In 2006, Oakland rapper Too $hort released one of his most successful hits “Blow The Whistle.” The Lil Jon-produced track spent 13 weeks on Billboard’s Hot Rap Songs chart, peaking at No. 21. Although it came out well before the start of the streaming era, “Blow the Whistle” has racked up 18 million streams on Spotify and 20 million YouTube views since it was added to those platforms.

Too Short has a long and prolific career, to the point that you might not expect the Bay Area rapper to remember the many songs he’s recording. In a new interview, Short proves that’s far from the case. We played him some short snippets of some of his songs, which caused him to instantly launch into some detailed stories on his songs.

Too $hort is planning on retiring, for real this time. Although he won’t be kissing the rap game goodbye for good, Short is planning on releasing his final album early next year. But before he can do that, the Oakland legend has an EP called 19,999 dropping on November 4th. Complex spent a day with $hort Dawg in Los Angeles chilling on Fairfax and hitting stores like Pink Dolphin and KAYO. They talked about growing old in the rap game, why it’s hard for rappers to last in the business, and how international rappers might be the next wave.