Welcome to Too Short Quotes, a collection of succinct yet powerful expressions that pack a punch. In a world where brevity often reigns supreme, these quotes are masterpieces of conciseness, delivering profound messages in just a few words. Whether you’re seeking inspiration, motivation, or a fresh perspective, you’ll find it here in these compact and impactful phrases.
Sometimes, it’s the shortest statements that resonate the most deeply, cutting through the noise to touch our hearts and minds with clarity and precision. From timeless wisdom to modern insights, the quotes gathered here span a wide range of topics and emotions, offering something for everyone. Each quote is a gem, waiting to be discovered and appreciated for its simplicity and depth.
Below, you’ll find an assortment of these brief yet meaningful quotes. Feel free to copy them, place them on images, or enhance them with stylish fonts to create your own personalized expressions of inspiration. Let these short but potent words serve as reminders, affirmations, or prompts for introspection as you navigate life’s journey.
I think the first big chance I ever got was I was one of the opening acts for UTFO and ‘Roxanne Roxanne,’ that whole thing. And I come on stage, it’s like 5000 people in the Oakland convention center, I’d never had a record in my life, I’d never had anything in a record store. Too Short
Most songs are not true. They’re just to be entertaining. Too Short
The only way I’ll ever get married is in a business-friendship-relationship. It’s gotta be like, ‘This makes sense.’ I’d marry for money. Too Short
I didn’t tell anybody anywhere on planet Earth that I support Donald Trump as a candidate. Too Short
Hip-Hop is a voice. Too Short
I had eight years of a career before I even saw any fame outside of the Bay. I was famous in the Bay for eight years before that. Too Short
I’m not the one to pat myself on the back or even need somebody else to give me credit, but I listen to a lot of Hip Hop now and I hear the Too $hort influence. Too Short
The only thing that private school did for me was give me this foundation where, if I choose to, I can speak proper English, or I switch to Ebonics, or I can edit myself and not curse. Too Short
I’ve learned to accept all criticism. Too Short
If you listen to Too Short over the years, that’s me – I’m not hitting every key or every drum or singing every track – but that’s me telling everybody what to do. I like to work with creative people. But when it all comes back, and we’re mixing down Too Short songs, I’m right there. Too Short
The Too Short albums are not the autobiography of Todd Shaw. Too Short
The formula to my music is that it has to have comedy in it. The vulgarness cannot be digested without a little comedy. Too Short
New Yorkers never really liked Too $hort. Too Short
I make songs all the time, I make ’em really fast, and I really felt when I made ‘Don’t Stop Rappin’ in ’85 that I could do this forever. Too Short
Twenty-two’s my lucky number. Too Short
I could see how artists like Parliament would revisit the same music and kinda change it a little bit, change the words and hook, and it’d still be that same flavor. A lot of groups back then would make another song that sounded very similar to a song they already had. Ohio Players used to do it. Too Short
I definitely don’t wanna be in a fight with Nancy Grace. She look like she might can throw them thangs. Too Short
I was in my teens when Too $hort was getting popular in the Bay Area on the local scene. So when somebody says to me, ‘I grew up on Too $hort,’ I say, ‘I did too.’ Too Short
Rappers have always thought they were better than me. And the media has always thought that I was not relevant to hip-hop, so therefore, they didn’t have to mention me. Too Short
I really do respect and appreciate all the Bay Area artists and all the love they always give me. Too Short
I did not dream of being an entertainer in the sense of being the one out front. I dreamed of being in the band. As a child, I’m like, I’m going around the world, I’m gonna be in the band. That was my dream. Too Short
I don’t have a lot of stage antics. I don’t try to get attention through my animated body movements. Too Short
I don’t know what they had against collabos. I have no idea, but I look back on it and a lot of Jive artists have really never collaborated with each other. Too Short
I have four favorite places for womanizing: L.A., Miami, New York, and Vegas. Too Short
There have been numerous times when my career was supposed to be over because of mathematics, you know, age and numbers,’ he says. ‘How many times can you go platinum? How many times can you rap about the same subject? How many times can you say, ‘Oakland?’ Too Short
If I’m around a bunch of people that’s sad, I gotta try to make them laugh or come up with something positive out of the emotion that’s making you feel negative. I’m not a negative person. I don’t hang around negative people. Too Short
I don’t think any other hip-hop artist has achieved what I’ve achieved or the numbers I’ve sold without commercial radio. MTV and BET have never supported me. Too Short
In my opinion, the Bay is a trendsetting area. Too Short
I don’t want to be on any major labels. Too Short
The biggest lesson to me is that I got the music from somewhere else – the notes, the music my parents listened to, and the stuff I listened to at every age. All of that inspired the music that I made. Too Short
Young and dumb is something you gotta go through, but you’ve got to be a student. Too Short
I actually flunked the 10th grade on purpose. Too Short
Jive never saw any value in me as a long-term artist. Even as I was doing it they were like, ‘You’re not really the kind of artist that we’d spend our money on.’ They never saw the value of Too $hort and E-40. Too Short
All I can tell you is, all of the good product you got from E-40 with all the good product you got from Too $hort – it’s almost impossible for us to make a terrible album together. We’re both opinionated, so I damn sure am not co-signing a song that I think is wack. Too Short
Oakland had a lot of pride attached to the Panthers. A lot of people were connected to it in some kind of way and a lot of people who weren’t Panthers supported the Panthers. You’d see Huey P. Newton around, and people would be like, ‘That’s Huey right there.’ Too Short
I don’t think I’ve ever been just like, happy with life. I live life as a realist. Too Short
Don’t do this ageism thing in Hip Hop. Don’t be an OG and tell me these young, rich cats ain’t doing it right. Don’t tell me that, man. Too Short
While I was young, getting money, a hustler, I was sharp. But I never thought I was too smart to learn something new. Keep your receptors open, and don’t get too egotistical to think you know more than everybody else in the room. Too Short
When I make a song, I actually literally talk to one person on purpose… I don’t focus on, are people in Chicago gonna like this? Are people in Atlanta gonna like this? I think of one person who’s a Too Short authority, who thinks I can’t do any wrong, because I’ve customized all these songs for this one person. Too Short
I don’t have to defend what I do for a job. Who cares what people say? If people don’t see the humor in it, too bad. Too Short
That song, ‘Couldn’t Be A Better Player,’ was a major turning point in my life. Too Short
You can be in the Bay and sell 10,000 copies of independent records and make 50 grand and that’s your job for the year. The shows you do off of that and them 10,000 sales is gonna feed you and your homies. Too Short
I’m a businessman. Making records is my business. I have a big operation and I employ a lot of people. Too Short
I could have been an artist painting pictures and I would have fell in love with Oakland. Too Short
I’ve never been competing with rappers about who’s the best rapper. I’ve been making songs that people like. Too Short
Executives are convinced that a rapper has a certain lifespan as far as being a hot emcee. When you start to approach your 30s, pretty much stereotypically it’s over. Too Short
As a Raider fan, I’ll say we never want the Raiders to ever leave Oakland. Too Short
You have to be accountable for what you do. Too Short
I’ll go in the studio and hear a track that I don’t like, and they’re trying to pay me to rap over it. But I’ll tell them I just can’t do it. And when they ask why, I say, ‘Because then somebody’s gonna hear it… damn, find another track.’ Too Short
When I finish contributing, I feel like I’ve left enough to where people are gonna say, ‘They got that from Too $hort.’ I’m not gonna fade away. Too Short
When I work with Lil Jon, as soon as I come in the studio, he already knows what we’re gonna do. He’s one of those producers where when you know you’ve got a session booked with them, you’re job is easier because they’re probably already going to have an idea or a hook. Too Short
We can all admit this – women do it better when it comes to planning and shot calling, running households, raising kids. Too Short
This is the biggest misconception about the Bay – people think that we’re L.A… Very different stuff. L.A. has its swag. Too Short
It’s not a passion of mine to follow politics. When I deal with political issues in my songs, I just say stuff that’s current, only as a songwriter. Too Short
People who really know me say it’s funny I’m Too Short. Too Short
I love Vegas. I come to Vegas all the time… Check into a hotel for a day or two and enjoy the city. Too Short
I wanna make more songs than anybody, I wanna be the oldest rapper who is active. Too Short
Somewhere around the fifth, sixth album, we got this little formula together where we knew how to record Too $hort songs. You need the bassline, a good drum pattern, call in the keyboard, the guitars – it’s just a way we mixed it all together. Too Short
Gettin’ It’ is another song that means a lot to me because I got to work with George Clinton who’s always been my musical hero. Too Short
Well, I was doing platinum albums back-to-back with Jive when they were the hottest hip-hop label. There was a time when Jive made a lot more money than Def Jam. They had KRS-One, Too $hort, E-40, Mystikal, UGK and Keith Murray. They had Will Smith when he was still the Fresh Prince. Too Short
Everything in New York ain’t always what it seems. Too Short
I would never marry for feelings and love. Too Short
I think the whole world is one big misogynist. Even a lot of women are. Too Short
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve turned to Parliament Funkadelic for inspiration and actually just outright and replayed or sampled a song. Too Short
I don’t see a problem with looking at women as beautiful objects. I’m an artist. I don’t know how to paint, but I know how to make music, and women are art. Too Short
By the time I’m 25, I want to be financially stable. Too Short
I was a child coming up in the aftermath of the Civil Rights Movement. Too Short
I read a lot and some of the things I read are blaxploitation books, things by Donald Goines or Iceberg Slim. The books are filled with a lot of street knowledge; they really recall an era. Too Short
I grew up in L.A., I moved to Oakland when I was 14. Too Short
I’ve always had opinions on what was going on in my community. I always knew a lot of people listened to me, so why don’t I speak on police brutality and things like that? Too Short
When I’m on the microphone and I’m recording, or onstage, or shooting a video, I’m doing my job. When I’m not, I’m being myself. Too Short
Hip Hop is very addictive. Too Short
As a child, I did not dream of being a rapper. Too Short
I could not have been a rapper in 1985 and thought, ‘I want to be a millionaire.’ That was not a realistic dream. Too Short
My goal is to be successful, so I do what works. Too Short
Mac Dre has been around a long time. E-40’s been around a long time. JT the Bigga Figga, Rappin 4-Tay. There’s been a lot of guys that been around a long time, but they all grew up listening to Too $hort. Too Short
Hip-hop is not one thing. There are 50 different approaches to making it and showing it. Too Short
Eazy-E was the person to take me on my first tour, and there was nobody telling him to do it. Too Short
I think Jive was just a shady label that they didn’t want artists in the same room like, ‘Hey, what you making?’ Like I never worked with R. Kelly, I never worked with Q-Tip. I never worked with anybody that was on Jive. I never did a song with KRS-One. Too Short
In ’88, ’89, ’90, ’91… When I was making these albums, it would be four or five songs that didn’t have any curse words, that were about social issues in the community. Too Short
Not even if we were sitting next to each other talking about life would I tell you all of my story. I just don’t throw it out there like that. Too Short
I’ve always looked like I have a sort of bad-boy image as Too Short. People take that for face value. I kind of like that. I like the image. It suits me well. Too Short
My engineer on the ‘Life is Too $hort’ album was Al Eaton. Al Eaton had a studio called One Little Indian Studios, and he was a pretty good guitar player. He would suggest certain songs. Al was the force behind ‘Life is Too $hort’ and definitely the force behind songs like ‘The Ghetto.’ Too Short
Although I have made my career on dirty raps, I have worked over the years to somewhat balance the content of my music with giving back to the community. Too Short
In 1979, I was in ninth grade. Before I started tenth grade, I was already rapping myself. I didn’t wait around to see what hip-hop was doing before I jumped in; I did it immediately. When I first heard it, I said, ‘I can do this.’ Too Short
If Too $hort and Freddy B DJed your party, you were gonna get a rap show during the party. Too Short
If you had no Eazy-E, you got no N.W.A., no Dr. Dre, no Ice Cube, no Tupac Death Row years… no Bone Thugs. No Aftermath, no 50 Cent, no Eminem – the way we know them. The branch that is called Eazy-E on the Hip Hop tree is massive. Too Short
The number-one thing about the hyphy isn’t the sideshow or doing donuts. It’s the music. Too Short
I’ve never thrown away a rhyme book. Too Short
Too Short is a character. Too Short
I think hip-hop brought it on itself. When rappers got a chance to talk to the media, they would get in the interview and say, ‘It’s all real life.’ They play these characters, and then they can’t stop playing the character when they’re not working. Too Short
I’ve been around for a long time. Too Short
When you come to the Bay, we always had this slick talk. E-40 made it real famous. We make up words. We talk real funny. When you hang around a bunch of Bay cats, you’re like, ‘You guys are funny.’ But that’s our way. Too Short
I’ve got a core audience, so regardless of what I put out, I can sell 100,000 records on an independent. Too Short
The media tends to put the artists with the hottest single on a pedestal. And as soon as that single goes away, you’re kicked off the pedestal. Too Short
Don’t get to the point where you think, ‘I learned everything last week,’ or, ‘I learned everything last year.’ You’ll never learn everything. Wake up every day and try to learn something new. And if you do learn something, pass it on to people you think deserve the game. Too Short
I’ve been taking it in stride, man. I’m not the kind of person who goes around bragging to everybody, ‘I did a song with Lady Gaga!’ Too Short
Most of my fan mail is from women, and if people want to judge me, then they should consider how I treat the women I know. Too Short
Oakland has always been my muse. Too Short
Everybody knows rappers don’t do all they say they do. Too Short
