Too $hort revealed he’d formed a supergroup with Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg and fellow Bay Area legend E-40 during an interview with MC Serch earlier this month.
While speaking to The Breakfast Club on Monday (December 14), Short and fellow guest E-40 talked about their impending Verzuz battle and also touched on the OG foursome. According to Short Dawg, they’re doing it for the simple love of Hip Hop — not any financial rewards that may come along with it.
“Long story short man, we made a lot of songs,” Short said. “And it really definite of what it’s gonna be but it’s gonna be something — it’s just a lot of songs. There is no [group] name. We just some OGs; everybody got studios, and facilities and rap beats … it’s something like I feel we’re doing this for Hip Hop. And we I said that … you could be doing it for the bag. Nobody don’t need the bag!”
Short also explained how he wants their music to be a motivational tool for burgeoning artists.
“I feel like we got all these rules and regulations and age limits,” he continued. “Where’s the best time zone and who’s the best era … who’s the best age group — all this stuff that don’t mean nothing to Hip Hop. Because Hip Hop is very uncontrollable. So when I say we doing it for Hip Hop — which is my main motivation — is I’m 54 years old! If we do anything, it’s gonna come out when I’m 55 years old!
“And to drop something dope and to be a working MC who’s been working since he was 15 years old; never had another job, like really like eating off Hip Hop my whole entire life, that to me should be motivational to an up-and-coming rapper, an inspiring rapper, an established rapper. You sit there and look at yourself in the mirror like, ‘What are my limitations?’ ‘I gotta stop doing this when I’m 35 … when I’m 40!’ They kept telling me that! I was an ‘OG Rapper’ when I was 30 — 24 years ago!’”
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As Short pointed out, ageism in Hip Hop has been ongoing. Unlike rock-n-roll, which sees The Rolling Stones still touring and being celebrated well into their 70s, there seems to be this notion rap is only for the young.
“We blazing trails,” he added. “You can’t tell me Fat Joe ain’t doing it. You can’t tell me E-40 ain’t doing it … Snoop Dogg ain’t doing it. Busta Rhymes. The bag is consistent in Hip Hop. Don’t do this ageism thing in Hip Hop. Don’t be an OG and tell me these young, rich cats ain’t doing it right. Don’t tell me that, man. When I look my streams and look and they streams, I’m like, ‘They doing something right!’”
Forty Water quickly chimed in and said it should be more of a symbiotic relationship.
“They doing something right,” he said. “I don’t knock ‘em, man. It’s a whole new generation, they doing it a lot different but hey, we was once young and carried it a little different, but you can’t knock these youngsters. If anything, join ‘em. OGs need youngsters and youngsters need OGs!” to which Short replied, “And don’t have the opposite attitude either like, ‘all these old dudes get out the way, it’s wack’ — it ain’t like that! Hip Hop … it’s for the world now, man.”
The E-40 and Too $hort Verzuz battle goes down on Saturday (December 19). Check it out on Apple Music and Verzuz’s Instagram Live page.