Too $hort – City National Grove of Anaheim – 5/18/12

Too $hort
City National Grove of Anaheim
5/18/12

Review by: Tina Dhamija

Oakland rapper Too $hort brought
his tawdry bag of OG player anthems to a scarcely half-capacity crowd at the City National Grove of
Anaheim last Friday night. It was hard to say whether the weak turn-out was because most locals
decided to stay home and watch  the Lakers finally win, or there are just not that many $hort Dawg fans around OC to fill a venue of that size. Whatever the case, the house was definitely not packed that night. It didn't seem to
matter though, because as far as live performances go, Oakland's top dog maintains his trademark laid back delivery and onstage swagger.

Kicking his set off around 12:30am, $hort Dawg emerged sporting Laker colors and spittin his signature phrase (“Beeotch”!).
He anxiously delivered hits like “Gettin' It” and “Blow the Whistle” early in the set. Naturally, classics like “Shake That Monkey” and “I'm A Player,”  were brashly
sung along to by just about everyone in the crowd.
And to show his appreciation for SoCal hip-hop fans, the rapper born Todd Anthony Shaw gave us a sincere shout-out, or as
sincere a shout-out as one can get from the player of all players.
“The most love goes out to anybody from the city of Anaheim,” Too Short said. “We're trying to smoke
your weed and get some of them 7-1-4/9-4-9 hotties tonight! Wassup beeotch”!!

]
Oakland's finest also shared his future musical aspirations with the crowd by making it
known that he's looking for a Mexican rapper as his next project.
“Y'all know I'm OG and I've been doing this for a long time,” he said. “Now I'm trying to find the next
generation of talent. I'm trying to find the dopest Mexican rapper out there to put on. Y'all ready?! Hit me
up!” 

Despite his expansive catalog of hits and late starting time that night, Too $hort fired off his  last
song around 1:15am, with no promise of an encore. Being that his total time on stage was roughly 40
minutes, we conclude that Friday night's Too $hort concert was, well, too damn
short.

Critic's Bias:
When I was in junior high my older brother brought his buddy's Too $hort CD home to copy onto to tape,
which was the only known method of the day and involved playing the entire album aloud in order for
it to record. Needless to say, I learned a lot about how to get in where you fit in that day, and I've been
intrigued by the raunchy “romance” of Too $hort's ghetto anthems ever since.

The Crowd:
A mash-up of old-school and new-school OC thugs. A lot of Laker's jerseys, prison tats and extremely
large women in extremely tight sausage casings outfits.

Overheard in the Crowd: “C'mon son! This dude is taking way too long to come out.”

Random Notebook Dump:
About a half hour before Too $hort got on stage one of his roadies came by and scooped up a couple
of video-hoe-looking chicks to my left and took them back stage. They resurfaced on stage about half
way through the show with smudges in their make-up & skirts askew. Conclusion? Short Dawg & his
crew likely did get a taste of some 7-1-4/9-4-9 booty that night.

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