"I remember how it was in the begining," explains a story filled Lil Shorty as she talks of her climb, "Nothing ever seemed to go right. My music was crap. I had mediocre equipment. I mean I was recording with the Sound Recorder program that comes with Windows and a Radio Shack computer mic. I mean they came in very handy... but, can you believe that I actually was able to sell 150 copies of the crap... AND it was me singing!!! AGGHHHH!!!"
LiL Shorty has been into music as long as she can remember with most of her family teaching her dedication. Most of her family either played instruments, Dee-Jayed, or Singed at one point of their lives.
"I was brought up with many music styles. Of course, I fell in love with Hip Hop and R&B. My main love is R&B. But, no matter how much I love to sing, I can't." That may be a lil modest, with fans clinging on to her "Wishing it Was Me" track recorded over an instrumental called "How High" by Method Man and Redman. "I threw that track together fast as a filler on a demo created for a graduation project from school. I threw THAT on a website called 'Soundclick.com' only because it was on that album." If it sounded so bad, why did it last on the R&B internet charts for SoundClick at number one for three months?
LiL Shorty decided, however, to make a career out of producing and engineering music shortly after her mentor, DL Hopson, showed her some proper recording techniques. She loved to produce. She noticed one day, while scoping out a XXL Magazine that there was a school in Orlando, FL that would train her AND give her a degree in her chosen field.
After enrolling in and moving to college, Shorty began plans for the label. At first, it was just her, her friends that showed interest in music back home, and her new boyfriend. Eventually, she began to actually record and did some work with DEMO and Vattic from Two Opposites Productions out of Philly.
Not only did Shorty act as engineer and producer on these tracks, she also flowed sixteen on "Come on Down" and eight on "Sin." Shorty had an old school flow about her at the time. At the age of 17, she had been flowing for 7 years and writing lyrics for 8. Shorty wanted to make her own music though
Shorty began collecting beats from fellow producers just trying to get their stuff heard and added her own artists she was also collecting to them. It was okay, but she wanted to have her own music as well.
After the loss of an album and a half due to the nagging spyware villan scene, Shorty got back into the flow of making her own beats. Previously she had made beats, but they sounded too techno. That was in the years of 1999-2002, for those who don't remember, most of hip hop songs out then had dance remixes that hit the charts, hence the inspiration of those beats. Beats even previous to those were created while Shorty was in the 6th and 7th grades...
"My first actual production experiences came when I was real young, I remember playing two sometimes three stereos at one while recording the orchestra of sounds and voices on a little green radio. But, it's finally dead. I'm a mount it and put it on a wall in my first BIG studio."