1997 - 1998 - TSHQ was born on the internet on the first of Jan 1997 to give props due to the one rapper with the most props due.

Here was a rapper who had given up the game, at a time that he had reached the pinacle. At the press conference, in May 1996, just days before the release of Gettin' It, Too Short announced that he was retiring. The rap industry was shocked. His old records were pulled out and played over and over again in the wish that the rapper who "didn't stop rapping" would come back.

"I knew I was selling my self short [with Jive] and that being CEO, and that I could make a hell of a lot more money than turning out these records for Jive and getting a mere 15 percent. That's why I renegotiated a distribution deal for my new company, Short Records, he said two years later." (VIBE)

To everyone's delight, he started showing up on every major rapper's album. His music began appearing on soundtracks and as guest artist on other hip hop albums. The drought was finally broken with the release of "Nationwide - independence day : the compilation" a double CD released on his newly established label SHORT RECORDS. Too Short Records is Todd Shaw's opportunity to be the creative source aswell as the CEO behind projects. "To get ripped off financialy is one thing, but to not have creative control either? I couldn't see the next phase of my career being any of the above." Fans were eagerly awaiting the seemingly inevitable, the return of the mack.