Too $hort

Get off the Stage marks Too $hort's 17th album — not counting compilations and reissues — but it's also the end of an era. It's his last for Jive, the label he's been associated with since 1988. "I'm a legend in the game," he says on "Shittin' on 'Em," adding, "I got the most albums and the most rhymes." Unfortunately Get off the Stage isn't one of Too $hort's better records. There's a more interesting album to be made from just compiling his guest appearances over the past two years. Get Off's 10 songs mostly regurgitate past work; it's difficult to believe the rapper has never made a song called "Broke Bitch" before. The production switches between hyphy and crunk without adding much to either, which is great if you like generic strip-club anthems with Lil' Jon-esque beats. Highlights include the title track, notable if for no other reason than $hort's signature phrase — biatch! — being applied to the male gender for perhaps the first time. "This My One," featuring another Bay Area legend, E-40, finds $hort advocating for the legalization of sideshows, while "Dum Ditty Dum" adds the Pack's youthful energy over a rambunctious Young L track. Throughout the rest of Get Off, $hort is either mean-spirited, misogynistic, or both. It would be nice to hear Todd Shaw reflect on the lessons he's learned over the past two decades; instead we get Too $hort recycling lines over updated beats.