“You know how people say everything comes full circle – this just gave me that kind of feeling,” said Jordan Johnson, better known as Shorty Da Prince.
On Thursday Hot 104.1 FM sent their listeners in a delightful frenzy when they announced that the radio and television personality would be returning to St. Louis radio in the evening slot (7 p.m. – midnight).
On Monday he graced local airwaves for the first time in more than five years.
“I’ve been to six or seven cities doing this and just the fact that I’m coming home – this is home, not something I have to figure out,” Shorty said.
“It’s home … that’s what excites me most! And I get to bring some of the following and attention that I’ve gained from all these cities and different platforms and bring it back to my city.”
Shorty has enjoyed a fairytale experience as a media personality. It was an unbelievable overnight success that is still moving full speed ahead more than a decade later.
As a tween he would call into popular hip-hop radio personality Dwight Stone’s afternoon show and play the infamous “D. Stone Karaoke.”
Not long after he became a regular, the now defunct 100.3 The Beat FM held a contest in search of a new radio personality that would have an abbreviated slot early Saturday morning. Most listeners still remember it – and the fact that Shorty (then known as Shorty Da Kid) won by a landslide.
What they might not be aware of is that he originally turned the opportunity down.
“I started writing raps in fifth grade, so I was like, ‘I want to be a rapper,’” Shorty said. “I didn’t think that this would get me to that, or whatever. And D. Stone broke that down to me. He was like, ‘Yo, you don’t know what kind of doors this can open.’”
So he went from being a rapper who liked to call into the radio to a radio personality who rapped. His career instantly took off. He was in the seventh grade. Shorty became a radio star before his voice had even changed.
“Sitting in the studio at 12 years old on Saturday morning, I didn’t think of where radio would take me or if I would be back 12 years later or any of that,” Shorty said. “I was just a kid on Saturday morning doing my show waiting to go get my J’s at Northwest Plaza.”
St. Louis listened to him grow up and grow into his position as one of the most popular urban jocks in the region.
He had a radio hit of his own with “Wah Wah Wow (Ol’ Ratchet)” – which became a St. Louis club classic in the summer of 2008. The song helped put the term “ratchet” –now a regular part of urban slang – on the map nationally.
BET and back
Twelve years of experience means that Shorty has been in radio for half of his life, and what started in St. Louis has since gone national and come back again.
He and the Beat parted ways just before the station changed formats. He moved to Hot 104.1 FM. Then an opportunity for a slot at Radio One’s Detroit affiliate Hot 107.5 FM became available.
This time around, a 19-year-old Shorty jumped at the opportunity.
“I had never been there before a day in my life,” Shorty said. “God works in mysterious ways. I just let him show me what He’s got. I thought, ‘If I go there and do terrible, home is still going to be there.’”
Shorty didn’t have to worry. He soon became the top jock in Detroit, which paved the way for him to land a co-host spot on BET’s popular countdown show “106 and Park.”
BET eventually opted to whittle the “106 and Park” hosts down to rapper/actor Bow Wow (now known professionally as Shad Moss) plus a rotating female co-host.
“It kind of knocked me off of my block,” Shorty said. “But I got back in my zone before I found out about the St. Louis thing – and it was like, ‘Now they’re bringing me home.’ I’m excited about what I’m about to do.”
Shorty made his way back to radio. He’s currently syndicated in the major markets of Washington, D.C. and Cleveland.
“Radio One is showing me love – and giving me a heavier workload,” Shorty said. “But I told them to come on.”
Two days before his return to Hot 104.1, his electric energy about the whole idea of it was infectious.
“Shout out to Boogie D. and the whole Radio One family,” Shorty said. “The hardest thing about all of this was they told me – and then told me I couldn’t tell anybody. The toughest thing was trying to not let it out.”
Shorty Da Prince (with DJ Cuddy) will be on air weeknights from 7 p.m. – midnight on Hot 104.1 FM. For more information, visit www.hot1041stl.com.
