ESL Hip Hop

Learn English with hip-hop and rap.

Too: You’re TOO hot to handle!

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The Wu-Tang Clan is an American hip-hop group from Staten Island, New York City. They are one of the biggest and most successful hip-hop groups on the East Coast. The Wu-Tang Clan has nine members, including RZA, GZA, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, Masta Killa and the late Ol€™ Dirty Bastard. The Wu-Tang Clan first became known in 1993 following the release of the independent single “Protect Ya Neck“, which immediately gave the group a sizable underground following (taken verbatim from Wikipedia).

I smoke on the mic like smoking Joe Frazier.
The hell-raiser, raising hell with the flavor.

Grammar: Using ‘Too’

Deep in the dark with the art to rip the charts apart.
The vandal, too hot to handle
You battle, you’re saying goodbye like Tevin Campbell

-Inspectah Deck

And also:

The Wu is too slamming for these cold, killing labels.
Some ain’t had hits since I seen Aunt Mabel.

-GZA

The adverb too is different than very, and they both have different meanings. Too means ‘more than enough’ or ‘more than necessary.’

  •  Busta Rhymes is a very fast rapper.
  • Twista is also a very fast rapper, but he is too fast. I can barely understand him!

Use ‘too’ before adjectives and never before nouns.

too + adjective

  • The Wu-Tang Clan is too good for mainstream rap labels. 
  • The music is too loud. Can you turn it down please?
  • Your sister is too old for me. I can’t date her!

too + noun & too + adjective + noun

Use too much before uncountable nouns and too many before countable nouns.

  • There is too much information on the Internet. How can I find reliable news?
  • I’ve brought too much lugggage with me, and I have to pay a lot of carry-on fees.
  • I have too many supervisors at my job. If I make a mistake, I hear about it from four different people.
  • He drinks too many cans of soda every day. That’s not healthy.

Here is another possible use:

too + adjective + infinitive

too + adjective + for + noun + infinitive

too + adjective + for + object pronoun + infinitive

  • It is too late to take the bus home. We have to walk or call a taxi.
  • It is too expensive for my company to hire those lawyers. We will look into another firm.
  • It is too cold for us to walk outside.

Writing Task

  • Is it possible to have too much of something? For example, can a person have too much love? Too much freedom? Too many friends?
  • Complete this sentence: You can never have too many _____.
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