Rappers Too $hort, Mistah F.A.B. celebrate 50 years of hip hop at San Francisco concert

Oakland hip hop legend Too $hort, whose real name is Todd Shaw, headlined the 50th anniversary of hip hop concert in San Francisco Sunday, put on by SF-based record label EMPIRE. 

Too $hort, who had a string of platinum albums in the 80s and 90s, started rapping when he was 14 years old. Shortly after, he started selling tapes. 

"First, it was out of a paper bag. We didn't have a car at first; we would catch the bus. We'd get off and walk from neighborhood to neighborhood. Later, we got a car," he said. 

He later sold tapes out of the trunk of his car. He said he also rapped at high school dances and house parties in East Oakland. By the time he was 20, he was performing sold-out shows across the country and became part of commercialized hip hop. 

"I think that it's all embedded in the Bay Area spirit of 'do it yourself' when it comes to music and so many other things," $hort said. "Being as that we're kind of alienated from the mass market, LA and NY, we're our own thing."

Oakland rapper Mistah F.A.B., whose career began in the late 90s, was among Sunday's concert performers. He calls $hort his 'hip hop dad.'

Just like him, F.A.B. made tapes in his room. 

"We were popular kids in high school, so we were using our popularity as a way of influence to sell our music. And it's the Too $hort formula — It's the Todd Shaw University," said F.A.B. "Everything that I do is a Too $hort base."

Today, the rapper and entrepreneur, who started the Dope Era brand, continues to perform and give back to his community.

"To be a child of it, to grow in it, to love it, to watch people go from calling little Stanley, Mistah F.A.B. to me, it's a dream come true," he said. 

$hort's advice for anyone who wants to make it in the industry is 'don't stop rappin'.'' 

"When I got in a real studio and I made an album, they said, 'What do you want to name your album?' and I said uh 'Don't Stop Rappin,' and it was my philosophy," he said. "If you give me the mic, and there's a crowd, and there's a dope beat playing, I'm going to start rapping, and the crowd's going to love it. And I'm never going to stop; you're going to have to tell me stop," he said.