You Nasty

10/03/2000 5:49 PM, LAUNCH
Todd Davis

Oakland, Cal-I-Forn-I-A, home to the original Mack Daddy, Todd 'Too Sheezy' Shaw, is about to be right back on the musical map. With his follow-up to his platinum-plus, out-of-retirement opus Can't Stay Away, $hort Dog's You Nasty, a return call-to-arms of sorts, couldn't have come at a more perfect time. With the re-emergence of hip-hop stalwarts Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, Tha Eastsidaz, and Warren G, it looks like the W-E-S-T is back on top, but how could it be--completely--without the presence of the true, misogynistic, pimptastic playa, $horty The Pimp?!?!

"2 Bitches," the set's hard-hitting, premier offering, is $hort at his finest, as he tells another sex-filled romp centering around a joyous menage-a-trois. Standout cuts also include the P-Funk-influenced "Pimp Sh-t," the colorful title track, the mob-feeling "Just Like Dope"--featuring that tycoon-talking big-wheeler E 40 Fonzarelli--and "Where They At," in which Mr. Shaw teams up with his TWDY cohort Cap'N Sav-A-Hoe.

The veteran funk fiend tells you to blame it on the game on "Don't Hate The Player," shows you just how he likes it on the vocally rich "Dirty Love," and gets real smooth on the hustler anthem "Call Me Daddy." And when he goes waaaaay back on "Old School," he employs hilarious yet truthful lines like, "I was knockin' bad hoes with no teeth in the front."

A favorite, "Anything Is Possible," is an electrifying semi-autobiographical cut in which the Dog advises, "Some of y'all suckas need to fall in love/And stay there/And quit trying to be a player." 'Nuff said!

$hort sums up his career as such: "Still making money, and I don't stop rappin'/That's my motto/Even if you n--gas hit the Lotto/You never could win/Not until I go." And, it doesn't look like the Pimp is going anywhere, anytime soon. With more than 20 years on the microphone, nobody still does it better than Too $hort.