I Wonder If Your Mama Let You Play That Stuff

In 1985 Todd Shaw released a record called Don't Stop Rapping. It was a 5 song EP on 75 Girls, a label out of Oakland, under the moniker Too Short. 75 Girls didn't last very long but they did last long enough to put out a few records and bank off the hype that Too Short had built by slanging tapes out the trunk with Freddy D. As far as I know the extent of 75 Girls releases were mostly Too Short releases but they also put out records by Kimmie Fresh and Cassadine. I don't know much about the history of 75 girls but when the deal folded Too Short left the label and started putting out music through his own label and then later Jive. I don't think 75 Girls ever released anything after 1988, but I could be wrong.

Anyways here's some mp3s off that EP

Don't Stop Rapping
Short Rap

Ten years later Too Short released Cocktails. I use to listen to this album rolling in my friend Erik's mom's Toyota Camry. We put some 15" in cerwin vegas in the trunk and use to bump the fuck out of this shit as we drove around the streets of Phoenix trying to act hard. One of my favorite songs off that album is Paystyle but for some reason most people don't even fucking remember this goddamn song. Shit the song proves just how much a prophet Too Short was talking shit about rappers who roll with their backpacks tight.

The beat is pretty simple just a rolling bass, short bits of synth and like one or two hits of a piano key that drops every once in a while. Short just rides this shit dropping knowledge that even though these newjacks want to hate he understands because he's been in their situation before. Too Short knows what its like to day dream about being great so don't hate on him because you are more like him than you'd like to believe. But just because you have some similarities he doesn't want you to think you can front on his grind. He's a true blue westcoast pioneer and he wants you to remember that the west didn't create rap but when we made it we made it phat.

Paystyle