The success of his new album "Life Is... Too Short" with the public and especially the critics established the Oakland artist from a local lyricist to a star on the West Coast. However, after a period without releases, rumors began to circulate that Too Short had been killed in a crackhouse while smoking, since at the time crack had reached the height of its epidemic in Oakland and the Bay Area, and in response to those rumors, on which the track "Dead or Alive" is based, the emcee released his new CD. The entire album is influenced by that period and the problems of the urban centers, culminating in the single "The Ghetto", a tribute to the song of the same name by Donny Hathaway.
Sixth effort in his career for Too Short, the rapper doesn't make too many variations compared to his previous efforts and maintains the same themes, tones and rhythms, remaining consistently focused on funny and extraordinary pimpin' lyrics, with conscious variations and storytelling on fast life, delivering these topics with smart and simple bars with its typical delivery and its monotonous flow: despite this, it continues to entertain the listener in this excessively long record, over seventy minutes — the prohibitive duration is among the reasons that exclude it from the classic status.
He presents himself with one of the best productions in his career, strong in bare, dusty, simple and rough funky rhythms, provided by the same rapper along with Al Eaton, Pierre "The Beat Fixer" James, Keenan "The Maestro" Foster, Sir Jinx and DJ Pooh: the funky seventies samples present in these skinny and minimal, yet somewhat melodic, midtempo beats, are a perfect musical carpet for the simplistic, slow and relaxed rapping of Too Short, often lazy and syncopated but determined, who manages to bring the West Coast funky serenity helped by funky vibrant, deep, fat bass.
The author himself defines his set as «dope fiend beats», a series of laid-back, relaxed soundscapes that would have a heavy influence on the hip-hop scene of the immediate following years and that over the years would cement Too Short's legacy as one of the pioneers of the entire West Coast. Furthermore, both the Oakland emcee's loose playing style and his original and imaginative cover, in which anthropomorphic dogs are depicted, greatly influence Snoop Dogg and the cover of his seminal debut album "Doggystyle", released a few years later.
Losing himself in his songs, the rapper doubles the flow of his riverbed unnecessarily — every single tune is far too long; this effort at 35/40 minutes is a classic album and clearly his best ever — going to create heavy cuts in every sense: "The Ghetto" takes a particularly positive connotation and stands out from the other songs as the greatest classic ever in the career of the veteran of Oakland, a rare socio-political extract from the rapper who report the facets of the life of the ghetto. This cut presents a splendid intro, an excellent sample of the homonymous cut of Donna Hathaway, simple, minimal hook, also thanks to the skinny and slow, relaxing West Coast boom bap; Too Short delivers slow and syncopated, but flowing and sustained for the first time since the beginning of the album, drops excellent socio-political street bars for six minutes pulling out a crazy masterpiece from Oakland that catapults him directly into the legend when he gets a deservedly copious airplay on Radio Los Santos.
The disc, a remarkable commercial success greeted with rave reviews from critics which only added to the album's popularity, peaking third place in the R&B chart and being one of the best-selling albums for two seasons reaching platinum certification in 1991, also marks one of the first historical collaborations between the Bay Area and L.A., with the ultra-misogynist "Ain't Nothin' but a Word to Me", where the landlord and Ice Cube exchange bars on who of them is the most disrespectful to the women. Coherent and solid album, rightly considered one of his best, is a must-listen, anyone who has even mentioned the pimpin' had to pay duty here.
Rating: 7.8/10.
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