A three-block stretch on Foothill Boulevard between 47th avenue and High Street in Oakland has been renamed “Too Short Way” Too during the rapper’s celebration of his day in his hometown of Oakland.
Too $hort, whose real name is Todd Anthony Shaw, received a proclamation from Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, officially making December 10 “Too $hort Day” over the weekend. “You have told the stories of Oakland’s streets,” Mayor Schaff told Too $hort, “so it’s only right that Oakland gives you a street!!!” When the news of the street naming was confirmed, $hort posted, “December 10 it’s official, blow the maf*ckin whistle Biiiiiiii*ch!!!!!”
Too $ hort’s street naming coincides with the release of Mount Westmore’s new album. The supergroup consists of $short, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, and E-40. Mount Westmore recently dropped their latest album, Bad MFs, to the metaverse. “You know what it is. Mount Westmore- you got the four pillars of West Coast hip hop. We are down with Gala Music. We are coming out with that Mount Westmore’ Bad MFs album,” said Ice Cube. He continued, “There is going to be new music, new experiences, shows, everything that the Westmore got, baby, you gonna get it.”
Oakland city council member Noel Gallo, tweeted, “Too Short is not only the first rapper from Oakland but also the most successful having put out relevant music across 5 decades. A graduate of Fremont High School,” “I have felt like I owe a debt to Oakland, and that nothing I do will ever repay it because of the life that I was given through Oakland,” Too $hort told SFGate. “There’s a few things that happened in my life that, if they didn’t happen, Too $hort wouldn’t happen, and going to Fremont High is one of those things. It was like our home base; we’d meet up at school and then we’d go to the house and make tapes, then we’d go out into the neighborhoods and sell the tapes.”
Too $hort started his solo career in 1985 and released his debut album, Don’t Stop Rappin’, on Oakland record label 75 Girls Records And Tapes. This was also one of the first hip-hop records to use the word “b*tch” – a word which became one of the rapper’s trademarks and was the focus of subsequent raps such as “Ain’t Nothin’ but a Word to Me.” Too $hort runs his record label, Up All Nite Records. In addition to creating Up All Nite Records, Too Short has been a mentor at Youth UpRising, a group serving at-risk youths for several years.