Interview with Too Short
By Keita Jones
Continued from Murder Dog volume 15 #1
How would you like Pimp C to be remembered?
The people who know the story know the truth, but the people who don’t know are missing that fact that Pimp C was very influential to the South sound. The South is hot now, but he was one of the people who pioneered that popular South sound. The songs that make you wanna bounce, the slow songs, the way he did the hooks with that twang in the rhymes. It was a joke in the early pioneering days of Southern rappers. I always commended Bun B on putting the name out and he did it with "UGK For Life", "Free Pimp C". Putting it on every verse, putting it on shirts. It was a "Free Pimp C" campaign. Pimp C’s name was bigger than UGK off the campaign.
"The Corrupter Soundtrack" is one of my favorite soundtracks. Jive had all these mainstream artists but kept them in the underground.
They never knew how popular Too $hort and UGK was. They kind of measured the numbers of what you sell and they assume things, but living in New York it never sunk in. They could never realize what UGK meant to so many fans or what Too $hort meant. The way people would fall out if they saw me, Pimp C or Bun B wouldn’t happen in New York, so it never registered to them that they had a roster of mega stars. They still don’t know it. Not to mention Clipse or E-40. They had cult rappers with millions of fans buying records with no videos or singles. If they had a Def Jam approach they could have easily went to the Pop era and kept Hip-Hop alive, but they traded one for the other.
What do you think caused the demise of Dangerous Crew?
We were onto something good when I had the studio in West Oakland, but it was the move to Atlanta. Everybody came with me. I was in the comfort zone, my mom retired we was throwin parties at the house. In the case of Ant Banks, Atlanta was far away, he wanted to be close to his family and at home. The same with Pee Wee my keyboard player. Shorty B who played the guitar stayed. We did a lot of work over the years but without Ant Banks, we had to make different moves. Ant Banks was the backbone, he oversaw everything, he did the mixing and mastering.
Is there chance of a reunion album?
Probably a greatest hits album volume one and two. We gonna start getting the music on iTunes. Fatha Dom still got the swag. My man Goldy jumped off in the real estate, got the money, doing his thang. Just like Ant Banks who dipped off the real estate. You start making money other ways and suddenly rappin ain’t as fly no more. I haven’t seen Ant Diddley Dog, I don’t know where he at, but he and Rappin Ron had some serious flows.
The Infamous Luniz battle. People still talk about that to this day
That started off as us just having fun in the studio and it turned out to be a historical event. The skill level was so high between Yuk and Num and Rappin Ron and Ant Diddley Dog, it turned out to be real battle.
I heard you’re doing some stuff with Youth Uprising in East Oakland?
I teach a class, a music industry class. I donated a Pro Tools studio and help them put together some independent projects and have the kids do all the engineering, do all the beats all the songs. My job is to teach them how to put the music out. I do it for the love. You got to be 13-24, go up there, it’s totally free. You can be from anywhere in the Bay. They even have van services where you can get picked up and dropped off.
What is your response to the people who say you’re not an appropriate role model for these kids?
I’m not over there saying, "this is how you be a man" or doing counseling or something I’m not qualified to do. I over there teaching the kids to put out music. I’m not over there playing with a kid’s mind talking about pimping, or this is how you get girls, it’s strictly music. If the kids try to get me to say all that stuff, I shrug it off. I treat the kids like a 25 year old adult. I’m not gonna sit there and handle somebody’s kid the wrong way, I stay in my place. At the same time, who do you have who is gonna go in there and help these kids chase their dreams? I’m from East Oakland. The people I know who can potentially help these kids are scared to go over there, they don’t want to be a part of it, they say it’s ghetto or it’s dangerous or worthless. When I go in that building I see so many talented kids that just need a chance to shine. They not askin for handouts they just want a chance.