Life Is Too Short T-Shirt

Description

Before NWA. Before Snoop. Before the whole West Coast rewrote hip-hop, there was Todd Anthony Shaw hustling tapes out the trunk of a Cadillac in East Oakland.

1988. Jive Records signs Too $hort and puts out Life Is…Too Short. Platinum by the summer. The Bay’s first mainstream rap statement. What Ced-Gee did for New York abstractions, Al Eaton and Too $hort did for slap — long, funk-drenched grooves flipped from Zapp, Roger, Ohio Players. Bass you could feel in your chest through a factory car speaker. Rhymes that never once pretended to be about anything they weren’t.

“Life Is…Too Short.” “CussWords.” “Don’t Fight the Feelin’” with Rappin’ 4-Tay. The Dangerous Crew blueprint. The DNA that runs through Mac Dre, E-40, Keak da Sneak, Andre Nickatina, Vallejo hyphy, and every Bay Area rapper who ever stretched a syllable over a two-bar loop. This is the record that made Oakland a hip-hop capital. Independent-artist gospel before the culture had a word for it.

Product Details

• Premium Bella Canvas 3001 — 100% combed and ring-spun cotton
• Lightweight (4.2 oz) with retail fit
• Pre-shrunk fabric
• Side-seamed construction
• Tear-away label for comfort
• Available in Black and Navy

For the ones who knew Too $hort before Snoop borrowed the flow. For the Bay heads who never left the game. For the crate diggers who understand that Oakland was cooking before the coast lit up. For you.