Magnolia Shorty - Biography
By Eric Brightwell
Magnolia Shorty is a bounce rapper from New Orleans who was the first female MC to record with Cash Money Records. She’s still active today both as a solo artist, as well as paired with fellow Cash Money veteran, Ms. Tee.
Shaliene Muhammad was nicknamed Magnolia Shorty due to her diminutive stature and roots in Uptown’s notorious Magnolia Projects, which also produced rappers Juvenile, Mr. Marcello, 6-Shot, Soulja Slim (who originally rapped as Magnolia Slim) and others. When she signed with Cash Money, she was the first female rapper to join the label’s ranks. Her sole album for the label, recorded in 1996, is also notable for being the first Cash Money release to feature Juvenile.
Not only was Monkey on the D$ck (Cash Money), released in February, 1997, Magnolia Shorty’s last album for the label but, to date it’s her last album at all. In an era and scene known for bizarre album covers, Monkey on the D$ck’s image of to be-thonged girls with bullet braces and war helmets facing a large, irradiating, disembodied Chimpanzee visage is on a level of bizarreness all by itself. Befitting the rapper’s stature, the album is itself incredibly short – just 21 minutes long and, as with many of Cash Money’s independent-era records, sounds like it was recorded in a single, lazy afternoon. The albums opener, “Manny Fresh (Cash Money Style)” doesn’t even feature her. There’s also a radio version of “Monkey on the D$ck,” another bounce classic, “Charlie Whop!!,” the wordless “Soldier Chant,” and “Magnolia $horty” (featuring BG and Juvenile).
That same year she brought a sixteen-year-old rapper and fellow Magnolia resident to the label, Young Turk. She appeared on “3rd Ward Solja,” off Juvenile’s seminal Solja Rags but by the time Cash Money signed a major deal with Universal in 1998, they had parted ways with their original roster and Magnolia Shorty never again recorded with them. Although she last appeared on a track of a 2007 mixtape Louisiana Cartel (UnderGround Funk Entertainment), she remains popular in New Orleans, where she performs regularly and writes songs like “That’s My Juvie” that, though never been put to record, are well-known. Despite her brief recording career, echoes of Magnolia Shorty’s highly repetitive, crude and lewd bounce are more in evidence than most old school bounce artists by today’s flamboyant sissy rappers. Most recently Shorty’s joined forces with fellow Cash Money veteran Ms. Tee as Gudda Girlz. Working with DJ EF Cutting, they’re said to be working on a new album.
