Fourteen-year-old Robert Leonard Wood was one of the most sobering gangsta rappers to arrive when his mean-spirited, grizzled Shorty Mac persona released a harrowing album of street stories in 1996. How much of his life was fictionalized is a point of contention, but Wood's rhymes were world-weary views into the ghetto from the eyes of a teenager. Released on VTX Records in 1996, Shorty Mac was the most brutal and menacing child rapper to date, but he never followed up the record, instead joining DJ Screw's Texas-based clique for a series of guest appearances. In March of 2002, he was arrested for cocaine distribution and sentenced to ten years in prison. ~ Bradley Torreano