In the mid-1980s, Shaw, along with high school friend Freddy B, produced custom songs (called "special requests") locally on cassette for people in Oakland and the Bay Area. In 1985, Too Short started his solo career and released his debut album, ''
Don't Stop Rappin''' on Oakland record label 75 Girls Records And Tapes which, along with four 12" releases, featured raw, simple drum beats from a
LinnDrum drum machine. This was also one of the first hip hop recordings to use the word "
bitch" – a word which became one of the rapper's trademarks and was the focus of subsequent songs such as "Ain't Nothin' but a Word to Me". In the early 1990s, his self-produced beats came from mostly a
TR-808 and from mid-to-late 2000s, a
TR-909 was used. In 1983, Too Short and Freddie B. formed the label Dangerous Music to regionally distribute his music, and with others formed rap group
the Dangerous Crew. Dangerous Music became Short Records, and then Up All Nite Records. With his 1989 album,
Life Is... Too Short, he began using replayed established
funk riffs (rather than samples) with his beats. Subsequent work was primarily collaborative, including work with
Tupac Shakur,
the Notorious B.I.G.,
Scarface, and
Pimp C. One of his notable collaborations during this period was on the track "The World Is Filled..." on the Notorious B.I.G. album
Life After Death; he comes in on the third verse after Diddy and Biggie. Being featured on the album introduced him to a wider audience as well, due to his typical style contrasting greatly with the Mafioso theme of the album. He also appeared on TWDY's hit single "Player's Holiday" from their 1999 debut album
Derty Werk as well as the
Priority Records compilation
Nuthin but a Gangsta Party. After these appearances, he began working on his eleventh album, ''
Can't Stay Away''. The album included guest appearances by
8Ball & MJG,
Jay-Z,
Jermaine Dupri,
Sean Combs,
E-40,
Daz Dillinger,
Lil Jon,
Soopafly,
Scarface and
B-Legit. Too Short relocated to
Atlanta in 1994, but he did not begin working with a more diverse variety of Southern artists until 2000, when he collaborated with
Lil Jon. With the 1999 release of ''
Can't Stay Away, Too Short came out of retirement, continuing his sexually explicit, relaxed style of rap. New albums released 2000–2003 were You Nasty (2000), Chase the Cat (2001), What's My Favorite Word? (2002), and Married to the Game (2003). These albums all charted fairly well, as they all were in the top 71 of the Billboard'' 200, but they did not do as well as Too Short's earlier 1990s releases, as none of them reached the top 10. For his next album,
Blow the Whistle (2006), Too Short now took advantage of the new
hyphy rap music that was emerging out of his original home base in Oakland. This saw somewhat of a resurgence for Too Short as it peaked at No. 14 on the
Billboard 200, much better than each of his previous three releases. In 2009, Too Short recorded for
Daz Dillinger,
Lil Jon,
Soopafly,
Scarface and
B-Legit. In 2013, it was announced he would collaborate with
Lady Gaga on a song "Jewels n' Drugs" for her upcoming album
Artpop. Also featured on the song are
T.I. and
Twista. Six years after his last release, Too Short released his 20th album
The Pimp Tape on November 9, 2018. On December 20, 2019, he released his 21st album
The Vault. On December 18, 2020, Too Short and
E-40 released their collaboration album ''Ain't Gone Do It and Terms & Conditions''. In 2022, the City of Oakland honored Too Short with a commemorative street sign declaring a section of Foothill Boulevard "Too $hort Way" and proclaiming December 10, 2022 to be "Too $hort Day". == Other ventures ==