Quotes from Too Short

As a Raider fan, I'll say we never want the Raiders to ever leave Oakland.

We can all admit this - women do it better when it comes to planning and shot calling, running households, raising kids.

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.

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.

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.

As a child, I did not dream of being a rapper.

I've never been competing with rappers about who's the best rapper. I've been making songs that people like.

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.

Everybody knows rappers don't do all they say they do.

I could not have been a rapper in 1985 and thought, 'I want to be a millionaire.' That was not a realistic dream.

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.

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.

I've never thrown away a rhyme book.

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.

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.

Hip Hop is very addictive.

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.

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.

In my opinion, the Bay is a trendsetting area.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.