Too $hort: Can't Stay Away

When Oakland rapper Too $hort announced his retirement in 1996, hip-hop insiders speculated that he was trying to score more money from his record company. Now, to the surprise of almost no one, he's back, and while his comeback isn't quite a Michael Jordan-like return to greatness, it isn't a Ryne Sandberg-esque embarrassment, either. In an industry filled with rappers with tunnel vision, Too $hort still stands out as an almost comically monomaniacal figure. Many years ago, he started rhyming about hoes, pimping, and kicking game, and 16 years later, he's still rhyming about the macking arts, only now with lush, organic beats and occasional, characteristically blunt raps about his business acumen and lavish lifestyle. And while a psychiatrist would have a field day with his much-noted obsession with receiving oral gratification, as well as his virulent misogyny, $hort has always been as consistent as he is single-minded. Almost every track on Can't Stay Away is devoted to either chasing hoes or chasing money, with $hort kicking an X-rated variation on "88 Lines About 44 Women" on the "Freaky Tales" sequel "More Freaky Tales," flossing with Jay-Z on "Here We Go," and paying homage to meaningless, degrading sex with Daz Dillinger, E-40, and Soopa Fly on "You Might Get G'eed." Alas, all is not well in the world of Too $hort, however, as the artist must deal with a dearth of worthwhile groupies on the melancholy "What Happened To The Groupies" and bravely fight off booty-impaired vixens on "The Invasion Of The Flat Booty Bitches." It's all done competently, if a bit joylessly, as if pimping is such hard labor that it's difficult to get worked up about it anymore. The sleeve for Can't Stay Away contains an ad for $hort's next work, the descriptively titled The Dirty Album, which will hopefully find $hort abandoning his trademark socioeconomic theorizing in favor of songs about women, fucking, and the fine art of pimping.