BALLERIFIC INTERVIEW – PIMPING AIN’T EASY PART 1: A CONVO WITH TOO SHORT

Longevity comes few & far between for many artists of today. Many artists’ get signed & fall short of what we deem a success story. What separates the new from the old, is simple, iconic status. How many artists of today can we honestly say names will hold weight say, five years from now? Go head, I’ll wait. Music in a sense is truly generational, but what makes it universal is the affect it has on the consumer.

What makes an artist legendary? To each its own on that answer, but, just ask Too Short. His career alone sums it up. Multi-platinum success at best & he has yet to stop. He has a resume’ that puts most to shame, not too mention his ultra explicit lyrics that would make any nun repent for ones sins. Too Short has created a brand that many respect. Hip-Hop as we know it, was a movement opened to a then elite class of individuals. The art of story-telling, empowerment & the ability to make one feel good, not what we’ve been led to believe now.

We recently caught up with Too Short on a two-part interview to discuss his overall career, the current hip-hop scene & who he would rate as his top ten rappers of all time. Believe me, you don’t want to miss this part two!

Check out part one of our exclusive below:

BA: Its a definite honor to be on the line with hip-hop legend, Too Short. What’s going on?

TS: Not too much. How are you?

BA: I’m good, how have things been for you?

TS: Things have been well, just working hard.

BA: That’s the nature of the business, if you’re not working hard, you’re not working at all.

TS: That’s right!

BA: Now, lets get to the business, you currently have a new single entitled Still Blowing, when can we expect a release for this piece of work?

TS: That’s right, it’ll be available digitally. We decided to do things a little different & release the content via the web. It was actually available last Tuesday. Its a right now thing.(at press-time)

BA: How does it feel to know your career & music have influenced major artists’ such as Snoop Dogg, the Dogg Pound, Jay-Z just to name a few?

TS: Well you know, I kinda got a head start. I was always on that original thing.I never wanted to be like anyone else. I didn’t really set out to be a trailblazing pioneer. I just kinda came early & did it my way, it just happened to be that way. I understand how it is now & how it came about. The process was a very humbling one in becoming Too Short. If people call you a legend, you’re a legend. I’m still the same cat doing the same thing, almost like an out of body experience to me. We can sit here & talk about Too Short like its someone else, you know?

BA: Understandable, I guess its all in the idea of not taking yourself too seriously. What’s your take on the current hip-hop scene versus when you were coming up?

TS: Well, I’m sorta kinda jealous of new hip-hop because they get to go into it as a business. If you get to anywhere near the success as I’ve had when I was coming up, you have 50 million outlets for you, to gain multi-platinum success for years & years. Mainstream keeps that avenue open for you, whereas when I was coming up, we were rapping for props. To have 12 hit singles, hell, we did it for bragging rights, you know? Now its like, you gotta have more than one chain & a big piece, you gotta have all these items to make you valid. Back then, we just did it(laughs). The dream wasn’t to get RICH, it was more so just to get IN IT.

BA: Ok, with that being said, do you feel the art has been lost & they’re solely in it for the money?

TS: Well, the same goes for rock, r&b, hip-hop, its all the same thing. Back in the day hip-hop was just a little kid, we didn’t know if it was a fad or if it was going to last for years to come. Now that we know that its here, its here. Back when Barry Gordy had Motown, it didn’t matter whether you could sing or dance, you had three of your homeboys get together & be like, lets be a group & get on Motown like the Supremes, like the Temptations, you know? Everybody was doo-wopping on the corner. With rock-n-roll & heavy metal, you had glam-rock, you had white boys all over the place. Now that hip-hop is an industry, everybody wants to be a rapper. Let’s put it like this, shit, mothafuckers was rapping for the hell of it, which made it argumentatively authentic because you weren’t doing it for financial reasons, but now the business, you got to UNDERSTAND, its a business now. Like SHIT, we got to do whats hot for the sake of making money. If you want to rap for the fun of it, fuck it, you can be the hottest underground artist with a hell of an internet presence & be cool with all the blogs & everything-but if you want to be in the business, you got to make what sells, fuck it be a Drake or Lil Wayne or Kanye. Fuck it, go with the label. I’m in the middle, i’m with the new shit, get the money. I mean, that’s what we made it for. I mean, I sold over 10 million albums, hell, Run DMC paved the way for me, so I’m just paving the way for the next mothafucker.

I was told, no one would ever put my shit in stores, no label would sign me, no one was trying to hear that shit. I put out Freaky Tales & that sorta kinda set off my career. I don’t want to be the one to open the flood gates with freaky lyrics, but with NWA. Too Short, or Two Live Crew, we caught a lot of flack, so now its just the norm. The clean version is solely just for radio, you know?

BA: Right, I respect your delivery, I was just listening to Cocktails the other day & you were raw as shit!

TS: No doubt! From the start, I was completely 100% against anything commercial. Whatever they told me to do, I did the opposite. For that reason alone when anyone mentions anything to me about Soulja Boy, shit I say he’s one of the best hustlers in the game. He’s paving the way for the next mothafucker as far as the blueprint on how to hustle.

BA: Agreed. Now, you’ve been in the game for some 20+ years, who would you name in your top 10 rappers of all time? Its cool to be biased if you wanna claim yourself, you have earned those rights.

TS: I really don’t have to name them because its a very elite club of artists who have put together multiple platinum selling albums back to back & maintained a career in hip-hop vs. making hot songs or nice videos or going on tour. You know someone who’s made a career out of hip-hop, that’s the shit I put up on my list. I mean there’s a lot of groups that did it, but to say you did it on a platinum level, you know what I mean. Some of my favorite rappers never even worked as artists, but at the same time I put them on the list. You know who they are, fuck it, they never have to go back & get a day job, they never have to do anything except be a fucking rapper, you know? Those are my favorite rappers & those who are on the road to doing it now. It’s not an easy thing to do be a broke ass rapper, get discovered, get big, then come back to the table, bypass the sophomore jinx, makes another great album, stay relevant & continue to do it. You know right after your 2nd album, your lifestyle changes, you’re guaranteed a certain amount of money when you perform, you’re able to live in certain neighborhoods, etc.

Man, to do that album after album, & be able to keep the attention of a hip-hop audience, that’s so hard to do. Even when I was coming up that was hard to do. Those are my favorites, you can figure out who they are.(laughs).

BA: I can believe that & I can assess as to who you’re referencing. I’ll let the rest of the BA audience figure it out.

*STAY TUNED FOR PART TWO OF PIMPIN AIN’T EASY: A CONVO WITH TOO-SHORT AS IT WILL RUN TOMORROW*