Too $hort, one of the longest-running and most influential rappers to come out of the Bay Area, is headed to Eugene for a show at the WOW Hall on Friday, September 25, 2026. Tickets are on sale now, giving Oregon fans a chance to see a genuine hip-hop pioneer in a venue considerably more intimate than the arenas and festival stages he’s played over the course of his career.
And this isn’t just a nostalgia stop from an artist making the rounds on his old hits. At 60 years old, Too $hort is still recording, releasing new music, and touring more than four decades after he started selling homemade tapes around Oakland. Just this summer, he released his latest album, Sir Too $hort Vol. 2: Drink & Smoke, produced entirely by longtime collaborator Lil Jon. The album arrived exactly 20 years after the release of one of his biggest songs, “Blow the Whistle.”
In other words, Eugene isn’t getting a retired rap legend wheeled out for a victory lap. Too $hort is apparently still very much Too $hort.
More Than 40 Years of West Coast Hip-Hop
Born Todd Shaw, Too $hort began recording in the early 1980s and built his reputation the old-fashioned way: independently, locally, and with a whole lot of hustle…