst gift you’ve ever received?

TS: That I’ve ever received? Probably when they send you that little summons . . . a guy knocks on your door and says, “Is your name Todd?” and they hand you a lawsuit. That’s the worst thing I’ve ever received.

944: And when you’re in LA, where do you go out to eat? What’s the usual grub?

TS: I’m a late night guy, so I’ll probably answer something like, you know, [Berry’s Pizza Café] – give me some lobster pizza! Or Bossa Nova at 3 or 4 in the morning, that’s me.

944: Late night eating can do a number on people. What do you do to stay in shape?

TS: What do I do to stay fit? Honest answer? I love women. [laughs] Keeps me in shape!