too short

Mount Westmore Holds Court As West Coast Rulers In Their Black & White ‘Bad MF’s’ Video

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Mount Westmore, the California rap supergroup made up of E-40, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, and Too Short, has returned with their latest video, “Bad MF’s,” after making their debut last year with “Big Subwoofer.” The new video, shot in striking black-and-white, follows the quartet as they hold court at a photoshoot, record in the studio, and oversee parades of lowrider cars through the streets of Los Angeles over a mellow, funk-laden beat. The video does a great job of showing off the four hip-hop veterans’ easygoing chemistry, which has been forged over decades of reigning as the godfathers of West Coast rap.

Individually, the members of Mount Westmore have been upholding their impressive legacies in different ways, but all have continued to use their stature to extend hip-hop into new arenas and maintain their independent grinds. While Ice Cube promotes his Big 3 basketball league, he recently introduced a Nascar crowd to some of his historical hits. Meanwhile, E-40 has expanded his business interests to the realm of Mexican-style beer with his E. Cuarenta Cerveza company after helping celebrate his and Too Short’s status as Bay Area legends on Verzuz. In February, Short Dawg made the most of that momentum with a Tiny Desk Concert for the history books.

However, the one who’s been drawing all the headlines lately has been Snoop Dogg, of course. After burning down the Super Bowl’s halftime show this year, he announced his acquisition of Death Row Records and its accompanying catalog, removing some of the biggest hits from streaming in preparation of turning them into NFTs. He also released an NFT comic book and will be a playable character on Call Of Duty.

Watch Mount Westmore’s new video for “Bad MF’s” above.

Too Short Talks Trickle Down Economics With Rap Beef: “We Ain’t Thinking About The Big Picture”

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Too Short

Rapper Too Short went on Shannon Sharpe’s podcast Club Shay Shay to talk about how the violence in rap music is messing up the income for the people involved. The “Blow The Whistle” rapper said, that there’s a “trickle-down” economic impact on families and communities when rappers go to jail or are murdered. Beef Ruining […]

The post Too Short Talks Trickle Down Economics With Rap Beef: “We Ain’t Thinking About The Big Picture” appeared first on SOHH.com.

Too Short’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert Is Here And It’s Glorious

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Go ahead and file Too Short’s Tiny Desk Concert as one of the most unexpected entries in NPR’s series, but the Oakland rapper totally owns it. Literally sitting on a makeshift desk made to look like an 808 drum machine and backed by a full band, he delivered a slew of classics new and old in a unique fashion.

The set opened with “The Ghetto” featuring backing R&B singer Maurice Smith humming the chorus. “Yo waddup? It’s ya boy Too Short in the house,” he said introducing the details of the set. “Yeah, we doin’ it like this: We’re gonna run through some Too Short classics. Basically, I’mma play you a Too Short song from the past five decades. The ’80s, the ’90s, the 2000s, the 2010s, and the 2020s. How many artist you know that got relevant records in five decades? That’s what I’m talkin’ about. Classic man, legendary, Too Short. Representin’ East Oakland, California. Biiiiitch, yea!”

That’s exactly what he and the band did, playing a jazzy R&B version of “Gettin It,” with a saxophone bellowing and silky keys guiding the track. Then a string-section sample paints the canvas for an expansive rock and roll version of “Blow The Whistle” that culminates with a guitar solo. The instrumental hook of “Big Subwoofer,” by the Mount Westmore rap supergroup of Too Short, E-40, Snoop Dogg, and Ice Cube, brought things to a close as Short said, “The new thang is Mount Westmore….We been doing this sh*t since the ’80s and we ain’t gonna stop any time soon! Short dawg in the house! Biiiiitch!”

Too Short has indeed been a prolific force in West Coast rap since the 80s and this performance flashes unprecedented range. Give the man his flowers. He’s earned them.

Watch Too Short’s NPR Tiny Desk Concert above.

Snoop Dogg, E-40, Too Short, And Ice Cube Blaze Into Space In Mount Westmore’s ‘Big Subwoofer’ Video

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The rap supergroup is a concept that could really stand to be further explored. We can point to Jay-Z and Kanye West’s Watch The Throne album, Killer Mike and El-P’s ongoing parade around the sun with Run The Jewels, and Mos Def, Talib Kweli and DJ Hi-Tek’s independent hip-hop triumph in Blackstar as creme de la creme examples. But is it ever really enough? The answer is no.

And if you were tuned E-40 and Too Short’s Verzuz battle last December, you’d have seen the delightfully sauced Bay Area rappers hyping that they were forming a West Coast rap supergroup with Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg. Then in April, at Triller’s Fight Club main event between Jake Paul and Ben Askren, we indeed saw the four rappers of the newly minted Mount Westmore play a new song at the end of their set. But that was it. No further announcements, no song title, no nothing. Just legit heat on the mic.

Finally today, the tireless West Coast titans have delivered as only they can, with a video for their first single, “Big Subwoofer,” of the four of them riding in a spaceship, smoking weed, and getting down with alien honeys. The video has it all, an alien in flannel crip walking on Mars while flanked by back-up dancers that look like they’re right out of the Avatar set, Snoop smoking a joint as he steers a spaceship and ray guns.

But when you clear through the space dust, there’s a banger of a single under the hood. Propped up on a familiar West Coast bass thump, the track rides on both hyphy and G-Funk production leans. Each rapper takes a turn spitting their verse with Ice Cube proclaiming that “You know me I’m up in it like a booger // then I tried the b**** like some dice and I shook her,” and E-40 stealing the show from the get go with, “She got her legs open like a field goal post // booty softer than a King Hawaiian roll.”

It might seem like there’s a comedy rap element here, but it’s obvious that the four are having a lot of fun on this track. And let’s face it, they’ve paid their dues.

Watch the video for “Big Subwoofer” above.

Mt. Westmore’s Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Too Short, And E-40 Performed Their First Track As A Group

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Back in December E-40 and Too Short revealed that they would be joining forces with fellow West Coast rappers Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube to form a rap supergroup. The announcement came after E-40 and Too Short’s Verzuz battle. There was no official name for the group when the news was shared during an interview on The Breakfast Club, and since then, things were rather quiet in terms of music or news from the quartet. All of that changed at Triller’s Fight Club event on Saturday night, when the group, which now bears the title of Mt. Westmore, performed their first track as a group together.

Before the group took the stage, Ice Cube kicked things off by performing “It Was a Good Day” and “You Can Do It” before handing the mic off to Snoop Dogg for a solo set that included “Gin & Juice,” “Drop It Like It’s Hot,” and his newest track “CEO.” After this, a quartet appeared onstage as E-40 and Too Short joined in to complete the Mt. Westmore collective where they performed “Big Suberwoofer,” the first track from their soon-to-be released album.

During the interview on The Breakfast Club, Too Short revealed the group’s motivation were only for the culture and not money. “We just some OGs; everybody got studios, and facilities and rap beats,” he said. “It’s something I feel we’re doing this for hip-hop. You could be doing it for the bag. Nobody don’t need the bag!”

You can watch Mt. Westmore perform “Big Subwoofer” above.