2008 VH1 Hip-Hop Honors: Big Boi on Too $hort

In celebration of VH1's Hip-Hop Honors show (which airs Monday, October 6 at 10 p.m. ET), Rhapsody talked to a variety of contemporary artists about this year's honorees. Here's Sir Lucious Left Foot, Big Boi, on Too $hort.

My uncles were in the military so they used to get stuff from all around the world.  I remember my uncles came back with Too $hort. They were my idols and I used to love what they were doing. Being in the military, they were still some street cats, too. My Uncle Trick and I just thought [Too $hort’s music] was the most fascinating thing ever, [raps] “Cuss words, just let ‘em flow, motherf*ck*n' sh*t b*tch god damn *ssh*l*.” It was the most filthiest mouth I ever heard. I was only like 10 years old, but I was like, “Okay, I’m f*ck*ng with him.” That’s what brought me and Dre [André 3000] together, our taste in music. We was and still are on Too $hort. We liked everything from Tribe to Leaders of the New School. [My favorite Too $hort album] gotta be that Life Is … Too $hort because it was the hardest one. That was the first one that I got introduced to. The beats and all the sh*t he was talkin’ about was for real from the whole Bay Area and how he came up. He was just so cool, like, “Damn, that’s a motherf*ck*r that I want a ride home from school with.” That’s an O.G. cat that’ll sit there and smoke a j with you and say some new sh*t.

[Click the "Continue Reading..." link to listen to a playlist featuring Too $hort and other artists discussed in this interview.]

I was stuck on “CussWords” for a minute. Then I got onto “Freaky Tales.” Too $hort was one of my favorite rappers, period. Not just because that sh*t was real and believable, but it was his whole character and how he delivered that sh*t. $hort Dog’s in the House, “In the Trunk,” “The Ghetto,” and the one with him and Ice Cube, “Ain’t Nothin’ But a Word to Me,” were my personal favorites. Him and $hort were goin’ at it and it was like, “Hell no.” I loved it. [When I first starting listening to Too $hort, my mom would] be like, “What is that?” Because there would be a crowd of people, but then me and my brother would listen to Eazy-E by ourselves. She came home early from work one day and caught us in the living room listening to the tape, singin’ the words, “Now that you have the album, what the f*ck you gonna do with it b*tch?  Easily I approach.” There were so many nasty cuss words in there. My mom really started trippin’ when I got that first Eazy-E tape, Eazy Duz It. That’s when I first got a whoopin’ with a belt.  My mama told us to stop listening to that sh*t and we were still listenin’ to it all day. Then she caught the tape in the tape deck and she whooped the sh*t out of me and my brother. I had to be around 12 or 13.

[I first met Too $hort] once we got on with [Southernplaylisticadillacmuzik]. That’s when he was out [in Atlanta] real hard. I met him and he was like, “Love y’all music.” I was just like, “Too $hort, you just don’t know. You raised me, dog.” I like his whole appeal. The confidence. It was so simplistic, but it was the hardest sh*t goin’. I listen to everything from that to some of the most lyrical cats out here, but for him to just be keepin’ hardcore real and how he kept that sh*t ghetto, that’s my sh*t. He’s always sayin’ funny sh*t and havin’ a good time. The last time we kicked it was at the Ozone Awards down in Houston. We was crackin’ jokes and sh*t. I finally got one of my wishes to come true when I got Too $hort on my new album, Sir Luscious Left Foot. Me, Too $hort and George Clinton are on one jam that’s outta here called “Fo Yo Sorrows.” Me and $hort were always doin’ our own thing, so it was just hard linkin’ up. Now that I had a chance to do it my way and personalize my whole record, like I did with Speakerboxxx, I finally had linked up [with $hort]. I had actually been seeing $hort around Atlanta for years and we’d been talkin’ about doin’ something.

$hort was out for a long time, man. His career spanned longer than just about anybody. LL might have him by like a year or six months. He definitely put that “P” in pimpin’. And not only that, he kept that sh*t ‘hood. When you stay true to your origins, I have nothin’ but love and respect. Him along with Lil J from Rap-A-Lot started the independent game; he’ll tell you, "While you in the studio, bitch, I’m in the trunk." He stayed in the trunk and people stayed buying his tapes. He had that go-getter about him since he first got in the game. He was the first one to say, "Get your own distribution," and the independent game grew. He added a lot to the game and not only to stay true to himself, but giving musicians and rappers a different mind state. You can do it yourself that’s why you got a million rappers out here with a CD on every corner. He put the hustle in that sh*t. Just bein’ independent with it and getting the music from the ground up, grass roots. You gotta keep your ear to the street and your eye to the sky. You can take it as far as you wanna go with it.

Further Reading:
2008 VH1 Hip-Hop Honors: Killer Mike on Cypress Hill [PLAY]
VH1 Hip-Hop Honors homepage [VH1] 2008 VH1 Hip-Hop Honors: DJ Drama on De La Soul [PLAY]
2008 VH1 Hip-Hop Honors: Devin the Dude on Slick Rick [PLAY]
2008 VH1 Hip-Hop Honors: Joe Budden on Naughty By Nature [PLAY]

VH1's Hip-Hop Honors Blog [VH1]

Comments

[Printer Ink]

Thanks for this!
Here is one fun resource- Printer Ink Rap by the Cartridge Heads about the price of ink cartridges.
http://www.youtube.com/v/dlq8UcIONpU&hl=en&fs=1

[KRSH.ELS]

Insightful interview. Too $hort did raise the bar for hustlin music for all of hip hop. That's just some Yay Area *ss mentality fa ya.