SHORTY B (PART 2)  (April 2007) | Interview By:Chad Kiser

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Interview was done by phone in March 2007

Questions Asked By: Chad Kiser

Shorty B Gave Dubcnn.com A Shoutout! Check That Here

Check Out Shorty B on MySpace

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Dubcnn: Tell us a little bit about the seminar that your working on...

Right, Right. Actually, I haven’t really got all the way full-fledged with it, cuz I’m actually gettin’ my assembly together cuz I’m kinda bringin’ to my homies...my celebrity homies. So what I need to do is actually dialogue with the homies a lil’ bit, and then we gonna set a date and I’ma invite all my celebrity friends to come up and just get them to talk about what they know about the industry. Like what would be helpful, what’s the do’s and don’ts, and maybe show a few shortcuts.

Dubcnn: You also are working on a cartoon...tell us what’s up with that...

Yeah, my homeboys put it together. We already got a few scenes. He drawin’em out and then he makes’em all, you know, he do graphics an stuff so he makes’em, I forgot the word he be usin’, but it’s comin’ out real good, man, so it’s like when I get a chance, once we finish up a few more scenes, I’ll give you chance to see what it’s lookin’ like.


Dubcnn: Cool, man...

Yeah, he draw characters in my likeness with a guitar and basses, and you know with superpowers and stuff. It’s really fun, man! It’s been really interestin’ watchin’ him. It’s gonna be dope, we gonna go ahead and put that out there.


Dubcnn: Alright, that sounds good man. Let’s get back into some more of this music and Dangerous Crew shit. How do you feel about that Hyphy Movement out there in Oakland?

Well, personally, I’m just sittin’ back and seein’ if it’s just a fad, you know what I’m sayin? I don’t think it’s actually gonna be a movement as far as a musical movement. I think Hyphy seems to be more of an attitude that just makes the young cats dance all wild and crazy. I don’t think that it’s actually a musical movement, you know what I’m sayin’? It’s like they pick the songs that have the right tempos for them to dance like the way they want to. To me, it seems like it’s more of a physical movement than a musical movement. It’s somethin’ we gotta keep a eye on with Keak Da Sneak, and see what E-40 and them, Too $hort and see if they gonna contribute any more to that, if there’s any more of that to go.

I suspect that Keak Da Sneak will be comin’ out with a couple more hits. But it’s like, to me, rappers out of the Bay, like Keak Da Sneak is like the front-runner of that movement. But he better step his game up fast or that whole movement is gonna pass! And before long, people just gonna remember Hyphy like, “I remember that summer.” It might turn out to be just that. I hope it does whatever it can though, cuz it’s a way for alotta people and alotta the young homies out the Bay to get a shot at the title. But to me, it just seems like it’s more of a physical movement than a musical movement.


Dubcnn: Goin’ along that line, what do you think of Too $hort’s lastest albums that went to that Crunk/Hyphy sound, versus that funk that y’all was bringin’ back in the day?

Well, me personally, I got split emotions about that. I kinda recognized that us bein’ down here in the South, and the South was havin’ it’s movement, and we was here from day one to watch it actually take off. And we was influential in the whole thing in South too becuz, you gotta realize that we was out here makin’ records before the South really was, as well as we was makin’ records in the West. So you kow, me and $hort moved to Atlanta, and had actually put it all the way down out here. Cuz I got alotta cats that be hittin’ me up on Myspace askin’ me when are me and $hort gonna get back to makin that West coast shit, you know, what he was known for? And I understand $hort’s point of view becuz it was like business, you know? Cuz it was like he had to get on where he could cuz he was in Atlanta and all the homies start blowin’ up. Alotta them was up under us, around us or friends to us so he just rode the rhythm. But to me, honestly, I would say that it’s like he damn near sold out. Cuz alotta people are tellin’ me that on Myspace like, “What’s $hort doin? We don’t wanna hear that. That ain’t the $hort we know!” But, you know, I know it was a business move for $hort, so I’m kinda 50/50 cuz I understand why it had to be what it was or why $hort had to go that route. But then I’m understandin’ that $hort might not be understandin’ that he’s actually fuckin’ up all his fans in doing so.

So hopefully he be smart enough to, if he can replace those fans with new ones…which is what you really don’t wanna do cuz the fans who got you where you at now, are the fans that been supportin’ us for years. So he’s kinda like some sell-out shit in a way, but with $hort it was business decision to where it just had to go down like that. And on top of that business, he had to get a part of this Southern movement, cuz everybody in the Top 10 was comin’ outta Atlanta, and they all our homies. So I understand the situation, you know, get in where you fit in *laughs*. But I don’t think that $hort is actually aware as much as he should be on what he’s really doin’ with this southern music and tryin’ to be like, you know, Blow The Whistle and shit like that. You know cats from the O they ain’t really, you know, as far as I’m concerned, you and $hort both can read it for yourselves, just go over my comments and you’ll hear what people’s sayin’. But you know, I understand it from $hort’s point of view cuz $hort tryin’ to stay close to whatever dollar he can. But I really think he would better if he just focused.

To me, his rappin’ since he came to the South ain’t really been, I ain’t really been feelin’ that shit really. You know I love the homie, but that rappin’ shit he been doin’ since he done went “South” with these south cats, I ain’t really been feelin’ $hort as a lyricist as like you would from his past. I can attest to the shit that he rappin’ now, with Lil’ Jon and all that, is anything that I really don’t wanna hear again.


Dubcnn: I’ll be honest with you, I don’t really check for $hort as much nowadays, unless I’m seein’ in the credits that there’s Ant Banks there, or Shorty B there, or somebody like that. Cuz if y’all there, then I know he’s comin’ with that real shit again.

Right! I guess if you see one of our names it’s got to be some sort of vintage quality to it. But $hort just really on some other shit out here in the South. I guess with Lil’ Jon bein’ the homie and doin’ what he was doin’ out here, it was only right for $hort to stay close to him. You know, get what he could. But even with Lil’ Jon doin’ beats, he still didn’t do nothin’ but gold. I don’t wanna sound facecious, but it’s like you’re homies, and me bein’ one of those cats, man, we kept you platinum everytime! And Lil’ Jon be getting’ all those record sales himself, and you wonderin’ why you ain’t getting’ them sales…that’s because that ain’t you $hort! That wasn’t your music, man. You just jumped on it and rolled with him, but it wasn’t you and your record sales will tell you that. So let’s go back over here to our fans and do what we do best. But I don’t think $hort will ever wake up to that. I think $hort got like a kaleidoscope vision about this shit. But if he would actually just say “fuck it, let’s go back to the drawin’ board and do what we do,” we’d probably get a double-platinum record out of it! If he was just a person that was focused and would just break bread. $hort don’t break no bread, that’s why all his business just come down to him. It ain’t like $hort and everybody else is makin’ $hort’s label go up, it’s like it’s up to $hort cuz $hort ain’t gonna break no bread with you anyway. And $hort don’t really know how to be a team player. Never has. $hort didn’t even realize he was a quarterback, and he had a whole other 10 members on the team on this field, fieldin’ in his name, but $hort don’t think like that. And that’s why he will never be an icon as far as money is concerned, and contributing to and from his past.

I don’t think he will ever just go over the top becuz he don’t think like that. He’s got a one-track mind about business. And as long as he got some money in his pocket that’s all $hort care about. $hort don’t know how to make money with people. $hort just know how to make money. But $hort don’t know how to make money make money. It’s just the truth. I mean if you look at the past, it is what it is. I’m like c’mon $hort! See, $hort so happy to have a million dollars, and to pay what he got to pay and what he got goin’ on in his life he look at it like that’s cool. But when you lookin’ at this cat like he a legend and an icon, and he got all these great ideas and you got all these great people that be introduced to him, and we can all get millions, $hort ain’t on that. Quincy Jones could call me tomorrow as a friend, “Hey Shorty B, how you doin’, man? I was just thinkin’ about your man Too $hort. Why don’t you bring him over to the house one time?” I wouldn’t do it. Because I know it’d be a waste of time. And I know Quincy Jones would be wastin’ his muthafuckin’ breath tryin’ to talk $hort into some real business. He don’t get it like that. $hort got his money set where he can tear himself off like 30G’s a week doin’ shows or whatever. And he’s so content with that. My homie is the biggest littlest nigga in this industry. The biggest littlest nigga in this industry cuz $hort won’t think outta the box. He doesn’t think outta the box. And the box that he does think in is only his box.


Dubcnn: He see’s what he wants to see and that’s it….

Yeah, he don’t see the big picture. Never did. I said to $hort in like 97-98, I said, “$hort, what is goin’ on, man?? You was supposed to be Master P, 6 years before we even heard of Master P!” You know what I’m sayin’? $hort still ain’t got 10% of Master P’s money! To this day!...if that much. Cuz it’s the way $hort thinks. $hort is not the person that thinks business. He’s not a business man. He’s a business man for his pocket, but that’s it. And it kinda makes me look at him like, damn! Cuz he could be so much bigger, if he would just think a lil’ broader.

If $hort would put his “suit & tie” on 2 days outta the week and go sit down with these business men with his “briefcase.” But $hort ain’t got no “briefcase” cuz he don’t get down like that. Now I ain’t hatin’ him for it, I’m just tellin’ you this cuz this is what I had to accept growin’ up around him in this industry. My nigga’s not gonna put it down the way it’s supposed to be. It’s not in him. So it took me a while to accept it, but I’m cool with $hort now cuz I know not to let myself think that he gonna think big. So now that I know how he think, we can work within that realm becuz I know not to expect nothin’ out the ordinary. He just don’t get down like that. I say to $hort, “you seem to be happy with a million, when you could be happy with a 100 million.” But he won’t apply himself as a business man, and conduct himself as a business man to go get his other zero’s. He’s so content with getting’ $500,000 a year, or maybe even a million…but my homie to be so big, he really thinks little. And always has.


Dubcnn: I see. Why do you think that is?

I dunno. I sit around so many nights and think about how my homie get down and how he thinks. $hort got a brother named Wayne Loc. He’s one of my best friends. His birthday is the day after mine. That’s my dogg. The thing about me and Wayne is that Wayne is a lil’ older, you know, I grew up around a bunch of men myself, I was raised by men, bonafied soldiers! $hort the type of person that was raised by his momma. So he don’t really have manly values as other men do. Like Wayne Loc done went to jail, the penitentiary, been in the streets, etc. So he know and got some game from both sides, as where $hort really didn’t.

What used to trip me out about Too $hort was that, you know we’d be on the road and alotta pimps be comin’ up to $hort like, “Yo, Too $hort you be puttin’ that pimp game down and shit forever!” and $hort might say somethin’ like, “Yeah, you know how we do!” But I know for a fact that $hort ain’t never pimped a bitch in his life! If a bitch gave $hort some money, he probably think the bitch was tryin’ to put the police on him. And it used to trip me out, becuz he was leadin’ the world to believe that he was somethin’ that he ain’t never been. I watched from first hand. $hort ain’t never been a pimp. Ain’t never had no pimp in him! He just seen alotta shit and rapped about it, and made it sound crafty. And alotta people figured that since the nigga was rappin’ like this, he was livin’ this. But he was far from livin’ it. He was just rappin’. And the world used to think that Todd Shaw WAS Too $hort. But Too $hort and Todd Shaw don’t have nothin’ in common.


Dubcnn: Yeah, I remember an interview a few years back in the Souce where he was kinda sayin’ that Too $hort was just a character, and not his real persona, but he was just tryin’ to sell that idea…

Right, but $hort go out and live his life like he is, and when he go out he don’t mind people believin’ that he is that way. He don’t make it a point to correct them and say, “Hey man, I don’t live like that. It’s just raps” and keepin’ it real. But my homie just take all the admiration and all that, but to me it all be under false pretences. Cuz alotta cats come up at him think that $hort is a pimp, cuz $hort keep alotta hoes, but cuz it seemed like when he got his teeth fixed, all he did was fuck. And that’s all he doin’. And none of this shit is slammin’ him. This is all 100% genuine truth. I been there from day 1, and I watched him. Or day 2 rather. I watched him get his money up and there was alotta things I said to expect outta him as a man, a business man, and it just wasn’t in him. So after I learned that this dude ain’t from where I’m from and that he ain’t gonna get down, it’s like my father wouldn’t approve of the conduct comin’ form this man. But $hort wasn’t raised by a man. And if you around $hort, eventually you will see that with your own eyes, you won’t have to hear it from me in a interview or nothin’. - hold on lemme get this other call...


Dubcnn: Aight

Yeah, that was the homie Big C-Style from Long Beach. You know, Big Snoop Dogg’s big homie. That’s my dogg, one of my runnin’ buddies, right there. He about to head to Atlanta, so he was just givin’ me a heads up tellin’ me he about to touch down. I told him I was doin’ an interview, so I wanna give a big shout out to DUBCNN from the big homie C-Style thru his Uncle Shorty B tappin’ in, you know send a lil’ shout out to your website. But let’s pick up where we left off man..


Dubcnn: Ok, sounds good...

Don’t get me wrong, I love $hort. I love his momma, I know his Grandmama...I used to go down with him to Louisiana and stay, so I know his whole family. I got love for all them and they seem to have love for me. It’s just that it was difficult for me, as a street person, to see men not acting like men. It used to eat me up. Cuz from where I’m from, you get your head taken off for not acting like men. So it took me a while to figure out why $hort got down the way he did. He really wasn’t raised my his daddy, I don’t think, cuz I ain’t never met his daddy, I seen pictures tho. $hort from L.A., and he come from a good family, but he just missin’ some manly values. I think he missed some shit a man could’ve instilled in him at a young age, and it wasn’t there, and you could see this shit as surely as a man today. That’s just not how he get down.

Now don’t get me wrong, $hort ain’t no weak-ass nigga or nothin’, it’s just that our values are different. And I don’t know how else to put that. I was raised by men, and there’s just certain things you don’t do, and there’s certain things you don’t try to pull over on your brothers. It’s just acceptin’ that he come up different, and come up under his mom, who is a beautiful woman…Dorothy Shaw…I love her to death, so don’t get me wrong. But it’s just got to do with bein’ a man, so this ain’t got nothin’ to do with Dorothy no more, but when you dealin’ with $hort on the one-on-one, eventually, you gonna see that this cat get down a lil’ different than the average soldier. And that’s it. $hort’s not a soldier. $hort’s a playa, cuz he got all the tools to play with. But if you take all them tools away, I’m not sure $hort would be the playa that he is. And me, I don’t need a goddamn dime cuz I’ma still be me. I got the gift of gab. I got the game for life! I been in and out the streets, behind the penitentiary walls and everything, so I done got it from everywhere. So there’s alotta shit I done…I been shot and everything else. It’s a part of life that I respect becuz I been thru life. I can’t say $hort really been thru no first-hand shit except for that lil’ life he was goin’ thru tryin’ to come up in Oakland, but that wasn’t nothin’. But I love my homie, and I accept that we was different becuz we was raised different.


Dubcnn: Well, I...

And what fucks me up about that is that Wayne Loc was raised just like he was, but Wayne Loc is a straight muthafuckin’ gangsta!


Dubcnn: He get down like that...

Yeah! Wayne just like me. We rolled together everyday. Wayne Loc called me every morning, and I called Wayne Loc every morning. That’s my nigga! Pisces, you know what I’m sayin’? You can fuck around if you want to, but I wouldn’t advise it! Fuckin’ with me or him, I wouldn’t advise it at all! But I’m a beautiful brother, man. I love everybody! I don’t care what color you is, if you purple. If you actin’ like family, then I’m treatin’ you like family. If you actin’ like somebody’s other family, then I’m treatin’ you like somebody’s other family. Whoever you are, whatever color you are, whatever race or sex, if you act like family with Shorty B, then you get treated like family. If you show respect, I’ll show even more respect. If you show disrespect, then I’ma show you even more disrespect. I do unto others how I live my life. I live by the truth. I live by do unto others as you would have them do unto you.


Dubcnn: One of the last tracks we saw you and $hort on was the track Pimp Life, off the What’s My Favorite Word album a couple years ago. And with everything that you’re saying now, what is your relationship like with Too $hort? Do you two keep in touch?

Me and $hort, man, we respect each other. We are men. We are black men. Ain’t no room for disrespect on my part; ain’t no room for disrespect on his part. Ain’t neither one of us fools for that shit. I sho’ ain’t, and I’ma be quick to let a muthafucka know that it is unhealthy to be disrespectin’ me cuz I love everybody and I show everybody love and respect, but if the truth hurt, nigga go to church cuz ain’t nothin’ else comin’ up out my mouth but the truth.


Dubcnn: Let’s switch gears just a lil’ bit. I was just goin’ thru some of my CD’s and tracks that I got from The Dangerous Crew era. I got a gang of shit. Just about everything that was released. Even the song you produced with MC Thick!

Damn, now I forgot about that. What’s the name of it? Boy, I forgot all about that. I woulda never ever remembered that unless you had said that just now.


Dubcnn: Yeah, it’s MC Thick and the song was called “It’s Gettin’ Hard.”

It’s Gettin’ Hard! Yeah! I forgot about it. I don’t even remember what it sound like, but I remember doin’ it.


Dubcnn: That’s what I’m sayin’. I tried to get my hands on any and everything that y’all done, cuz I just love everything that y’all done. And I’m a big fan.

Right! Right! That’s cool, cuz I support guys like you cuz you supportin’ us to the fullest, you know what I’m sayin’?


Dubcnn: I’m just tryin’ to do my thing, you know? This is what I grew up on. And they got me up on DUBCNN as the President of the Dangerous Crew Movement, you know what I’m sayin’?

Yeah, Yeah! Well, let it be what it is!


Dubcnn: I’m just tryin’ to do my part to get y’all the recognition I feel you deserve, and get it out to the masses. But, so any way, I was goin’ thru my stuff, and I’m goin’ thru the Bad N-Fluenz credits in the booklet. And I saw where Pee-Wee did alotta the keyboards on there...

That’s why I brought Pee-Wee over to $hort. Pee-Wee, you know, was with Digital Underground. Pee-Wee, that’s my dogg! That’s another cat that, when we wasn’t in the studio, we used to run the streets…we was ugly. Real niggaz, man. Real cats. Never will a fake word come out of Pee-Wee’s mouth. I love Pee-Wee with all my heart. Mr. Ramone Goode! That’s my dogg! And to me, Pee-Wee was like a Bernie Worrel from the Funkadelic, type of keyboard player. He was a fuckin’ beast man! That’s my dogg for life! And I actually hope you can get in touch with him, and let him put a lil’ light on the subject. Cuz see, my perspective is a lil’ bit more in-depth cuz I was involved before all them other cats. Me & $hort was runnin’ buddies, just runnin’ together everyday. Alotta them cats came in after I set it off and hooked’em up.

The one thing I notice about, and I wanna give props to the Dangerous Crew, even before I was in the Dangerous crew, becuz the Dangerous Crew was known for they’re rappers and all they’re artists’ talent. And so when I became the 4th quarter in the Dangerous Crew, I made Dangerous Crew known for as well as for they’re artists, and then they’re beats and music.


Dubcnn: Yeah, y’all took it to another level...

Right! And alotta cats that deny what I be sayin’ about this music shit and who was creatin’ and all that, as you know, ya boy still be doin’ this shit, still got that same sound, still eatin’ off of it…ain’t nobody else eatin’ off that sound cuz they ain’t got it.


Dubcnn: Ok, well let’s go with that becuz in the last interview you mentioned that you played more of a production role than most of us was aware of…

Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. Ant Banks was good at those drums. He would come up with some drum patterns, and I would just turn’em into songs, or do my own drum patterns and turn’em into songs. It was like nobody really could “create” music with their hands like I did. This is the one thing I be tryin’ to get my homie Banks to realize becuz this is the reason he didn’t last in the game. Banks had mastered this one sound that he was getting’ outta the JD-800 keyboard. He got nice drums, but Banks used the same drums, the same keyboard sound on every song he done. I been tryin’ to tell’em that he gotta mix his sound up, cuz after a while, as talented as Banks is, it got to the point where if you heard one of Banks’ songs you heard’em all. He had a signature sound, but it was overwhelming. I just wish he woulda changed up his sound along the way more, but he got kinda like stuck in a sound that he liked a lot. In the end, it kinda hindered him cuz it didn’t show no growth in his production.


Dubcnn: Cuz there was definitely a distinct difference between when I would see Shorty B/Dangerous Crew produced this and then I see Ant Banks produced this, you had more of that live funk sound, where as Banks had that Mob-style sound…

Yeah, my sound prevailed cuz that’s what I’m livin’ on to this day, cuz I do all kinda shit. But, I know the sound when people ask me for some of that “Shorty B shit.” And I’m finna hit you over the head everytime you ask for it. And what’s funny is that Jive Records had noticed that sound too, but they just thought it was Banks. Cuz Banks had a couple good songs here and there, but I know what they was lookin’ for…it was that shit! And it was me and Pee-Wee cuz we was the “live” niggaz. Pee-Wee played everything too!

You know, let me straighten that shit out right now. Pee-Wee played everything too, but I had already been there doin’ it all. I brought Pee-Wee in, so I look at Pee-Wee as a part of me and what I did with the Dangerous Crew, you know what I’m sayin’? I look at Pee-Wee as a quarter in that dollar of what I brought in to the Dangerous Crew, not to mention what I was doin’ before then. To me, after goin’ out an playin’, doin’ productions and bringin’ the music, and then goin’ and gettin’ my homie who do just what I do and add him to what we was doin! Man, that was all me, man, I did that.


Dubcnn: You was the orchestrator.

Yeah! Exactly!.....And the ambassador!! *laughs*


Dubcnn: Let me ask you this. When you were workin’ back then as the collective, The Dangerous Crew, what was the process like when you would get in the studio? How would things come together?

It was like this. $hort needed Banks cuz Banks knew how to “engineer.”


Dubcnn: How to mix everything down…

Riiight! So $hort and Banks had built a certain relationship. Banks can mix his ass off! Let me just tell you, I wanna say that. That shit was hurtin’ me cuz I love Banks, but I had came to $hort with songs like Cocktales and I didn’t even want Banks’ name on my record. I wanted somebody else to mix it just becuz of Banks’ name. Cuz he had the name and I had the sound, but when you see his name they would try to give him my sound. It would say “mixed” by Banks, and you would think Banks did that song becuz you saw his name. But it wasn’t Banks. As much as I love Banks, his presence was as much as a help to me as it was hurting me. They had signed Banks to a 3 album deal, and none of that shit even went copper. And I didn’t want Banks to think it was some personal shit, but I couldn’t help him but so much cuz I knew what was happenin’. And I was not finna to let you run off with this sound. Cuz I seen what was happenin’ with his albums so I had to really let him do his own shit, so they would know that’s Banks. This me. So if you got me all over Banks’ shit, Banks gonna ride with that. But Banks ain’t tellin’ these muthafuckaz this ain’t him, it ain’t his sound. He ain’t gonna tell muthafuckaz that “this ain’t really my sound that you hearin’. This over here is me, but this right here, this ain’t me.”

Just like that song on Ant Banks Album, 4 Tha Hustlaz with 2Pac on it that’s basically all Shorty B. And the funny this about it, is that they was goin’ back and snatchin’ old tracks that they had of me, put it together, and put that shit out. I didn’t get paid for that song. And I’m all over that muthafucka. I ain’t trippin’, but just to let you know that that’s the situation that was developin’. It was stagnatin’. The love I have for my homies, but the business we had within our love was really fuckin’ me off. For real! So on alotta Banks’ albums I had to kinda, you know, Banks would call, and if he need me I would go over there, cuz I was there for him. But I tried to give him 5 feet becuz I knew Jive thought he was somethin’ else. I knew why they had signed him becuz we was hot as hell at that time and it was that sound we had. I give props where props is due cuz Banks had some nice drum patterns and I’d eat those muthafuckaz up! At first I didn’t know how to work a drum machine, but once I got down on one, I didn’t need Banks no more. All need Banks for is the mix as far as the shit I was producin’. It’s like I had to find a way to get Banks out my pocket. As much as he was helpful to me, he was hurtin’ me at the same time becuz they was tryin’ to combine some shit. What really shoulda happened is that me and Banks shoulda went off and did a duet album between me and him and set the record straight.


Dubcnn: That woulda been tight!

And I told you that Banks called me a few months ago, and I’m willin’ to do that right now! Just to let it be known. I think that shoulda happened. Me and Banks shoulda did an album, and then we coulda set the record straight and the world woulda known where the sound was comin’ from and who it was attributed to.


Dubcnn: And that’s a good idea..

Yeah, and I’m more than willing to do that with the homie. Just to do an OG album, and set the record straight. Cuz I’m a beast, Banks is a beast and Pee-Wee is a beast. The only reason why Banks couldn’t compete with me and Pee-Wee is becuz we could do everything that he could do, except maybe engineer. But as far as creatively, we could do evertything Banks could do, but he couldn’t do nothin’. Feel me?


Dubcnn: Yeah...

Couldn’t do nothin’. He could do the drums, but me & Pee-Wee could play drums, keyboards and all that other stuff too. And then kill it with whatever ideas or creativity we wanted to put on it from there. So I think that’s what me and Banks need to do is go in there and do an album between the 2 of us, me, him and Pee-Wee would be nice! And then everybody would really understand the chemistry of it all. Why it worked. You know, Banks got the fat drums, Pee-Wee funkin’ with the keyboard, and I got all that other shit. That would actually be nice if me, Banks and Pee-Wee could get in the studio and bang one out. Just let it be known. And call the album, This Is For The Record! *laughs*


Dubcnn: So did you do stuff on Banks’ albums Sittin’ On Somethin’ Phat & The Big Badass?

You know, you couldn’t...don’t get me wrong, but couldn’t nobody in our crew do nothin’ and not have me on it. Cuz when I came in, my sound is known to the world for what we do. So if I ain’t on it, somethin’ gonna be missin’. I can’t remember exactly what I was on…I’m sure I’m on a few songs, but I tried to be on as less as I possibly could just for the fact that Banks get his shine and let the world know that that’s his sound right there. That sound.


Dubcnn: So did y’all just get in the studio and start vibin’ off each other and songs would just develop or...

Oh yeah, all the time! We would do that, and sometimes we would just do that or like I would come in, like I did with Gettin’ It I already knew what I was gonna do. I’m A Player, I already knew it cuz all that Funkadelic shit was basically the chemistry between Too $hort and $horty B. Cuz we used to ride around in his Benz and play Funkadeli songs all day long. So I got to give props to my nigga $hort cuz he definitely funkafied-minded, and I was funkafied cuz I could bring what he liked, I could play it cuz I already knew the song. Any song of Funkadelic I could play. I knew the songs. So me $hort be ridin’ around listenin’, and he ‘d say we gonna do this one over. Like we did with I’m A Player. Me & $hort did that. That’s one part of the chemistry that I miss with Too $hort, the fact that we used to ride, sit around smoke weed and listen to shit to get ideas.

When me & $hort friendship fell off, where that was lackin and we wasn’t doin’ that no more, cuz that was the most important part of the Dangerous Crew career. The fact that Shorty B & Too $hort would, c’mon now I brought Michael Hampton from Funkadelic, I mean everybody. 2Pac! I introduced everybody to the Dangerous Crew. Eddie Hazel, George Clinton, I been fuckin’ with George Clinton for 30 years! They didn’t come becuz $hort set it up. They was comin’ cuz they was fuckin’ with the homie Shorty B. None them Dangerous Crew cats knew them Funkadelic cats. They just came through me cuz I was funky. I was a Funkadelic and I was just a funky-ass nigga that knew everybody that you liked on the radio! Personally. They was my friends. And wish man, I swear to God, I think that me & $hort got tight again we could really, especially if $hort break some bread with me…nothin’ crazy, you know, just break me off like $300,000 to make it half-way comfortable….and we could ride around and listen to the songs like we used to do, man. Cuz me & $hort are the Dangerous Crew. We would just sit around and ride, and then we would bring it to Ant Banks. And then whatever the idea was, me, Banks and Pee-Wee would take over from there and bring it to life. But me & $hort would come up with the ideas.

We would just ride for days. $hort would bring cd’s and I would bring cd’s of live Funkadelic sessions or whatever, and we would just hear somethin’, and either we was gonna over play it, or loop it like we did on Sample The Funk with the Funky Worm from the Cocktales album. Pee-Wee tore the keyboard up on that one! The reason why songs like that came about, like songs like (sings I wanna be free..!) from the Ohio Players, that’s becuz Shorty B & Too $hort was ridin’ around vibin’ on music and comin’ up with ideas. I think that if me and $hort could get tight like that again, we could probably knock out a 5-million seller.


Dubcnn: Damn, that’d be nice!

The only thing is that I’m never gonna get $hort to bow down to the chemistry cuz he got money. So he’ like “fuck it, I’m already cool.” But he don’t realize that we are icons in this shit cuz we done did some major shit. Niggaz is callin’ me legendary, you know? I was already the shit, right, before I even met $hort. I knew I could play. I had been playin’ with everybody like Brent Jones, EU, and lil’ bit of everybody . I would really, really, really, be interested. I wish we could get the Dangerous Crew back together. All of us cool. And then have all the homies go in on a big ol’ house with a studio, and me & $hort go ridin’ for ‘bout 4-5 hours just kickin’ it and listen to this shit. And then come back with the ideas . Lil’ Jon and all them gotta bow the fuck down. But it ain’t never gonna happen cuz $hort ain’t never gonna be man enough to realize the chemistry and the level of what he had. I don’t even think $hort know what he had to this day. $hort had every bad muthfucka in Oakland, and all the baddest producers in the whole Bay area up under him. He didn’t know he was a General.

Actually, I’ll take that back. I guess he knew he wasn’t a General, but we kept treatin’ him like one. But the whole time he knew he couldn’t lead the pack. He knew he couldn’t lead us in the war against the industry. He didn’t know nothin’. He didn’t know how. But we thought he did! But fuck it, I know what did work, and that was me & $hort! Just vibin’ on music. We used to spend alotta time together and throwin’ together a great-ass Too $hort album. Could you imagine if $hort came out with that shit? A good-ass album of about 18 songs with just a bumpin’-ass vintage feel? New flavor! A newness that’s updated, but it’s still that shit that you like! That shit that made you knew who I was, you know what I’m sayin’ Chad? If me & $hort could just sit down and actually vibe , man. And break some bread, you know, make sure I’m just comfortable with mine. Make sure I don’t need nothin’ and I don’t wanna put nothin’ in the studio. Every muthafuckin’ piece is already in there. And then, we could actually take over the world. And it breaks my heart cuz I know the man that $hort is, and I know the man $hort ain’t. And I don’t think that the man that $hort is is ever gonna recognize that if he would just bow down and come off his horse just a lil’ bit, all of us actually could get back together. It’s just that me & $hort got to pick out the right songs. It’s that stop takin’ beats from niggaz thing. We don’t need beats from niggaz. We need to go in there and make them records like we used to do, and sayin’ that was us!

You know, Chad, and I want you to put this shit out there and let the world read it. I’m gettin’ alotta comments from that first interview and ain’t nobody got at me sayin’ nothin’ bad about it. They liked it. They really acknowledged it. You just wanna give it to’em man cuz it don’t look like none of the other homies is gonna give it to you. Alotta homies that was in this Dangerous Crew shit probably ain’t givin’ a fuck about the Dangerous Crew cuz it was just a fad to them in their life. But to me, it’s some vintage shit that we created. Me, $hort, Ant Banks and Pee-Wee. Just vintage, you know? And I wish that the 4 of us could actually come together, split up a million dollars, like $250,000 a piece or somethin’. It’s funny that I gotta keep mentionin’ money, but that’s the only way these cats is really gonna make it happen. Cuz ain’t none of us goin’ in no studio fuckin’ with $hort on some love no more. We not gonna do that. We love you, but we already know ain’t nobody gonna eat showin’ much love to you. From us just lovin’ you $hort, niggaz can’t eat from that. And you don’t show love back, homie, from the money side period. So if we had some money and could go in there and divide up a million dollars, man, we could go in there and knock out about 5 albums, dog. And I guarantee all 5 of’em would do 2-3 a piece! Maybe 5 when we catch on one. And that is somethin’ I would really, really give my all to contribute to. I would love to see that happen.

I was glad to hear Ant Banks called me a couple months ago. I would love to do anything to make that happen, but I know that if it come down to bein’ on $hort it’s gonna end up bein’ fucked up. Ain’t nobody gonna wanna fuck with him cuz $hort big, be can’t generate no money for nobody else. I wish it would happen, but me knowin’ the real and knowin’ these cats when they don’t know their self, it ain’t never gonna happen, dog. So, I guess I wanna send out a R.I.P. to the Dangerous Crew. It’s gonna lay dead cuz the homie ain’t gonna do what he’s supposed to do. Won’t bow down to the chemistry, and then he can’t generate the money to give us the inspiration to just go in there and knock it out. $hort ain’t really gotta be there. All me and $hort gotta do is go vibe on some music. Then let me take it back to the studio and create it, let Ant Banks put a nice 808 on it. He ain’t even gotta do that cuz I can put some drums on it. But that ain’t the Dangerous Crew without Ant Banks’ sound. Ant Banks’ sound lethal! You know, we want all that. Pee-Wee, Ant Banks and for it to just say us! Not Shorty B, not Pee-Wee, not Banks, not $hort. THE DANGEROUS CREW! A collaborational effort amongst the 4 of us. We were the Dangerous Crew, 2nd generation. That actually became bigger than the first generation. But it wouldn’t have done that if the first generation hadn’t done what it done. Much respect due to them. Much respect to, um, my boy, you know I just got through tellin’ you that Ant Diddley Dog served him and I forgot to save his number in my phone, but he’ll probably be callin’ me again in a day or two cuz I told him about you and have you interview him. But I think Ant Diddley can probably tell you about a certain era because he didn’t live it. He didn’t last long enough with what we did and what we accomplished over the years. But for the period he was in, it was a great period! And it would probably be exciting to hear what he got to say.


Dubcnn: It would awesome! As a matter of fact, the next time you talk to him...

Yeah, I was tellin’ him about you and actually, he brought the interview up to me. He had read it, or somebody had told him about it, or something like that. There’s one thing I’ma tell you, Chad. Some cats would rather the truth be hidden forever so they can go on with their life. And then some cats have a problem with it. I don’t give a fuck about neither one of them cuz that’s how I live. I’m gonna tell the truth cuz I can’t live but by the truth. So when you hear some shit come outta my mouth you can be sure, homie, that it’s 100% !


Dubcnn: Yeah, and the next time you talk to Ant Diddley, man, give him my number and tell him to give me a holla and we’ll set somethin’ up! Cuz I know there’s alotta cats out here that would like to hear from Ant Diddley cuz we ain’t heard from him in years!

Right! And it’s funny that you mention all these names like Dangerous Dame, Pooh-Man, Mr. ILL and so on. Did you know that all them cats out there came to Myrtle Street, where we was recordin’, tryin’ to get on? From Pooh to Del the Funky Homosapien, all of them used to come by and holla at us, man. And if $hort just had that business mind he coulda had the whole city signed to him. Everybody wanted to fuck with him. But after you met $hort, you kinda realized and had that “I don’t know” sense about him. There was gonna be no business jumpin’ off, no real solid business. But $hort woulda just had that “big-business” mind he coulda been bigger than Hammer! He lasted longer than Hammer, but he wasn’t bigger.


Dubcnn: Going back to Ant Diddley, did you have much involvement with Rappin’ Ron and Ant Diddley Dog’s music?

Yeah, I just can’t remember the songs. Any thing that came outta Dangerous Crew, me, Banks & Pee-Wee basically put it together. Solo projects, I gave’em 5 feet. But anything Dangerous Crew I was involved with. You know, cuz I was the music, you feel me? I gotta actually get that album cuz I’m sure that I’m on a few songs, but it’s just been so long that I don’t remember which ones. As a matter of fact, I wish I could get that album cuz I would love to have it. That Rappin’ Ron and Ant Diddley.


Dubcnn: Well check this out then. This is what we gonna do, Shorty B...

Yes sir…


Dubcnn: I’m gonna come down to Atlanta one day…

OK!


Dubcnn: And I’m gonna bring ALL my shit with me…

Done deal!


Dubcnn: And I’m gonna let you listen to it and go through it, and vibe, reminisce or whatever you wanna do, and I’m gonna do a LIVE interview with you.

Sounds good, dog. That sounds real good. As a matter of fact, you can put at the end of this one, cuz it’s Part 2 and I gotta lotta shit I’m savin’ so I’ma do one more interview with you and I’m gonna put it all the way on the front line. It’s gonna be so cold. And it’s gonna be about the transformation from the end of Dangerous Crew to what Shorty B’s doin’ now. So you can tell’em the next and final episode is gonna be live! You gonna see it come out Shorty B’s mouth.


Dubcnn: Ok, Ok. That’s gonna be tight! Now, you brought up Pooh-man. And I gotta ask, cuz everybody wanna know, what happened between Dangerous Crew and Pooh-man?

Yeah, yeah, yeah...my man kinda fell out with $hort, you know what I’m sayin’? Just kinda rubbed $hort the wrong way. He had a lil’ mouth on him. I had a lil’ incident with Pooh-man myself. He was pretty cool though, even after that incident. We worked that shit out, it was cool. Pooh-Man was like a east-Oakland mascot youngster *laughs*. So he was wild, and didn’t really think before he spoke, or none of that shit. But he had a good side on the other side, but it was more of complications of men. Some not as manly as others. It just came down to some cats just ain’t gonna get along. Like Fatha Dom. I remember one time we was gettin’ off the plane, Fatha Dom punched $hort in the back of his head, tryin’ to tear his jaw off. I ain’t gonna get into too much of it, but it was just lil’ shit like that, man. But see, I was 10 years older than all these cats, so I was on some other mature shit. It’s like some shit I wouldn’t do, like I couldn’t get involved in a peanut fight on the airplane with you. I’m too old for that and it’s actually embarassin’ that y’all asses is doin’ it but that’s how the homies would get down sometimes.


Dubcnn: Now, we talkin’ about 12-15 years ago now. What about any unreleased Dangerous Crew material? Is there any of that out there?

$hort got tons of it. We did so many songs, man, between me, Pee-Wee, and Banks, that I would imagine $hort got enough material for about 4 or 5 more Dangerous Crew albums.


Dubcnn: Well, damn! So, when you gonna get me some of that unreleased shit?

Actually, what I need to do, cuz I know I got plenty of it, and I got about 5 shoe boxes full of cassettes with tons of shit on’em. And I just bought a cassette-to-CD burner, and as a matter of fact I just made a CD of about 30 songs on it with some old vintage shit on it, and it’s gonna take me about 2 weeks to a month to go through these tapes and find it and put it on cd. I know I got some shit with 2Pac, $hort and all kind of shit. So, I dunno how long it’s gonna be before you come up, but I’ll trade off some shit to you that like, you need to have, and I just made a CD of a bunch of vintage shit. And it’s a coincidence that you brought that up, cuz I’m already on it. I was thinkin’ about actually puttin’ some of this shit out, cuz nobody got it but me. Cuz some of these masters, I know $hort don’t have any idea what some of this shit is. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Pee-Wee got alotta shit too.


Dubcnn: Well, we gonna keep in touch on this, and schedule it out and figure it out and I’ma get down there with all my shit, and you gonna get all your shit, and we gonna trade back and forth. That’s how we gonna do it.

Yeah! We just gonna sit down and give each other what the other don’t have. As a matter of fact, what me and you need to do is get together and put out some muthafuckin’ vintage Dangerous crew, vintage Shorty B CD’s!


Dubcnn: We can do that!

Cuz I don’t care how anybody feels about it cuz none of this shit woulda never got heard if we don’t do what we do. And alotta this shit is still big, and got big fans that would love to hear this shit. Not only that, but it would be some great shit for producers to sample from.


Dubcnn: I’ll tell you what, man. Within about a week to 2 weeks of that we did that first interview, there was close to 500 hits of people readin’ that interview. *Forum Figures; Dubcnn Page Views: Over 45,000.*

Damn, ain’t that somethin’?!


Dubcnn: So, the demand is out there. We just ain’t got the supply.

That’s what I’m sayin’. We got enough material to actually get some of these cd’s out there where it reminds people and strikes up their interest in the crew to where it might even wake $hort up to be like, ‘we need to do another record!’ cuz they’ll go crazy.


Dubcnn: That’s why I’m doin’ this and reachin’ out. Cuz, I know I’m just a lil’ guy, a fan in all this, but Dangerous Crew music is what I love, and I don’t know nobody in the industry, but I been wantin’ to find out about it…

I know just about everybody in the industry pretty much, so me and you just got to get together and put what we got and mix it down a lil’ bit and start creatin’ some CD covers for Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3 and whatever and put it out, man! Cuz ain’t nobody got this shit but us, and ain’t nobody thinkin’ about the Dangerous Crew, if any Dangerous Crew, but us!


Dubcnn: Exactly! Exactly! We gonna do that then!

And I wanna say this before I close. Watch all my niggaz come out the wood work when this shit blow up. Actin’ like they was a part of it. But they didn’t give a fuck about the Dangerous Crew. I got the tattoo of the Dangerous Crew on my arm, the Don’t Try This At Home album cover on my arm. I’m the one that got it when I came back from L.A., and showed it to Banks, and Banks was like, ‘I’m finna to get one of those!’ Ain’t nobody get no Dangerous Crew tattoo, but Shorty B! Read between the lines.


Dubcnn: Well it was good talkin’ with you again, man

Yeah it was good talkin’ with you, man. I wanna say a shout out to all my fans, and I got your response from the first interview and it was all positive cuz the truth always is. I wanna thank everybody for tappin’ in with you, and I hope you like the 2nd edition of the interview, and the 3rd edition which will be the last and final part of this interview will be in person, live on video, with me and the big homie Chad, you know, so stay tuned cuz I got alotta shit that needs to be, like what’s up?


Dubcnn: Cool, man I appreciate that. Go ahead and throw a shout out to DUBCNN on there too!

Yeah! I wanna send a shout out to my folks DUBCNN and the big homie Chad, you know what I’m sayin’, for tappin’ in with the homie Shorty B, OG, you know the status, multi-platinum as I can be, you know what I’m sayin’? Still doin’ my thing. I’m still doin’ it! I’m actually in the process of workin’ with Kane, of the Ying Yang Twins. I’m actually preparin’ his solo album right now. I did 3 songs again with Gipp. I already did 3 songs last week and he took’em all and got Nelly rappin’ on 2 of’em. I may have the single and I know I got quite a few songs on Gipp’s, and maybe The Lunatics. I’m tryin’ to make Nelly reach out to me, so keep your head up and I’m about to holla at Too $hort and see where his head at. Maybe we can smoke one and come to an agreement about some sort of paper and try to catch our vibe back, man. You know what I’m sayin’, this shit is legendary, you know? I wanna think everybody for tunin’ in to DUBCNN, the OG Shorty B, and tune in for the last episode of this interview cuz you gonna love it! One Love.


Dubcnn: Cool, man, I appreciate it, again. And I look forward to the 3rd edition live with you down in Atlanta.

Yes sir, done deal! Call me, I’m just a phone call away.


Dubcnn: Aight...later man

One.