M.C. Shy-D* – I've Gotta Be Tough

Classic hip hop piece . . . . . .

If anyone is curious where this sample comes from it's Earth, Wind & Fire ‎– Brazilian Rhyme. An edit of which can be found on https://www.discogs.com/Earth-Wind-Fire-Brazilian-Rhyme-Runnin/release/11430860

There are a few copies of this on red vinyl clear and solid red ,very rare but there out there !

I agree 100% with Kramtronix. I was bouncing back and forth between Tallahassee and Tampa back then and I can definitely say that this jam woke people up about Shy D. And I may take it a step further and say people woke up about Georgia rappers altogether. Rap Will Never die and Shy D Is Back got little to no airplay in Fla & GA. But when this dropped... Everywhere you went, the flea market, urban clothing stores in the mall and definitely the clubs, you heard this track. And on every radio station. DJ Man and Kool Kollie also got so much more credibility after this (and a few other tracks) which gave them the ability to start working with other artists and help them make a name for themselves as well. Now don't get me wrong when I say this, cause the FLA will always be the true birthplace of Southern rap. But things changed in the next few years. Atlanta producers and rappers such as Kollie, DJ Man, DJ Toomp, Success N Affect, etc, no longer had to move to Miami to make it in the rap game. I would say that this Miami/Atlanta collaborated track was what really opened the doors for Atlanta to be the behemoth in the rap game that it has become today.

Indeed. Shy-D had two releases on 4-Sight, then released this in September of 1986.

Additionally, this was the record that put Shy-D on the map. No one in Florida really played his first two 4-Sight singles too much. They more of filler-type records. The Luke Skyywalker team put that well-defined, hard-hitting 808 bass in this one, and that's what we wanted down south. From the fall of 86 to the summer of 87, ever Chevy Caprice and Cadillac Brougham in the state had this song rattlin' their trunks.

this should go after Shy-D's 4 Sight records releases, probably his first 12" on Luke Skyywalker, released in fall of 1986