Todd Anthony Shaw, better known as Too Short, is an American rapper who started recording music in 1983. These are my top five favorite songs by him. These songs also show how he’s grown with the music industry and still produces very good music at age 53

“Oaklandish” is a song where Too Short talks about Oakland hence the name Oaklandish. Too Short also features a newer generation of rappers on the song. This shows that Too Short is capable of keeping up with the new flows and adapting to the new environment of Hip Hop. My favorite line from the song is “Everywhere I go, you know I rep that Bay”, which means Too Short never forgot his roots after everything he went through from jail to selling drugs on the streets of Oakland. Which shows perseverance, Intelligence, and most importantly gratitude.

In “Gettin’ It,” Too Short talks about his life, as well as other African American males’ lives around him. This song also has a lot of relevance today, despite being released on May 21st, 1996. Too Short talks about his struggles, like how he used to sell drugs just to get paid to feed his family before he started rapping. He also states how grateful he is for everything he has now and what hip hop has done to his life. My favorite verse on the song is “I know you tired of bein’ broke, just hangin’ out You gotta lot a dreams but you can’t get out The first thing you need to do is set yourself some goals Think positive, everything else is old And work hard, never stop hustlin’ ‘Cause they just love to see the black man strugglin”, I love this line because even though he’s rich and he’s made it he can still relate to average people. To me that’s what makes an artist good, is when you can relate to them.

“Just Another Day” Is a song where Too Short talks about what a normal day is for him now. How he wakes up and goes to the studio, records some music, and goes home. This song would seem basic but it’s not, it builds a relationship between you and the artist as if you are one of his friends and you’re talking about how his day went while listening to a beat in the background. This relates to my previous idea, if you can connect with an artist then the artist is going to sound better to you. My favorite line from the song is “Big Banks came through and started mixing Sitting in the studio kick back listening To some funky a** s*** from the Dangerous Crew .” This line is just a relaxing moment, you can kick back and relax and listen to the song and if you close your eyes it’s almost like you’re with him in the studio, which is a crazy experience because you get to connect with the artist and to find that connection is very rare.