Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: Bay Area rap great Too $hort is having a career resurgence. After four-plus decades in the game, that’s one of hip-hop’s most dependable headlines. But $hort Dawg’s VOL. 2 (DRINK & SMOKE) comes to fans in the middle of a 2026 that saw him guesting on projects from Jill Scott, Mýa, and Baby Keem, the beloved Las Vegas MC who helped introduce Short’s influential brand of game-spitting to another generation of hip-hop fans. If the predecessor to Vol. 2, 2025’s SIR TOO $HORT, VOL. 1 (FREAKY TALES), marks the beginning of yet another reintroduction, let us rejoice in the latest season of $hort. VOL. 2 (DRINK & SMOKE) is exactly what fans have come to know and love about $hort, doubling down on the charisma, humor, and game that made him an institution in the first place. The guest list reads like a West Coast convening of allies. Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, and E-40 congregate on “Good Coochie,” Suga Free pops up on “I’m Not a Square,” and Saweetie waves a flag for her generation on “That’s My Bih.” The majority of production comes by way of $hort’s most infamous collaborator, Atlanta’s Lil Jon, whose bombastic backdrops—some 20 years removed from their monumental “Blow the Whistle”—affirm that you can’t keep a good Dawg down.