Review Summary: Too Short is kickin us with a much funkier and better effort than his 'classic' mainstream debut.
Too Short, up until he started realizing he needed Lil Jon’s infectious grooves to boost up his albums strength, stayed very much the same sound throughout all of his records. Even in the late 90s and early 00s, he continued to rap in a style that very much was or resembled his old school style, working under the same rap forever mentality, and this seemed to start seeping into the American public’s mind by
Life Is … Too Short. However, it was also abundantly clear that his style was lacking, and although contained a large amount of good songs, severely lacked due to some lackluster rapping and simplistic looped beats.
Short Dog’s In The House is Too Short’s 1990 follow-up to his mainstream debut, and it is clearly better than
Life is… Too Short, if only because it solves a few of that albums problems.
For one, although it still has that wearing dated feeling on it, it’s much less dated than it’s predecessor. Maybe it’s the diversification in producers with Sir Jinx and DJ Pooh in production, or the fact that Too Short no longer sounds sloppy over his own beats, but
Short Dog’s In The House sounds much more like a professional mainstream debut than
Life Is… Too Short. Instead of the mind numbing, repetitive, video game-esqe bass loops of his debut; Too Short is much more expansive with his sound, much groovier, funkier, bassier. Along with that, Too Short’s lyrics sound sharpened. He still keeps the rapper rappin mentality of his old days, but is much less sloppy with his flowing, rarely missing his mark or hitting an oddball route.
Short Dog’s in The House, being a non-Lil Jon era Too Short release, follows the same formula as
Life Is… Too Short, and is packed to the brim with stellar songs with pop hooks. “Short Dog’s In The House” is filled with hoo bunkin boop-ly bass and vibes and features some of Too Short’s most infamous lines (“I said I love you when you gave me head/I didn’t love you when we got out the bed”), while “The Ghetto” features Too Short’s rare but occasional conscious rapping, but with a beat that really sounds like he means it, light-hearted and moody. DJ Pooh’s addition of “Paula & Janet”, probably Too Short’s shortest song, is probably the most ominous and dark beat he’s been on, with garrish, blaring horns and kicking drums, while Sir Jinx’s “Ain’t Nothin But A Word To Me” is his wah pedal funk attempt at Too Short beats, while Ice Cube beats the track with his psychotic flow.
Abundant with good songs,
Short Dog’s In The House is a great album, but has negatives too. Here, Too Short seems to be a little bit bored with the concept of being album to rap everyday all the time, and focuses his rhymes more on the ladies and sexing, which certainly makes it a bit harder to listen to without a bit of cringing trying to image it. That paired with the albums dated-ness and generally samey sound prevents this from being a classic in any sense. However, this is Too Short’s best album altogether, and is the perfect record to go back to nostalgia land, that is, if your nostalgia land is Old School rap.
