Too $hort Says Mount Westmore Pays More For A Fraction Of The Work

Too $hort said sharing a stage with Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube and E-40 paid him more for a lot less work.

REVOLT released his “Effective Immediately” interview with DJ Hed and Gina Views on October 29. The rapper put his Mount Westmore workload at 20 to 25 percent of a solo show. He did not name a dollar amount.

“The best side hustle I’ve ever had in my life.”

He traced the group to E-40’s pandemic phone calls. Ice Cube came up with the name, and Too $hort needed little convincing to join.

His praise for the group’s earning power goes back years. In a 2022 SPIN interview, Too $hort explained that Mount Westmore brought in business without taking away his solo offers. He said the group had already earned millions before its December album release. He also saw it as proof that veteran rappers could keep building careers rather than step aside because of their age.

Ice Cube described a similar benefit in the studio during that interview. Each member only had to deliver one verse per song instead of carrying an entire album alone. That did not mean anyone could coast: Cube said a weak contribution would stand out next to the other three MCs.

Finding time for the group has been another matter. In an April interview with AllHipHop, Too $hort said the members’ busy lives made it hard to coordinate. They wanted to play shows and put out more music, but each had plenty going on outside Mount Westmore.

At that point, he said they had recorded enough material for three albums. Their talks centered on whether to release those songs as recorded or build new tracks from them. The issue was how to shape the music they already had, rather than start another round of recording from scratch.

Money was not his only measure of value in the current REVOLT conversation. Asked about protecting his signature B-word, Too $hort said requiring permission would have kept it from spreading through pop culture. Hearing it in films, television and other artists’ songs was its own reward.

He made a similar argument on “Big Facts” in 2022, describing Hip-Hop’s phrases and styles as contributions for others to use.

In the new interview, he put it this way: “Every time you run it, you just pay me.”