Monday, January 08, 2007

Hip Hop 101 for Baby Boomers

Let's take a look at one of the essential Flows You Must Know. East Oakland's Too $hort has been making raunchy gangster rap since the early 80's. He and Ice-T were key figures in the first wave of West Coast rappers before Ice Cube, Dr. Dre and the rest of N.W.A.. Too $hort's body of work is almost parodically prolific. He retired and comeback several times now and rarely does the Earth travel completely around the Sun without a Too $hort album dropping. His subject matter rarely veers far from pimping, ho-related issues, and the incredible dopeness of Too $hort himself. He's known for going above and beyond the call of duty when it comes to describing the physiological processes involved in various forms of intercourse. Many young, impressionable teenagers have been exposed to any number of exotic sexual behaviors for the first time by listening to Too $hort tapes stolen from older brothers.

His flow is what I would call prototypically gangster. It's got a sing-songy funky lilt to it but stays pretty deadpan as far as emotional expression. He's perfected a laid back conversational style with simple rhyme patterns and punch-liney phrasing. It's proven to be remarkably durable and has stayed pretty consistant while the music backing it up went from old school hard core beats to George Clinton sampling "G-funk" to the newest Bay Area sound, "Hyphy".


Without further ado, ladies and gentleman, $horty the Pimp, Too $hort:







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