Too $hort’s 19th album, No Trespassing, drops on February 28, but lately his words have been getting more attention than his music. A video billed as “Fatherly Advice” was posted on XXLMag.com that had $hort Dog suggesting boys carry out what amounted to s*xual assault. The Oakland rap legend explained to Hip-Hop Wired that he conducted the interview thinking it was going to be a comedic clip, not serious advice.
“I don’t really do a lot of interviews where I discuss the content of the songs, ya know. I really don’t get off into this, ‘Hey Too $hort tell us about s*x or something’—I’m really not into that,” $hort told Hip-Hop Wired. “This particular time I was given the notion that this was going to be some sort of comedy situation this was used for, for the website. I heard what he asked me to do, I was like, ‘Okay I’ma give you a throwback on my experience, how I came up. I’m throwing this story that was later to be found out was really, really really foul.”
The Internets, feminists and just about everyone else cried foul over $horts advice, with plenty of petitions created seeking that XXL Magazine’s Editor-In-Chief, Vanessa Satten, be fired. Apologies were issued and eventually XXL staff members were suspended for the transgression. To be fair, there were plenty of people basically said, “Well have you ever listened to a Too $hort album?,” citing $hort’s often adult only content. However, although $hort felt his words were taken out of context, he isn’t condoning his commentary.
“It was bad advice first of all. Cause I didn’t know they were going to post it as ‘Too $hort’s Fatherly Advice’,” he said. “Then it was something that you didn’t really want to put that message out there to land in the wrong ears.”
The outrage over the situation took veteran rapper by surprise. But his initial apology only fanned the flames of the situation. [http://www.xxlmag.com/news/2012/02/xxl-and-too-hort-speak-on-video-controversy/] “I’m looking on the computer and it’s really upsetting people,” he said. “I’m like I need to explain this was was a joke. I wrote this long @ss little statement and sent it to my folks and they kind of chopped it up a little bit. It wasn’t really an apology, it was an explanation more like. And they chopped it up and turned it into this apology.. To me it sounded like a political statement.”
Too $hort admitted that he was defensive and didn’t grasp the reality the situation right away. $hort then reached out to esteemed author/journalist dream hampton to explain his side of the story and also professed that he was genuinely sorry.
“I could have said that 20 years ago and it might have been whatever whatever,” he said. “But this is the Social Media days, this is the digital age; everything you do is going out there. Especially if it’s negative it’s going out there.”
Now, the 45-year-old plans to get his karma back in order.
“I walked in there and did something really stupid, and learned a lot from it,” he said. “In return I feel like I owe a little community service. I take it as a wake up call. Be a little more responsible and go out there and do right as far reversing this wrong thing I did.”
Additional reporting by Jade Martin
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Photo: RCA
