The Ghetto (Too Short song)

"The Ghetto"
Single by Too Short
from the album Short Dog's in the House
Released	October 8, 1990
Format	CD single
Genre	Conscious hip hop, gangsta rap
Length	5:00
Label	Jive
Writer(s)	Todd Shaw
Producer(s)	Too Short
Too Short singles chronology
"Life Is... Too Short" (1989) "The Ghetto" (1990) "Short But Funky" (1990)

"The Ghetto" is a 1990 single by Oakland rapper Too Short from his album Short Dog's in the House. The song was featured on the fictional radio station Radio Los Santos in the videogame Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and the animated television series Sabrina, the Animated Series. {citation needed} The instrumental was based on the Donny Hathaway song of the same name. The song discusses the struggles of living in the ghetto and the difficulty of getting out of the ghetto to live a more successful life. It also discusses issues such as drug abuse and racial pride. Too Short is mostly known for his raps relating to sex and women, however he did have some songs with a deeper message and serious economic and social commentary, "The Ghetto" being an example of this. The song charted at number one for several weeks, and has since sold over 2,785,000 copies.

On the cassette version of the album Short Dog's in the House, "The Ghetto" is extended to 5:58, which features a segment of one of the Last Poets' speeches "Die Nigga". After Too Short's 4th verse, he says "For all you brothas runnin' around here usin' that "n-word", lets the original rappers kick the last verse", for which then the segment comes in.

Chart positions