Even while the pandemic charted its destructive course across the American populace, some fruitful gifts sprouted and blossomed from the war-torn land. Rap legend D-Nice became an overnight sensation with his organic Club Quarantine sessions that even got rave reviews from first lady Michelle Obama.
And, of course, producing icons Swizz Beatz and Timbaland created the cultural phenomenon known as Verzuz that have broken all-time Instagram and streaming records.
Now, Bay Area rap luminary Too $hort informs the public that another potential blockbuster was birthed because of the California quarantine: a rap supergroup.
Too $hort told another old school rapper-turned-radio host, MC Serch during a recent podcast, that he and Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube and E-40 have formed the West Coast group and are coming out with an album in 2021.
“Over the years, probably more than the past five years, we’ve been doing kind of these old-school concerts. It will be either Snoop Dogg or Ice Cube headlining, or it will be me, E-40, sometimes it’s Bone Thugs, DJ Quik. They usually call it like ‘How The West Was Won,’ ‘West Coast Kings’ or some s— like that and it’s always a big show and it always sells out. It’s like 20, 30,000 people — whatever the size of the arena is — it’s sold out,” $hort told Serch.
According to $hort, 54, who was born Todd Anthony Shaw, he got a call from E-40 and Cube who wanted to translate those concert experiences into an album since mass gatherings were banned during the spring and summer of 2020.
“So I get a call during the early part of the quarantine from E-40 and Ice Cube going, ‘Man, we feel like we should do an album. Like me, you, it’s E-40, Cube, Too $hort and Snoop Dogg. And I’m like — E-40 and Too $hort from the Bay, Snoop Dogg and Cube are from L.A. and we like the West Coast foundation. We sat there and was like, ‘F— it, let’s do it.’ So, we start[ed] coming up with beats.”
$hort was reluctant to reveal the name of the group. He would only indicate that, once the idea was born, the beats and hits began churning out like an assembly line of cars. Without ever meeting up in person to produce songs, each artist would pass beats and lyrics back and forth through their cellphones since some of them have in-home studios.
“I swear to God we made 25 songs like that,” $hort marveled as he laughed. … So we ’bout to run that into the new year as a package deal, kind of like The Supremes and The Temptations and Smoky Robinson and The Four Tops. Motown, keep it going, you know?”
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