There are thousands of “missed opportunity” stories in the entertainment industry, especially Hip Hop, and Too $hort recently shared one of his regrets. With a career that spans almost 40 years, Short Dog has often been approached by up-and-coming rappers or producers who are interested in collaborating with the Rap icon. Understandably, not everyone gets their wish, but during a recent sit down with VladTV, Too $hort revisited a memory when he opted to not work with a budding producer by the name of Kanye West many years ago.
“I remember Scarface called me. He was in New York, he was like, ‘I got the coldest motherf*ckin’ producer.’ And you know what I told him? He was talking about Kanye West,” said Short. “You know what I told him? I was in Atlanta, I was like, ‘We got all the producers with me. I don’t need no new producers.’”
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“And he was like, ‘I swear to God,’ I don’t remember the number and I don’t want to disrespect Kanye, but I swear he said, ‘He’s the coldest motherf*cker in the world out here in New York, he’s from Chicago.’ He told me his name, everything. He said, ‘$2,000 a beat… It’s the sh*t!’ And I was like, ‘Man, we got producers.'”
Short said that Scarface even sent him samples of the beats but he didn’t even listen to them.
“I’ve done some dumb sh*t in my life, but that’s up there at the top of the list of dumb sh*t. Turning down young Kanye beats before the price went up,” he added. “I’m a music guy, I live around music guys! We didn’t need no f*ckin’ beats, but damn, if I would’ve knew. I didn’t have no damn psychic around me or a crystal ball. I didn’t know.”
Watch Too $hort talk about his regrets below.