Bay Area rap legend Too Short recently opened up about meeting fellow icon Tupac Shakur after his move to Oakland, Calif. in the early 1990s, saying he actually avoided the budding rap star for ‘Pac’s own good.
During a recent visit to Dregs One’s History Of The Bay podcast, Short, born Todd Shaw, revealed that he met Tupac through Digital Underground member Pee Wee and producer Shorty B, who worked closely with both the group and Too Short.
“Shorty B, Pee Wee, Tupac, they used to run around a lot together, and then I remember Tupac coming around,” Short Dog recalled, adding that he could tell from his behavior and attitude that Tupac wanted to affiliate himself with “the streets,” even after finding mild success with songs like “Brenda’s Got A Baby” and “If My Homie Calls.” He also recalled seeing Tupac carrying a pistol when he gave the rapper a ride in his car, saying that while he also carried, he was sure to conceal his weapon at all times. Tupac’s gun being visible signaled to the icon that the rapper wanted to embrace a certain image that his crew would embrace while influencing him in the wrong direction.
Tupac Shakur attends the premiere of “Poetic Justice” at the headquarters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, California, on July 22, 1993. (Photo by Donato Sardella/WWD/Penske Media via Getty Images)
“I just noticed it and it struck me,” Short said of seeing the gun. “Immediately, I was like, I can’t really get really close to this guy, because I knew what he was getting into, and I was like, if my guys catch wind of his ambition, they’re going to cling to him…I’m not bringing him to where I’m at.
“I could tell he wanted the streets,” he went on, adding that he also knew the revolutionary side of ‘Pac, “but I was like, I can’t tap into that part of him, with the pistol on him hanging out in Oakland, it’s some places I just can’t bring him…I, personally, avoided ambitious Tupac because he probably would’ve ended up in some f**ked up spaces around me.”
According to Shaw, this is exactly what happened when Tupac later moved to Los Angeles and fully embraced the elevated gangsta image.
Tupac Shakur (foreground) attends the MTV Video Music Awards at Radio City Music Hall in New York City on September 4, 1996. (Photo by Robert Mitra/Penske Media via Getty Images)
“When he went to LA, he ended up in those circles and he went all the way, just what I thought he would do is what he did,” Short insists. “He was like, ‘I want to be that gangsta, revolutionary, everything! I want to be a ladies ladies man, I want to be the biggest rapper!’ He had that ambition. I was like, ‘get that sh*t away from me.’”
Check out the full interview below and Too Short discussing ‘Pac at the 1:24:10 mark.
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