Too Short Says He’s Retiring but He’s Still Long on Style

***, TOO SHORT, “Gettin’ It, (Album Number Ten)”, Jive/RCA

Blatant misogynist, shrewd entrepreneur, godfather of West Coast hip-hop, funkiest man alive. At various points in his 15-year, 10-album career, Too Short has worn all these titles, often simultaneously. Growing tired of the rap game, Too Short has now given himself a new moniker to coincide with the release of what he’s said is his last album: Retiree.

Not that Too Short is retreating from his craft out of a lack of skill or popularity. The Oakland native is retiring at the peak of his talents. Not much for delirious rhyme patterns or rapid beats, Too Short doesn’t duplicate his hit-making formula as much as refine it year after year: a more noticeable push toward live instrumentation, head-turning cameos by everyone from Parliament-Funkadelic to East Coast rap hero Erick Sermon, and the bawdy rhymes that have made him a rumble-seat favorite.

Some of the expressed sentiments on the album will make listeners angry because of Too Short’s ignorant, misogynistic tendencies, but the insistent music, and Too Short’s sparse, engaging narrative styles, keep “Gettin’ It” afloat in the same creative waters that have drowned other hard-core rap albums.

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