Sunday: Oakland Rapper Too $hort Makes His Fillmore District Debut at Yoshi's
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| Tamara Palmer |
| Martin Luther and Too $hort. |
Better than: Listening to a studio gangster who's behind closed doors getting his booty all spanked up.
He staked a permanent place for Oakland on the international rap map over a more than 25-year career, but Too $hort (born Todd Shaw) made his live debut in San Francisco's Fillmore District just this past weekend, via four performances at Yoshi's with a live band.
Sunday's final set kicked off with a cover of Sexual Harassment's electro-tinged 1983 come-on "I Need a Freak," which was given a rock-ish charge with live bass and two guitars (one of them played by S.F.'s own Martin Luther).
Next came an apt warning to the ladies from $hort: "If you come to a Too $hort show," he cautioned, "you will get called a bitch."
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| Tamara Palmer |
"Anyone got the iPad 2? I want that now, and I'm not gonna pay $500 for it," $hort said. "I got the new iPad in the hood for like $250, with the service plan and everything. Anyone got some Harley Davidson parts?"
Anchored by Luther and Silk-E, a beautifully brash singer-rapper from Richmond, $hort's band had no trouble changing direction on a dime, whether to channel a moment of P-Funk or to delve into some nastified R&B slow jamming. They added new words and flair to some of his more memorable remix appearances in recent years, including Kelis' "Bossy," Devin The Dude's "Finer Things," and E-40's "Bitch."
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| Tamara Palmer |
| Richie Rich. |
"We used to sell coke together," $hort told the crowd. "Coca-Cola at the Oakland A's games. I was 15 and he was 13. We'd shout, 'Coke! Coke! Coke!'"
The last songs of the night (the Lil Jon-produced "Blow The Whistle" and "Burn Rubber") were dedicated to the "young bitches" in the crowd. "This is your moment!" he proclaimed. "I want to see some asses wiggling!"
$hort showed he wasn't too big to make fun of himself, as he told a story about how some elementary school kids told him that, while he wrote his 2006 hyphy hit "Blow The Whistle" as a sports metaphor, nowadays the phrase actually refers to boys receiving oral pleasure.
"I told them I knew that all along," he joked, but admitted he was clearly being schooled by the youngsters.
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| Tamara Palmer |
Critic's Notebook
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| Tamara Palmer |
Random detail: The highlight of the merch table was Silk-E's "You Hella Fake" T-shirt.
By the way: Too $hort's next studio album is being recorded with the assistance of his live band, and is due out before the end of the year.
Conclusion: Comedic, nasty, and musically flawless, the two-plus hour set was over way too soon.
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Location Info
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Yoshi's San Francisco
1330 Fillmore, San Francisco, CA
Category: Music
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