Posted by Too $hort has recorded a lot of music since coming onto the scene in the early ’80s, and with that comes a ton of material that never ends up seeing the light of day. One of those cuts is a Dr. Dre collaboration called “Man’s Best Friend,” which was recorded during the Detox sessions.
Speaking to HipHopDX, $hort told a story about how the N.W.A great made him say the word “pussy” for four hours straight while recording the song.
“I did an eight-hour session to record the verse, then I did an eight-hour session to touch up the verse, and then he called me back for four hours just to say ‘the pussy’ for four hours,” he explained. “And when he played it back, I had no regrets. I never sounded like that in my life, and I only heard it a few times. I never got to hear it that much anymore. Other people told me about it, but it’s just one of those things, man. It’s in the universe somewhere. It was for Detox, but he also made 200 plus other songs for Detox, no shit.”
The Bay Area legend explained what it’s like to work with Dre and shared some advice he received from Snoop Dogg before linking up for the first time.
“I’m a studio guy, man, so I did my research,” he said. “I was like… I never worked with Dre, man, let me call some people that worked with Dre, and just see what’s up, just feel it out. And people kept saying, ‘It’s hard to work with Dre. It’s hard to work with Dre.’ Then I talked to Snoop, and he said, ‘Most motherfuckers can’t hang with Dr. Dre in the studio. He’ll break you down to your least compound and just shrivel you up, and you just walk out of there with your tail tucked between your fucking legs.’
He continued, “Snoop said, ‘It’s not going to make sense, some of the shit he tell you. Just do it. Whatever he says do, just do it.’ He said, ‘Don’t argue. Don’t get beside yourself. Just do it.’ So when he had me saying ‘the pussy’ for four hours, I was just like, ‘All right. We going to do this shit, Dre. Whatever the fuck,’ because I’m like, ‘I’m not leaving with my tail between my legs, bro. Whatever you, I’ma say.’
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The day they recorded the track, $hort had a girl with him who had a physical reaction to all the “pussy” talk going on in the booth.
“I had a chick with me that day,” he said. “She was hanging out with me, one of my little regulars, and she… ’cause Dre kept saying, he said, ‘say ‘the pussy,’ so I’m like, ‘the pussy.’ Then he got me. He’s like, ‘say the pussy!’ So now, I’m going, ‘the pussy!’ And he’s like, ‘No, the pussy!’ We did that shit for four fucking hours. She said, ‘Y’all had my pussy so wet.’ She said, ‘Y’all said the pussy so much, I was just sitting up there wet. Y’all just kept saying the pussy.’ She said, ‘My pussy was reacting.’
$hort crossed paths with Dre in 1997 when he was on the intro for Scarface’s “Game Over,” which featured production and two verses from Dre, with Ice Cube on the hook. In 2018, Dre appeared on $hort’s “Dr. Dre Interlude” off The Pimp Tape, in which he praised him for his longevity in the rap game.
Dre is also set to feature on $hort, E-40, Cube and Snoop’s upcoming collaborative album as a quartet.