About me: If you haven't learned already, you'll learn now that Too $hort and the Dangerous Crew are one of my favorite rap groups of all time. Almost everything they dropped up until their disbandment in 1997 has either been classic or near classic material. I challenge you to find another rap crew like the Dangerous Crew that has been a part of 11 or more platinum and gold albums during their time. Let me give you a rundown of their platinum and gold list:
Shorty The Pimp (platinum)
Get In Where You Fit In (platinum)
Cocktails (platinum)
Gettin’ It (platinum)
Juice OST (platinum)
Menace II Society OST (platinum)
Booty Call OST (platinum)
How To Be A Player (platinum)
Spice-1 (gold)
187 He Wrote (gold)
Amerikkka’z Nightmare (gold)
The first time I heard Todd Shaw’s music was when I was a teen back in the late 80’s, and I have been a fan ever since. Some people don’t understand why I liked Too $hort, when he has a “slow flow” and his tales often find him degrading women and such. I liked him more for the fact that his music is true to his heart, his beats and rythms were unique, and you don’t find that with these new rappers who are all about the quick money. By bringing together the Dangerous Crew, Too $hort introduced the rap game to live instrumentation with Shorty B (guitar & bass), Pee-Wee (keyboards), Sean G (live drums), and Ant Banks (mixing & producing) combining to play original sounds, while also interpolating old funk tunes, and often making them funkier than their predecessors. At that time, other than Dr. Dre, nobody else was using live instrumentation in their records, and the sounds of those records still stand the test of time. In this new world of digital technology, where it’s so easy to piece together packaged drum and keyboard sounds, when you pop in a classic Dangerous Crew-produced record you begin to realize just how much went in to the making of their songs. You understand that it was real musicians making real music. Helping to enhance the Dangerous Crew sound and image, Too $hort organized an equally potent assembly of game spitters such as Goldy, Fatha Dom, Rappin’ Ron, Ant Diddley Dog and Spice-1, where they added their intricate rhyme styles to compliment the music.
The sales don’t lie when you compare that era to today’s music. Too $hort, with the help of the Dangerous Crew, sold MILLIONS of records by putting slow-rolling funk beats behind his simple, but engaging flows. The track record above speaks for itself in showing that they were ahead of their time, but at the same time, they were right on time. Together, they made many hip-hop classics, and a few of the members have continued on in that platinum and gold success by still being an influence on the world of music today. For instance, you can find Too $hort continuing to release albums & compilations, by the dozens it seems, while also appearing on a multitude of albums and songs with his peers like E-40 and Scarface. As always, his pioneering influence has been alive and well, as seen through his integral role in introducing Lil’ Jon and Jazze Pha to the world, as well as evolving his Dangerous Music imprint into $hort Records and into what is now known as Up All Nite Records. Shorty B meanwhile has been seldom seen, but always heard. You can find Shorty B playing vital roles on more than a few platinum albums since the Dangerous Crew disbandment. Listen for his platinum touch on records by T.I., Brandy, Nelly, 2Pac, and TLC, where the latter just so happened to put him in that rare class of diamond (10x platinum) status. Ant Banks tremendous success outside of the Dangerous Crew by producing on gold albums by Mack 10 (Based On A True Story), E-40 (The Hall Of Game & The Element of Surprise), as well as producing on Snoop Dogg’s platinum album No Limit Top Dogg. Every so often, Too $hort reaches back and grabs a nice funk track from Shorty B (Pimp Life, Keep Fuckin’ Me) or gets Ant Banks to lace him with some of that ol’ Oakland pimp-style shit (Cali-O, Talkin’ Shit). It’s only a hint of what these guys can do when they come together, but it’s definitely nice to hear the magic again when they share it with us.
All you have to do is check their track record, and see for yourself what being a platinum player is truly about. In addition to what’s above, here’s more gold and platinum credits you can add to the Dangerous Crew’s already stacked accomplishments:
Too $hort – Can’t Stay Away (gold)
Too $hort – You Nasty (gold)
Mack 10 - Based On A True Story (gold)
E-40 – The Hall Of Game (gold)
E-40 – The Element Of Surprise (gold)
Snoop Dogg - No Limit Top Dogg (platinum)
T.I. – Urban Legend (platinum)
T.I. – King (platinum)
Brandy – Afrodisiac (gold)
2Pac – Better Dayz (2xPlatinum)
Nelly – Suit (3xPlatinum)
TLC – CrazySexyCool (11xplatinum)
VA - In The Beginning There Was Rap (gold)
VA – Mean Green Presents Major Players (gold)
OST – The Wood (gold)
VA – Independence Day (gold)
Bun-B – Trill (gold)
Scarface – Last Of A Dying Breed (gold)
Scarface – My Homies (platinum)
Def Squad – El Nino (gold)
Ludacris & DTP – Disturbing The Peace (gold)
Dave Hollister – Ghetto Hyms (gold)
Foxy Brown – Ill Na Na (platinum)
Jay-Z – In My Lifetime Vol. 1 (platinum)
Jay-Z – In My Lifetime Vol. 2 (5xplatinum)
Jermaine Dupri – Life in 1472 (platinum)
Lil’ Jon & The Eastside Boyz – Kings of Crunk (2xplatinum)
Lil’ Jon & The Eastside Boyz – Put Yo Hood Up (gold)
Notorious B.I.G. – Life After Death (10xplatinum)
Notorious B.I.G. – Born Again (2xplatinum)
Snoop Doggy Dogg – Tha Doggfather (2xplatinum)
OST – Rush Hour (platinum)
Digital Underground – Sons Of The P (gold)
Daz Dillinger – Retalitaion, Revenge & Get Back (gold)
Who I'd like to meet: http://www.discogs.com/artist/Pee-Wee
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Sean+G
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Shorty+B
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Too+Short
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Dangerous+Crew%2C+The
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Ant+Banks
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Spice+1
http://www.discogs.com/artist/Goldy+(2)
What's Goody!? It's ya BX Boy "J-HU$TLE" droppin' by 2 swagg ya page up a bit. It's a new year so check out some new music from a new artist. Download my street album, "BX Now Or Be Exed Out" w/ production from Young-Lee, P-God, & Stevie J. to name a few.... J-HU$TLE
Visions lead me to believe that the essential reason for us doubting our dreams is the assumption that we create in our mind that what we dream of or desire in this life does not exist... or we think to ourselves that its just something that is virtually impossible to reach... this is an illusion we tend to create in our minds and also the illusion we tend to believe... so often we feel down...Hopeless so i say this... instead of sitting there in doubt...confused drowning in a pool of negative thoughts... i feel we need to go out there do some research and dig for the truth... find out for ourselves if what we dream of or desire in life is really impossible or not... cause i tell u that by the time we figure out that what we want isn't impossible and at arms reach... most likely we'll be living in that dream we once believed could never be reality... -Nide A.k.a Timbaland Threat
Check out My New Song: "Impossible" Written, Produced, Arranged AND Sung!...By Meeee!
I APPRECIATE REAL FRIENDS LIKE YOU. I HAD TO TAKE THE TIME TO CHEC ON YOU AND LEAVE A ENCOURAGING COMMENT. LIL THINGS LIKE THIS CAN PIC YOU UP WHEN YOUR DOWN OR JUST BURNT OUT, (you feel me??) I HOPE YOU HAVE A BOMB WEEK TAKE CARE, MAKO CAPONE p.s. go to my #1 page if you wanna get @ me... www. myspace. com/makocapone
