Recently, Long Beach legend Snoop Dogg and Oakland icon Too Short were on Instagram Live discussing the possibility of putting together a joint album, but with one caveat: using old school production equipment like the Roland TR-808 drum machine and Roland SH-101 keyboard. During the conversation between the two hip-hop pioneers, Short divulged that he used those two pieces of studio equipment specifically when he produced songs like “Dope Fiend Beat”, I Ain’t Trippin'”, and “Cusswords”.
Too Short ran down the list of songs he produced on classic albums like Born To Mack and Life Is…Too Short, and how he continues to get paid from today’s biggest artists when they sampled his old catalog for songs like Cardi B‘s “Bickenhead”, which utilized the “Cusswords” bassline that Too Short originally did in 1988. Another song pointed out that sampled one of Too Short’s original compositions was Nicki Minaj‘s and Yo Gotti‘s “Rake It Up”, which sampled one of the Oakland emcee’s biggest songs in 1987’s “Freaky Tales”.
Based on the conversation the two were having, and Snoop realizing the extent of Too Short’s sampled catalog, Snoop Dogg posed this question: “Do you ever think that, gooing back to the basics and saying fuck all this computerized shit. Let me get that same fucking Roland and TR-808 that I used to make the fucking Freaky Tales and make me an original bangin’-ass album right now?”
Too Short responded by telling Snoop a story about how Bruno Mars‘ producer Mark Ronson brought those same pieces of equipment to the studio one day and told the producer that he could make a whole album right now with just those two devices. Snoop Dogg replied, “That sounds like what me and you need to be doing”.
Later in the conversation, Snoop again asked the question, citing the response from the fan comments as the IG Live conversation was going. “Can we really do that, though, Short? The People just said they want that”. Too Short finally responded, “I’m with it. It’ll probably take us a week!”
Apparently, this conversation took place within days of Too Short’s announcement that he, Snoop, Ice Cube, and E-40 had formed a new west coast super group, which will be releasing an album in 2021.
Among other things the two legends discussed during their hour-long conversation were how Dr. Dre produced the The Chronic and Doggystyle by splicing and cutting tape, Ant Banks‘ production prowess behind Spice 1‘s early career, coming up with the album covers for a few of their classic albums, and so much more. These two had an epic conversation and talked about so many interesting topics.
If you missed this conversation, check out the video below: