 By the way, when I tried to research you early on I Googled too short and the first thing that autocompletes in Google is When did too short die or too short died or how did too short die? That's a little scary right because the first I was like, oh, I missed the window. He's already dead. Well, you um I Don't know a Lot of celebrities die in the public eye. That's true. Yeah, and then it actually is like a Some sort of right of passage is like they think they think you died falsely and some people worry about you I'm relieved when they find out I was not sure when it just when I died. I sold another It was like one point three million albums sold and it just went to fight Like that people were like, I know this is the last one. I better pick this thing up My life is too short. I died Do you know how that happened was that just a rumor where you like look tell everyone I died Oh, they had specific reasons. It was always that I got Shot and it was always like inside of a crack house and I was like the actual crack hit like So you don't even have no beef no feud nothing because you made it through the biggie Tupac thing unscathed and then I made it through a lot of feuds because The guys that I ran with always hung out with I never really hung out with a lot of rappers So my crew was never hip-hop influenced and then they were the kind of guys that are like, you know To me they would be like you're like in a rap battle like it would be like the most ridiculous thing to come Back around the homies and go. I got a battle this guy. They like battle like wasn't supposed to rap battle like Like punch him or something like you are you mad at him talk about it? It went it went well with the homies. How come your crew was never the hip-hop rap crew Well, I have a lot of friends that are rappers Of course We're in the industry that are really good friends over the years but my immediate hardcore crew that I always hung out with was the guys that I came up around in Oakland and No matter where I went, you know, somehow I would involve my guys my main guys And we just kind of kept the same core friendship like you know all these years, but but um, I Personally like I would I would always see rap as my job So I got a life over here I'm gonna go to the studio from 12 known to 8 p.m. At 8 p.m. I'm gonna go hang out with these other people I put when we wanted to get some dinner and then we're going out and we're gonna do blah blah blah You know me like that. So I always had a I would not like this I would not separate the two unless it was like a too short show or something and Didn't work people come around the way from work people and a lot of times they didn't click So, you know, it was so what were the what was your crew listening to it's not rap where they like Oh, they love it. They just didn't make it. Okay rappers and they weren't guys. They were just homies, right and Something that a lot of us would agree or agree on when you do it when you deal with creative people a lot of There's a lot of weirdos a lot of yeah like lectic eccentric Behavior and people who are just down the earth blue-collar people Then they like man, don't bring it. Don't bring your weird friends around us And it's not even my weirdo in to mop to me. It's like we make music. We kick it We do things we we have to be creative But to them they're like me and boys weird man. He's sitting there playing on his phone and tapping on his phone I'm like you probably make it to be. I don't know. Yeah stuff like that like just Things that didn't click socially so your crew wasn't as creative as some of your artist friends then they were just kind of It was a lot a lot of the guys that I made music with They didn't like the party like they they would go to the big party, but I would go to all the parties so When I left the studio, I always want to go to like some restaurant or some chick data something and something and then I'm going out and my guys who made music they were always like, you know, they like their own world You know to go back to their kids their wife and kids or something like that some but others just you know You have your own castle in your own world You know the people love you in your world if you go hang around with t-shirt and work all day And they go hang around too short at night. You're going to two shirts world. So everybody down world Yeah, I can I can understand that it seems a little bit of a little bit counterintuitive though Because when you look at when well when I watch movies because I don't hang out with them and your rappers either surprise surprise You see that's like studio the whole crew is there kind of like we when I walked in this guy's outside hanging out Looking at the equipment talking about probably what they're going to do tonight Whatever and you see all of these guys always going out in a group working as a group They probably live together when they're younger for all I know and you just kind of went not I got my job Which is rap and then I got my my career in with that And then I've got these other friends that have had forever that I'm always just gonna keep yeah I'm not buying one like that, but at the same time there are a lot of guys who They're together They in the studio they all make me together. They leave the studio. They all go out together They chase chicks. They chase chicks together. They go out of town. They go out of town together There are those guys. Yeah, I just I've always had like different pockets. Yeah I have like friends who like my my real friends who really high school You know, and I have this other group of friends that I met after the start I mean they're like a different breed of people that you know, I They probably have I'm like, let's go to Oakland. They're like, no Catch on the next trip. Sure So your what are your high school friends think about your career because I mean grew up decidedly middle class So some of your high school friends must be like, yeah, you know, Todd that guy went to high school with He's a rapper now. What yeah, well No matter where I Landed in life. My life was always a mixture of You know elementary school. I was really good student private school, you know, but We didn't live in a really great neighborhood. We live in a decent neighborhood on a good block where The drama was like a few blocks over or you know, not too far And then I had cousins and live all over the city and I spent a lot of time You know, you always get dropped off for your cousins. I did you dropped off for like Like we're gonna pick me up. Yeah So, you know, it's not a lot of time with the cousin. So I got it. I got it in all over the city and and When I moved to Oakland, you know, I went to free my high and it was just kind of I kind of ended up in in a different kind of environment where where You know, I had all these elements in LA of going to a Really good private school in ninth grade. I went to go to J. American. That was a good school and And living in the hood and hanging in the hood and you know, just being a really good student So, you know, when I ended up in a school like free my high it wasn't in East Oakland it wasn't the best curriculum and I had the opportunity to kind of kind of roll the skate downhill and fall back on this that ass-kick and I've been getting all those years in Private school and you get in trouble with shit to get really like your ass kicked You know what I mean? So holding dictionaries and shit with your arm stretched out. Oh, you went to that kind of school Yeah, like you get hit with rulers or something Yeah, you're running around the damn gym or some shit for punishment and writing shit over and over again on chocolate all that bullshit But so you know, I get to a school where I feel like they put me these glasses that weren't really up to par And I'm just like, oh, I know what to do now. No homework. I'll just take the tennis without even studying and shit Just kind of fucking up, you know, so I am I Got a good blame and I before before the two short shit came out a lot. I had a lot of ingredients to where People wouldn't be surprised, you know. Yeah. Yeah, the only people that probably were ever surprised were people that went to They were the ones to be like Those guys did you still hang out with some of those guys I still see some of them, you know Like Chris Vincent went there. Yeah comedy guard He went there and he's one of the guys that knows I was I was on the the fucking in one of those damn School books of some year books of some shit, but you know, I see a few in there Oh, you know, it was a damn good school. Everybody's everybody who I know that went to that school is doing good life Did you pick up your own name? Did you pick your own name is too short or was that like a nickname you had back in the day? Is you're not that short. Let's get that out of the way. You're not you're just not that short You're not well in my height people people said I'm about today. I thought she'd be shorter. I Was five to the day I turned 19 years old I was five to Okay, and then when I turned 20 by the time I turned 20, I was this song like five eight. So you just have late summer in high school I Got to the 10th grade and my brother had went to the school The previous year he was in he was 12th grade when I was a 10 so his friends Got into me immediately it might have been one of the first days of the school that that 10th grade year for me And his friends immediately were like ain't nobody about to call you Todd it's just not about to happen because I'm just moving to Oakland and They were trying to they were sitting around a group of them making jokes trying to come up with a name for me And then some dude who I guess everybody called shorty Came in the vicinity of me and it was noticed that shorty was taller than me and that that turned into the joke I got that smell the fucking ain't even you know the fucking shorter than shorty shorty so Somehow somebody just blurted out came and call you shorty We just fucking short and they just that was the joke for a long time that That I fucking hated it just they were calling me short like we're just gonna give you this name It's just fucking short. It's just fucking short. Yeah, that was some bullshit and then I saw this movie Not too long into the short joke And it was called penitentiary and the star of the movie his name was Was too sweet the character's name was too sweet and he fucked all the bitches and he beat everybody's ass And when I got somewhere during that movie after that movie somewhere, I was like That's it too sweet too short and I just you know, I put a little sir in front of it back then You know you put the sir sir too short, right? Yeah, like sir makes a lot era of hip-hop. Yeah Yeah, so I want to I never carried your sir too short into the rap career that much But you listen to some two short records and I have referenced it Enough times. Yeah, sir too short. I said I said in songs because people in Oakland. They know it So I went to the mall and got me a little baseball had got some iron-on letters. It says sir too short I said, um, I got the jacket to match With the two short somewhere on the jacket or something and I walked up to the school one day with the jacket and the hat on and And then they really didn't want to accept it at first forget like I already bought this jacket in his hat Man, it's not going anywhere. They didn't really know I never really caught me too short By the way, everybody calls me short. Anyway, but they didn't want to accept it at first and I went to this party With my brother and his friends one night to tag along a little homie that just they don't really want you with him with them and They get to this party and they tell me I couldn't go in as parties like on the Intersection it's in a house, but it's really close to the intersection of a main street There's a gas station on the corner. So I'm just like hanging at the gas station outside of a house party That's like two three houses down as people outside. It's you know, I'm just lingering Again to this long conversation with like this homeless guy, which is something that That I've been doing my whole life is just having conversations with homeless people because you know, just very interesting Really, I'll get to that. We'll come back to that. I mean, yeah, you can imagine. Yeah, but He asked me what my name was and I told him I told I said my name's too short. You know, everybody call me short and then When the guys came out from the party, you're like, let's go You're gonna run jump on the bus and the home and the homeless dude was like, he said are you sure like you know He said it was like just so cool like we was his home He's there like the fuck was that so they all started mimicking him and saying are you sure and then you know It turned it turned it in something cool and just me pushing it too short me starting to rap I started rapping around the same time. My rap name was too short. I just kind of So with the jacket in the head, it sounds like you immediately you were good at branding somehow into my accident Yeah, yeah, but that was the thought process. They're gonna fucking know me like I didn't I didn't know that there was a word Brandy or yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah, you just I wore that fucking jacket in that hat All the time I wear that hat to the fucking letters faders a black hat with gold letters to the fucking gold letters probably returning Moly green or some shit and I used to keep a sharpie Like you know graffiti already. Yeah, sure, but I was more what then we call a tagger Which we didn't call it that shit was just called a brand-new fucking name on the wall. Yeah But I had a I was on a mission that anywhere I stopped You will see my name. So I stopped there other people start there. So I look back on it like, you know, when my career started jumping off. I'm like, that was pretty Pretty slick to early on. Yeah, I'm in the city selling tapes and everybody listen to you shoot to tagging up your name You weren't gonna get hit and it's just coming Yeah, you big what is it's everywhere. Well, you sold the tapes out of the trunk of your car, right? Man, imagine if you had the internet back then well, I think it's the same thing and The trunk out of the tapes out of the trunk is a is a luxury that didn't really fucking happen That happened for a short period of time. I had a rap partner His name is Freddie be when we started selling those tapes. We either walked But we caught the bus. So the trunk was a longer. We're later on he bought a really raggedy fucking car and You could say we were selling up the trunk then But the foot was a lot longer time period in the car and then later Where the story really comes from is when we started selling independent albums and it wasn't the street tapes It was it was like we really start making money and we drop around like a pickup truck or SUV and we'd be dropping on boxes to distributors of boxes to certain record stores that went to buy direct and we Was selling fucking cassettes on the truck for it when you started selling tapes out of just probably stuffed in your cargo pockets Or out of the truck paper bag paper bag Yeah girls restore bag Liquor store a little bag just full of tapes. How did you how long was that phase of just ramping up? That would have been like about a three-year period of that was strictly our hustle. We didn't need Any kind of fucking job? We didn't need to sell drugs We just had to go make those tapes and keep making new ones and keep selling them and the only time I ever worked as a kid I am there was a easy way to make some money Which was a being a vendor at Oakland A's games you didn't really go you didn't have to fill out anything with your fucking name anything you didn't have to get fucking a Interview the shit you just go be there about an hour before the game and If those these guys who were the guys who ran all the vendors if they thought you were a hustler Or they found out that you were hustler or one of the hustling guys was like this my boy He's gonna be a real hustler, and they would pick you and you could sell like Coca-Cola like a vendor up in the house and shit and probably uh, probably make 50 bucks Sell coke peanuts Twinkies or whatever Cola only like oh really only drink they picture to sell peanuts. That was a hard fucking job That thing was heavy as fuck and then you could sell you could sell ice cream and make more money than selling soda, but but You really just want to sell the soda because we were like little slick little kids and we had ways of like Doing shit now tell you out of those cats used to get out there Some of those games are early morning games or you got to get out there early to get picked Yeah, and then some of those games like double headers and shit, and you know it's a long day and Some of those guys who are out there later in life Became guys like me like guys fucking made a lot of money And like really like had that hustle in them and really didn't mind hustling and I just looked back on that as That was a plus too Because it was it was something like a side hustle sometimes like they go to the a's game get to go to baseball game for you You know the shit and that just it was they made it sound good and then most of the time right after the The vendors would cash out the dice game would break out and and all this other kind of shit would go down and be like you know right back to the We smoke and return to like a little party. Yeah. Yeah, so only other job I did that on the side that was like randomly showed when you want to show up sure didn't show up for two weeks Nobody said, you know, yeah, you're out of here now. It's like, all right, whatever next so um, I had a buddy who uh Who was the assistant manager jack-in-a-box? He had the nerve to get all his friends hired and we were like some fuck up So we partied it jack-in-a-box for about five months until I was forced to quit Really? Why why did they force you to quit? they probably singled out the fuck up crew and in a We mainly worked that after 4 p.m. shift and fucking The boss who we used to work on the shift when our boy was assistant manager and our boss who um Was the big boss of the story. He came to me personally and said Angel to come to work six o'clock Saturday morning. That's Like that's like two o'clock in the morning for adults and you have to work with the boss. That's his shift So I'm already like You know not wanting to do this and when I got there, I knew I knew what the fuck's gonna happen. Yeah He handed me a Bristle pad like it would have handled. I know toilet cleaner and he said um, he said you take this solution He walked me outside to the drive-thru Did you take this solution you put on all the oil stains and then you take this brush and you rub it my Oh, and he gave me another chemical and a chisel. He said he take this when you put on all the gum You take this and you scrape it up. I was like, okay, okay Fast as you got out my sight. I want I left that was it I just fuck I left that shit in the drive-thru work where you'd have to pick it up man. I just left Yeah, cuz he was gonna basically haze you until you bounced Yeah, I didn't go for one. I didn't scrape one piece of gum. Fuck that. I was out. I saw it a mile away. I knew it I gave him the whole okay. Okay. I'll do it But you were such a hard worker in other ways, right? I mean, it's not like you're some lazy kid. You just didn't want to do that Probably cuz he told you jack in the box was fun though man. Like we really had a good time It was like it was like some kind of fucking summer camp or some shit You're working with your homies. We not being responsible we doing every fucking thing you can think of and That's why I never eat a jack in the block. Do you eat there now? No one what goes on? Not really. I don't really eat fast food unless I need to eat really fast, right? That's not often But I yeah, I I could tell you some shit we were doing though We were like we would really like be generous to like people we know and people we like or whatever like, you know Just you order a burger and get to whatever the fuck like this anything on them, but then it anybody that was mean Got got really bad like really bad things that you know I was I suppose every restaurant does that because I saw it like you you really don't say this shit to me And they asked me for some food. So shit's real. Yeah, and I hang out with friends who are who? Disrespect waiters and waitresses and I say remember Yeah server remember who do not talk him Yeah, remember I was polite and here's the one that was nice. This ain't I had this sound. It's not a good thing, right? That's funny. Well knowing now that you were running a business now and Being a business now. Do you look back at how you worked for that other business owner a jack-in-the-box and think like oh, man I hope nobody's doing that to me here. Um, I just think that You've got a guy who's a French fries a jack-in-the-box and you give him fucking 10 years and he's the fucking manager. Yeah a You know like some some guys Who have worked that way up in the rink as a fast food have become ambitious enough to become owners sure and entrepreneurs? It's like I just think that Some people are life-or-driven man. I just at every at every point wherever I was at Like when I was literally on French fries a jack-in-the-box my mind was like Doing this shit like you know, so that was very temporary I was I was motivated by another reason it's not by a paycheck or or the fact that I want to be the best French Five different, right? Yeah, but you were you were such a hard worker in other ways Did you ever think about giving up with the the rap and everything you never think like man? I've been selling tapes on the bus off the bus with my in a paper bag out of this Dantronk for three years Now that was high school. We were in high school. So it was so early enough That was kind of money that bought a pair of shoes and And some new jeans and and a lot of weed a lot of beer and a lot of wine and shit You know those years it was it was just fun money. I would literally go out and sell tapes Just so that I'm like, okay. I'm gonna give me some new pair jeans shoes And we That was like my mission was to go right that much profit save the money so the next day I could buy more tapes And I was just you know, you check the check. I was living take the tape check Yeah, take to take take the tape early. Do you ever think now like man if I'd been more serious about it back then Maybe I'd be I would have done something different because you made it obviously very far Still fucking around in high school. Yeah, well I could have just always been this independent guy I don't think the guy who stays that route in in hip hop that time know who I was and how the industry was I don't think that that guy ever becomes an international starter I don't think you blow the fuck up cuz even to this day Our guy on the internet who's hot as fuck. He's not gonna get All the spins on the radio and all the looks on TV because he's not in the system with the major labels that run that shit So you can have this guy who? emerges from the Ashes of the internet and he's a mega internet star, but he's still got a Partner up with somebody to become international. So, you know, I feel like I couldn't stay that route. I could have been This independent guy who just Worked his regional success and just milked it and shit, but at some point the way this game is they're gonna dangle that Then be carrot. Yeah, and you're facing you like, you know, I Was the pill to me was never The money that I would make it was always like the audience how we get that's why I went to the major labels for the bigger Audience that's just I knew it. I knew what I had. I knew what he did to people and I knew I Knew for a fact when I've never even had been in the studio People And you didn't have any did you ever have any doubt about it like man, you know This is getting harder or I gotta go with this label. I don't know if I want to do this or they're trying to change my music Maybe I don't I don't have a heart. I don't have a music heart and look story. No, that's good though That's real though because I feel like it's tempting to go. All right Let me think of this narrative where I almost gave up and then you know This didn't make it and then I suddenly turned around but it's better to have a real I was watching documentary dying laughing with the big comedians talking about the journey of being a comedian and fucking it was They all tell this that a guy's story about to come up in the road in the sacrifices and the learning curve and all this shit Didn't have that nope We're middle-class private school high school cell tapes All the way to the top All the way and both both my parents of college graduates I knew from the start, you know, and I was born my mother drove. I was born in 66 My mother drove was 66 with variable Mustang. My father always had a little sports car He went through he was in a he was in a club called the black Porsches Incorporated and it was like 1972 73 some shit and I Just took from that because I wasn't spoiled and I wasn't living in some fat-ass house or nothing Just I just had parents who provided, you know, they would be, you know, sure it was good And they put their kids in private school. So, you know, I was able to excel In private school and it just always gave me the advantage of just I don't know I feel like man, it's not the individual I feel like a lot of individuals are given our short chains and in inner-city public school system and It's it's really I seen it firsthand when I got the high school But I can only fucking imagine what it's like in kindergarten or first grade when they act as fuckers ain't teaching you Yeah, and I just saying if you show up, you're gonna go to the next grade. That shit is real I've seen it. I've seen a motherfucker get a diploma who couldn't read and get the diploma for attendance That's some bullshit. Yeah, that's scary. That's extremely scary. It seems like Your upbringing was pretty pretty normal pretty middle-class, right? I mean you were in SoCal down well down in LA and then up to over when your parents your mom worked for like the IRS, right? That's like the most not ghetto not thug Every guy I went to school with elementary school Catholic school they all were to be gangbegers Really that shit didn't out that one year. I went to J.M. Murphy. That was a different kind of curriculum There's another school in LA. It was all boys private school Catholic school was a Loyola those are like Really good schools, but that other shit. I went to a Catholic school in the hood like that shit though That's not immunity. That's you still got to get from Catholic school in the head to home in the head and it's like LA was like It's like the opposite of Disneyland like you going from a music part to music part You're going from situation to situation as a kid. I'm riding my bike to the store grown-ass men are like give me a fucking bike like fuck like you got it You got to steal your bike back. You ever stole your bike back So somebody would steal your bike and you'd have to find out where they live and go get it See him one day on the give me my fucking bike back. Yeah We saw a little dude ride my bike down the street. He stole it out of thrifties out the drugstore And I was only in that motherfucking at three minutes. He must have stolen it as soon as I just blinked and Seen in a couple days later my auntie took him off the bike And gave him a phone number They said tell your mama whoever they call me and they call like Like you take my wife like yeah, we'll be over here on 84th Street. Come get it. It won't nobody show That's ridiculous. It's unbelievable and this is and this is your whole neighborhood So you're navigating this whole situation as a kid and this later on informed some of your music I would expect yeah, I was my only like real Extra curricular activity outside of solid music That I just did to be bad. I was a stealing bikes professional bike thief Oh, I had a chip on my shoulder because when I was in I was a kid People bigger to me always kept taking my bike. So we just took it as You supposed to take the people little and you take that man. You paid it downwards That's that's what I thought and it just that was just a ritual That's what we did. So, you know, I was that kind of city man. We're Well, I'm not gonna say LA just was that kind of life man. We're just like People just you got the nerve to run around these streets and people bigger and stronger You don't fuck with you and then you know shit. What are you gonna do? This from a guy called to show you think would have a little little sympathy for for people who are smaller than a little guy No, nothing not a not a way man. It's it's I wasn't really a I Wasn't really like a You know like a person. Yeah, not a lot of It was all in my mind. You know, just just me. It was like fun. It was just trying to Shut up all me shit. Plus. I really like building bikes So I had a I had a parts thing going some guys I came across in life Yeah, like chop-chop It was it was some guys I came across in life that has something similar to a chop-chop and then I was this one of those guys I was like, I'm always gonna have wheels. I feel like I have that in me right now about cars Yeah, they said your Porsche outside the shiny one. I gotta have wheels. I gotta have Accessories like that too Yeah, well, but you bought that one outside Yeah, my bike all my bikes would have like accessories. Yeah, like what like mirrors and horns Shit and I would I would really think that I didn't overdo it or I didn't make it ugly Like I was like people like that's a nice bike like Thanks, I stole it from a kid smaller than me at a garbage. Well, I would never ride the bikes. I stole I Really like break him down. Oh, I see it was You know you trade off shit. You know when I was coming up in the rap game I'd have a component or something and I and somebody to have something other I might have to cassette decks And I'm like I'm gonna try to cassette definitely equalizer. Okay, just I was whatever Gadget guy from back in the day. I get it and your mom your mom. It's funny that your mom worked for the IRS I don't know why I find that so funny because you have this track like the ghetto It's basically like some symbolize of the whole genre and then your mom is like collecting taxes and doing spreadsheets It just seems like a crazy juxtaposition. What when I was young she was like a real tax auditor, but later on she was like training and management and fucking Doing shit like I know for a while. She was doing that That you know within the company the equal rights. Oh, yeah, sure I'm drawn a blank to your drone a blank. I'm drawn a blank. Yeah, she was really into that for a while I just trying to see people get the promotions and you know talking 70s 80s and Yeah, she was like real political on promotions. Yeah, of course Of course fast-tracked away guys and everybody's got a fight for a job. So what's your relationship like with your mom now? All right, well my mother passed a year. I'm sorry Little over a year ago, but my mother was like really really good friend of mine A lot of people know that that when I didn't live with her for many many years We constantly saw each other talk to my just conversations and she was like a friend and then when she retired I moved to Atlanta. She always stayed with me out there big house I have her own wing and shit and entertaining folks and shit. So people like people know the relationship and know how it was and I feel like I'm You know, it's one of the best times in my life Atlanta, Georgia My I was living at the house always cooking gumbo and dinner always going down You know family visiting because of her She's kind of person that would keep the family together Versus if you check her out the equation, we don't really call each other You know, oh, yeah, so you but you move the center of the family into your own house Exactly. She was the glue and she was the one who's big old Christmas and holidays and degerating Everybody come down and then You have kids now though, right? No kids. No kids. Oh, why did I think that? I don't know why I thought that it's a lot of yeah, I guess bad research adopted step kids and then My fake wife on a Wikipedia. Yeah, I saw that too. I take it off. It's like he's putting back. Yeah, somebody Eric Erica or something. Yeah, not your wife Not my wife, and I wish I wanted to lose the lady in the picture like yeah, she knows Yeah, that's maybe she's the one doing it. Who knows? I'm two shorts wife That's weird. That is weird because yeah, there's definitely stuff written about your wife and this daughter that you don't have and then you know, I got like internet kids and Internet kid was an internet kid People on the internet saying that your kid like my adopted Hip-hop family, you know shit like that. Oh god. Okay, two shorts my daddy to short raisin a lot of kids like that Some step kids and you know in the wake Love step kids. What is your mom think? What is your mom thinking your music? I mean, she must have had an opinion you're close to your mom and then you go up on stage and she would be told Do you know your son is a nasty-ass rapper and he says really nasty stuff I heard that but I've never heard I heard people say that but I've never heard the music She's like I've never heard in curse ever. Well, she never heard the music never heard you curse ever She'd heard the radio version of every kind of a radio, right? Yeah So they were like cleaned up because I feel like if your mom ever came to one of your shows You'd be up there, and you'd have to think twice before you said anything She came to my show in Phoenix when she lived down Phoenix and I Knew she was gonna like come say hello or whatever whatever, but I Was I don't know if I told her or if I You know just just stay backstage. Yeah, and then I get ready to go on and I see her right up from like I'm like this if you guys don't go gears I'm not gonna do the show so have figured out cuz you don't want to swear in front of your mom Just she didn't know she just didn't know shit She didn't want to know you know. Yeah, of course, you knew you were happy to oblige that she didn't not know I just say you do not want to see what I'm about to do Just walk away because I can imagine she would be pretty shocked. It's kind of like This is my this is what I think it must be like so if I'm rapping or something like that I got one of my black friends in the car, and then I know the next word is gonna be the n-word I will not I'm not gonna say it right and you get that feeling bubbling up in your stomach Where you're like it's coming next not just gonna not I'm just gonna hum And then keep going yeah, and that's how I feel like it must be but you can't do that cuz you're on stage And your mom's the front row and you're like, I don't want to say Maybe I should say riches or witches instead as a whole show and None of it can go down with her in the crowd. Yeah, you know one time. I was in about Maybe 11th grade 12th grade. Maybe I rap for a long time a long time before I told anybody my family I was like that was Popular in the streets, and I would never come on the stage. You know Kept it to myself my mother I Don't know. I don't know when we're how and why but one day I went to go You know one of my mini notebooks with rhymes. How's that? How you doing? You keep like ideas on a notebook back then it was that was the myth that all rappers had these notebooks here You probably saw the movie or some shit or heard other New York rappers doing it But one of my mini notebooks. I was flippin through and I found a letter from my mother It was a long letter And she could have right in the middle some dirty-ass raps and it was a it was a whole letter about Just like how I was raised and Do I believe this stuff in these songs and oh so she went through the notebook and was like I need to intervene here She never said anything to me just the letter. Do you still have the letter? I Immediately Get rid of that. Oh my gosh. Yes. Yeah So did you have like an awkward dinner conversation like pretend you didn't see that her pretend you're right She laid it all on the line in the letter. She was just like she was just it was really saying What she said to me many more times in life and it was like need to Could travel around do a lot of music stuff and just sell them out and make fun She was she she wanted me not to be too sure But not so much didn't work out that way. Yeah, man, you know, then She would like my mother stayed in my house in Atlanta. He had two different houses was like a almost it's like 15 years and She um Okay, she um She witnessed The real player in me like the real player like I I just couldn't hold it back like I just couldn't hide that from her to where And both houses we had I always made it where I had a separate entrance that I could just not pass her But somehow she would just see so much it just be like different chicks. It's mom. You can't hide anything different chick different chick and And she fucking I had this retirement party and she made this fucking joke about hearing me Making girls moan. Oh my god. Your mom mentioned this. I'm thinking I separate these rooms. So this you got your own wing I'm right the studio professionals insulating everything So she made a joke about me being a player and then um And then she would like like really be against me In my player world, she would really be against me I could I had to be careful if I left a chick alone on her Because she immediately starts giving them information on how to win She's like now Telling that she's got these other girls that come around But this what you gotta be gotta do this night Like she she would pick and choose the girls that she liked and then she would try to groom them To to win with me. Oh man. So your mom is like sawing your game up then she would go out like On one occasion she found the girlfriend for me. So she made friends with the girl Okay, bringing this a pretty girl around the house who's who's very church wholesome and Wife material. I was not gonna work. Is she trying to I don't know what conversations they had but she's trying to tell me ain't she's pretty on yourself Like she's looks boring So then she she would pick like a girlfriend that I had That kind of might have not lasted longer whatever is somehow she links into this girl and after I'm doing other stuff They're working Um getting me back to her. Oh my gosh, like Like really like working like You should come go with us. She said I'm like, we're gonna go get our nails done You should come with us come to dinner with me and charlotte. So that's so crazy She was working on and her she's her main motivation was grandkids. Of course She's like we gonna pick somebody we gonna make some grand babies My god But it's it's kind of fun this because I this whole story makes perfect sense and yet if you zoom out far enough It's like, okay Multi platinum rapper lives with his mom Big ass house give her her own wing right, you know what I would do I would actually give her the house that would do me a wing Like some super player shit then I can go up and be normal in the house Right and I go down in my wing and be like wow, that's too short. Yeah Yeah, so you basically you moved her in and then she was like no, this is my house And I'm gonna make sure that you get married. You got more than you bargained for there So how how was your career sort of matured with age? I mean, I heard that you recorded a song for Hanukkah when I read that I was like that can't be right That's it was some funny shit, but it wasn't it wasn't like that as serious. I like it was it was uh like so like a challenge TMZ caught me waiting. I was like No, a lot of jewish people think I can make this happen. You're in show business, man. You know ton It was pretty easy, but but um, uh matured man Shit, I mean I just I just got older, you know, like You don't really 51 now, man. Yeah, you don't really want to like be like like Like an older funny daddy kind of I've tapped out on on living life kind of person But then you can't Do the wow shit like super wow So I'm somewhere in the middle somewhere in the middle. Yeah, I imagine I get a little wow, but I'm conservative compared to the bone short down, but I I still don't Sit around and watch television shows that come in at eight o'clock and You go to bed early. No, I mean if you're starting a recording session after this How long you to work like eight hours or something like that probably No, I never I never work past whatever time it is to go socialize I always like get out If I'm stuck in this motherfucker, I'll sit at work to two three and one if that's very rare Most of the time it's gotta be done by like It's gotta be done by like night 32 Yeah, and then you go out you go out every night No, but I do something Something every night every night. Hey, I might something might happen in It's other than I might just be I'm that guy that likes to you know Do the fucking restaurants and the chicks and just to you know, just be in the environment and kind of Doesn't have to be a nightclub But it's gotta you know Like to get I think I think when I move around I have networking in mind and it's all about like trying to run up on a deal money so Business associates of shit, you know But you don't need to work anymore, right? I mean you're 30 years in the game. You got Handful You just get you get the drive you can't let it go Like what the fuck is not working? Imagine Justin gets up and going to work every day Even when he wasn't the president of Lakers, he still let the work every day like you Yeah Like I think some people are hustlers hustlers and we don't have a job But we fucking do shit all day every day that Like you I never have enough time in the day to do what I gotta do every day Because you stay relevant even though it's been 30 years. That's it's tough, but I'm thinking people who aren't even Celebrity relevant Who might have been or whatever You still have a full schedule like I've never I never want to have nothing to do You go crazy I don't know if it'd be crazy, but just I Even if it was Shit that was working on a project with my bare fucking hands around the house, which I would never do Even if it was that I never want to have nothing to do. You always gotta stay busy. Yeah, I can hear I hear you on that I can't relax my friend asked me How I relax and I told him basically I prepare for my show and they're like no no no But how do you relax? What do you do on vacation? I'm like Research people So I feel like we have that in common. It's the same. They're like no no no But what would you do if you had like this project right man? It's just dry. These are some people just driven Yeah, when I was a kid, I didn't have a fucking job, but I get up I'm like fuck my bike's got a flat first thing I'm gonna do is fix this fucking flat Then I'm go somewhere It's go somewhere to ride it to somewhere you just have a day One of your records are one of the earlier ones It's one of the first hip-hop records to use the word bitch, right? So that became like one of your trademarks it became Essentially a staple in hip-hop, but looking at this with 2020 hindsight. What do you think of popularizing that word? It's sort of like enshrining it in hip-hop culture You know is that it's synonymous with rap like get money get bitches like it's really Well, some of the tips and conclusions are saying Fuck you should trademark it and know that charge people every time they say it But then it wouldn't be popular with it. Right. It would just be mine. It wouldn't be That's a bit of a license before you say it have to check the legality. It would be fun. So for one, I think that um The journey that the word took with and without me And where it ended up at is amazing this to to to believe that to know that we Started this in a bedroom Yeah, it's your ringtone. I heard it on your phone My way was like that your ringtone. I really like it really is Yeah So um and then to watch a tv show or a movie or Comedian on stage or another rapper many other rappers and just all kind of shit singers and all kind of albums is Do you think you could have done that with like any concept or any word though? Do you ever have any regret like should I use a different word or I should use a different concept? Because now you've been bringing a different message to local Oakland neighborhoods life's not all about sex and money But how do you put the toothpaste back in the tube on that one? So If you go beach Or if you take it out of snoop dogs face go beach Or if you if you say it, however you say it It wasn't like that with me. It wasn't like one dimensional like literally I would rap And in my raps I will always refer to this one person That every song is just like it's a just talking to one person And in that song I'd be like, oh man something something like I'm making I'm personalizing on purpose And I call y'all kind of like nicknames in the in the song But another thing I would do is I would say bitch a lot and it wasn't just bitch it would be like I'd say it to The chick I'm talking to in my song. I call her a bitch like like you my favorite bitch, you know, that's like Like I'm that's the compliment of the day and Then it would just be like and I might be talking shit and I'd like Yeah, bitch you're gonna do like that. That's something and I'm just like using it as That's a reference to her Personally her not all of the women listen So the women a woman could sing along and she can look over at another woman and be like, yeah, bitch You're gonna you know saying it and be like he ain't talking about me And it would be it wasn't it was never all you bitches all y'all It was never that like fuck females. It was it was always like that bitch or that person and I think that all that combined is some of these that people will never ever realize Is what brought it home not just going bitch. That was the fun way to say it But I use it. I you can look up this song It's called call her a bitch And in that song I told myself before I wrote it. I'm gonna say the word bitch More than anybody will ever say in the song more than I've ever said I think I counted you can fact check me if you dare. I think it's 232 bitches In the song Jason's right. He'll get on that my producer That'll be something you'll be like hold on. Let me check I even had a challenge because I broke the fucking song and I cannot memorize it because it says bitch so many times that I can't Make my mind learn it And I had to put a challenge up to my whole crew I was like You put up a hundred dollars. I put up a thousand I'm going to get you a thousand if you can memorize the first verse Nobody won yet. I gotta come back next time and take your thousand bucks You'd be surprised I don't I went to law school. I memorized a lot of useless stuff Hell of a challenge. Hell of a challenge. Yeah, I'll give it a shot next time Tell me what's going on in Oakland. Why are you so interested in the homicide raid? Tell me what what's got you concerned over there Well, it's not just Oakland. It's just Our cities in general. It's just it's just the trickle down. Like I said, it starts with the improper education in preschool, kindergarten, first grade like you You set them up with that from failure right there on on other opportunities and That's a lot more to it man that that whole just reading A book like the new Jim Crow and just realizing the The bigger picture of what Donald Reagan's drug on water became and mixed that with crack cocaine in the hood and just those two things and everything they did Just fucked up the fabric of Of the order of the hood, you know, and when people Had an instruction that was That was allowing people to survive that it had an order, you know And then the crack being introduced the The laws that were applied the after effect of People killing over all the crack money People getting loan sentences for murders and and small amounts of drugs just totally left The 80s babies With no supervision. Nobody raised them talked to Tons of them and they go my grandmother raised me my mother's friend raising my Uncle raised me. I didn't have no my mother foster homes now Those motherfuckers grew to fuck up They all hit about started hitting 21 in the early 2000s Now after that All those babies were 85 eight late 80s early 90s on to the new millenniums in the inner cities It's it's just it ain't getting no better Letting this whole shit just keep going the same fucking cycle of to lock them up They're gonna kill each other often. Don't nobody's raising the fucking babies. It's like it's fucking crazy. So you got these These grumpy adults who didn't get raised they just like fucking raise this hummus and the quick fuse the Just What I grew up on I grew up around people that would probably fucking kill you But they'd also fucking fight you or you know It was a thing where So-and-so got killed you like Kind of had a Reasoning like something happened right like when you don't could have seen it coming My little brother went to the store and a motherfucker was like Just walked up and shot him into nothing like why the motherfucker was having a bad day. Just like I'm like where you look fuck you Or you look at me like that fuck you just like like Shit that would have been like like you got a little aggression. You want to fight me? There's no fighting And they talk about you here you hear them like And like the music and shit man. We ain't arguing man. We just we just shoot and it's it's uh It's just getting really real crazy because It goes on it's all in the music now not The lyrics but it's in the music where You really have groups of people And around the hip hop crews who are like they're like enemies and shit. That's like shit going on all over the country And it's like man. It ain't just the music. It's It's the environment. It's a very fucking violent environment in our inner cities all in Chicago Fucking academia all these fucking cities St. Louis Philadelphia whatever the fuck it's just it's not Getting better and I really feel like the only reason why it's not is So what do you tell us? What do you tell a frustrated kid who thinks I don't have any options besides drugs and gangs I would personally I wouldn't tell you shit. I would try to show you opportunities give you opportunities and I would uh You know that you gotta you gotta Breathe that That Fire that drive you gotta somebody's gotta want it. It's so easy to get it. Yeah, but you just gotta want it So when you when you don't have an opportunity, but fuck you don't want nothing So that's that's that's what it's always been. You know these fucking inner city programs and all this shit, but that shit is like That shit is like another hustle getting the grants and shit Ain't nobody really giving up fucking opportunities because this world ain't set up for that for everybody but I think we do see people break through the cracks slip through the cracks kick the motherfucking wall down kick the door in and I think that's done by being driven and you know you just I can tell you right now if you apply yourself to something that you really care about for Five six seven eight nine ten years apply yourself to that shit You got a very good chance of achieving those goals if you really put the fucking work in You stand there as zero And I tell you what you want to do is going to take you 10 years 20 years. Oh, you're like, fuck you But in 10 years from 30 to fucking 60, you're gonna be balling And you're gonna waste them 10 years going i'm not doing fucking that shit for 10 years, but That's only so many people they get it Is there anything else that I haven't asked you that you want to make sure that you deliver because this is so far so good, man Appreciate your time well, you know, I'm uh I'm uh on a mission right now for the I can't say preservation, but just just for the the longevity of hip-hop and I think that a lot of people within hip-hop are Trying to put it in a box. You have a core group of older Hip-hop fans and older artists who don't like what's being made now and they just like cutting the line off like This is a line called real Real's over here fake is over there. That's not true Then you have a core group of younger fans who were like who gives a fuck about that. Oh that shit shit about it here and I really feel like An older artist like me doing what I do and doing what I'm about to do and doing what I've been doing Is blazing the trail for the next artist when when you decide to have or Just happen to have a long career and you don't have any boundaries because The line the line was not drawn the line the age when it was not set You know, so the opportunity is there. I I know for a fact Jay Z had a hit album when he was fucking 46 years old whatever Somewhere up there. So that we know that limit So what's next is it? Somebody 55 gonna have a hit record like what's next like? I don't know if there's gonna be a limit one day Somebody 87 years old will have a hot rap record Might be you. I don't know but I'm saying the limit It will be set one day. It's gonna be like older to hit a rap record 103. I don't know is it gonna stop you with age right now It's approaching 50. So you don't you don't think you'll ever stop doing this I'll stop the day. I don't make money off of it. Yeah, it's my job. This is the hustle So you'll rap it as soon as it soon as something flops. It's over the same thing that bought me tennis shoes And I was 15 is buying me tennis shoes at 51 the same exact thing Let's do it be We'll make some words Let's somebody hear it get paid What is it? I know that explaining hip-hop lyrics is like explaining a joke and it might just ruin it But I'm gonna ask anyway. What does it mean blow the whistle? I have no idea what that means I listen to that song the song was written as a sports metaphor To say that If you're doing shit in life, that's just not you're not in your lane We're gonna blow the whistle and it's the fucking file it's the fucking, you know Throw the flag blow the whistle in the play stop it throw him out the game do whatever it's in the song is telling you Doing too much drugs. You're doing this negative. You fucking just you're not in your you can't hang with the big dogs Foul just you just you got the game blow the whistle but Some kids came to me one day And told me something that I didn't even know that blow the whistle means suck my dick Oh, okay, I hear it in strip clubs all the time and I just thought okay. It's some sort of undercover weapon And I was like damn it does mean that so Every now and then during the show I might ask an audience member. Do you know blow the whistle means and They never get it right with them like it means But it really doesn't it's just a sportsman You'll let them think whatever they want as long as I mean it If you find another man, I was like that was dope Blow the whistle means suck my dick blow the whistle like literally now I get why you don't want your mama your show Thanks so much man. It's been great. Good shit. All right. Thank you, man. That's great. Yeah, really good