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Too $hort AKA Short Dog AKA Shorty the Pimp
Edition of 1

Dubbed The Godfather of Bay Area rap, Too Short began putting out records in the early 80s when there wasnt much of a hip hop/rap scene in the bay. His first solo album was self produced and distributed, so his base was primarily in Oakland and other parts of the bay. 

Too Short rapped mostly about pimping, street life and sex  and is credited for being the first rapper to use the word bitch in a song. Loved by Oakland, his lyrics kept him pretty underground during a time when you couldnt play his music on the radio. 

It wasnt until 1987, after putting out four records, that he got National distribution after he was picked up by Jive records. Around the same time, he linked up with other Bay Area legends like Spice 1 and Ant Banks to form the Dangerous Crew, and put out a few albums together in the 80s and 90s.

Id say if you were outside of the Bay, you probably didnt really discover Too Short until he started collaborating with Biggie, Pac and E-40. And even then, he wasnt widely accepted into mainstream music until 20 years into his career when he dropped Blow the Whistle and Whats my Favorite Word?. Thanks to the club scene in the early 2000s, Short Dog was getting play all over the country with his favorite word.

As a 13 year old in Northern California who loved Too Short, I was devastated to hear "It's gettin close to the end y'all, so we gon' kick it like this on the laaaast album" on "Gettin' it". Dropped in 1996, it was the 10th album, but definitely wouldn't be the last. Too Short has collaborated with pretty much every major artist in hip hop, and like his Bay Area partner E-40, has put out dozens of records over the last 30 years. 

Short Dog has remained unapologetically himself through his whole career, still rapping about pimping and bitches, and for that, we applaud you Short Dog.