Artist Dossier
Too Short
Origin: Los Angeles, California, USA (raised in Oakland, California) · Active Years: 1983-present
A detailed catalogue profile for Too Short.
In this archive
1 album / credit record(s) · Hip-Hop/Gangsta Rap
Born Todd Anthony Shaw on April 28, 1966, in Los Angeles, California; moved to Oakland as a child and began selling homemade rap tapes out of the trunk of his car with high school friend Freddy B in the early 1980s. After three independently released albums on 75 Girls Records, he co-founded his own Dangerous Music label and recorded Born to Mack (1987), which sold an estimated 50,000 copies regionally before Jive Records picked it up for a national reissue that went gold -- establishing him as the first prominent West Coast solo rap star and a direct precursor to the gangsta rap explosion, largely on the strength of his explicit "pimp narrative" style over minimal, bass-heavy beats.
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Complete 1980s Studio Discography
4 studio albums released from 1980–1989 by Too Short. Archived records link directly to full dossiers; remaining releases are queued for harvesting. MusicBrainz source.
80s discography & production credits in the archive
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