Too $hort

Too $hort, born Todd Anthony Shaw, is a rapper, producer and actor from Oakland, California, whose family relocated there from Los Angeles in the early 1980s. He built his early reputation independently, selling custom-made cassette tapes before releasing his first official album, Don't Stop Rappin', on the local 75 Girls label, laying the groundwork for what would become a defining voice in West Coast and specifically Oakland hip-hop.

He signed with Jive Records and broke through nationally with 1987's Born To Mack, going on to release a long string of albums built around his laid-back, deep-voiced pimp-persona storytelling and blunt, sexually explicit humor. Hits like «Gettin' It», «Shake That Monkey», «Blow the Whistle», «The Ghetto» and «I'm a Player» became staples of Bay Area rap and helped shape the sound and attitude of West Coast hip-hop through the late 1980s and 1990s.

Decades into his career, Too $hort joined his first-ever group project, the supergroup Mount Westmore, alongside E-40, Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg, releasing the albums Bad MFs and Snoop Cube 40 $hort in 2022 — a late-career collaboration that underscored his enduring standing as one of hip-hop's most influential and longest-running artists.