Ice Cube has reflected, fondly, on the life of Da Lench Mob rapper Shorty, giving his friend his fair share of praise in a new documentary.
The film, which is called Comin’ Up Short, details the life of the late rapper (real name Jerome Muhammad) and how he went from being a gang-banger to a rapper and a respected community leader. Fans are offered a unique perspective as it is narrated by Shorty himself.
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“When my man Shorty joined us in Da Lench Mob, I knew we had a real soldier with us,” he said in the clip. “One thing about Shorty is, he always gave 100 percent with everything he did. So you know, whether it was rollin’ with the homies, he gave 100 percent. Rollin’ with Da Lench Mob, he gave 100 percent. Rollin’ with Islam, he gave 100 percent.”
He continued: “You’ll never find a dude that’s more loyal. He was our conscience in a lot of ways. He would tell us things like how we should be living, the things that we needed to stay away from.”
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In addition to appearing in the film, Ice Cube is also one of its executive producers. Comin’ Up Short, which has been on the festival circuit since 2021, is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
Check out Cube’s comments below.
Fans of Da Lench Mob know that Shorty passed away in 2019 of kidney and liver failure. Though he was only 51 years old, he is survived by 7 children, two grandchildren, his mother, one older brother and younger sister.
But back in 2017, Shorty sat down with other members of Da Lench Mob — including Threi and Chilly Chill — to discuss their time protecting the N.W.A deflector and revealed it was a lot more hardcore than people realize.
“With all the madness from ‘Fuck Tha Police’ and all the other stuff we was getting, all the hate stuff coming down from up top, we had to bond together outside of rap and it had to be brothers surviving and we had to make sure that dude got in and out of the facility,” Threi said at the time. “It wasn’t like rap it was like ‘Ok, this is my dude and we gone get you in and you gone get out of here. We gonna get out as one unit.’”
After the group compared protecting Cube to providing security for the president of the United States, Chilly Chill chimed in with all of the measures of protection they took.
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“Bats, straps, all that,” he started. “When I was on stage, I had 9’s in my turntable cases. That was back then when you was able to put straps and guns in your turntable case and put ’em up under the airplane,” he said.
