Backspin: Too $hort — Gettin’ It (Album Number Ten) (1996)
Means to an end. (83/100)
Few rappers personify hip-hop’s hustle like Too $hort. Though his Oakland stomping ground was 3000 miles from the culture’s New York City epicenter and a bridge too far from California’s burgeoning Los Angeles scene, $hort built a local following tens of thousands deep through relentless grind and a true player’s ingenuity.
Too $hort’s X-rated raps made his early records a tough sell to local record stores, so he slung his self-produced tapes from his car. Vivid vignettes of life in “The Town” coupled with gleefully raunchy freaky tales kept fiends coming back to his trunk as though he was slinging the streets’ most potent pharmaceuticals. Brick by brick, Too $hort built his rep from local legend to regional star to global hip-hop icon. From the time he signed with rap powerhouse Jive Records in 1988, every one of his albums went gold or platinum for the remainder of the 20th Century.
Like any savvy hustler, Too $hort entered the game to win it and get out. 1996’s Gettin’ It (Album Number Ten), was imagined as Short Dog’s final score before the game’s preeminent player rode off into hip-hop’s first official retirement to enjoy the spoils (financial and carnal) of over a decade’s worth of grinding. Those expecting him to coast into the sunset with a…
