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Oh Bay-bee! He’s been flying below the national radar for a couple of years. After 2004’s, Best of E-40: Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow, with the South on his side and the Bay on his back, E-40 seems ready to spearhead not just the Hyphy movement, but a northern California uprising.
“The Bay area is the West Coast also, but right now it’s a Bay area sound … L.A., San Diego, everywhere, they all embrace it. They embrace our sound. We’re all in it together, you know? … We’ve just been going through it for so long. … It’s just our time,” states 40.
“Even though it was a drought on the West Coast, especially in the Bay for a good 10 years, ever since Tupac passed away, I held on like a hubcap in the fast lane and kept carrying the Bay on my back. And now that I’m seeing we’re getting our shine again, and I’m being the battering ram kicking in the door for us, I’m trying to make it easier for all my Bay partners to come on in and display their skills, ’cause we do it all in the Bay, man. … We some of the coldest, man.”
The 12th time seems to be the charm in the case of Earl “E-40” Stevens. Not that his previous records were failures by any means. He’s hit gold three times and gained platinum status with his musical family, The Click, with 1995’s In A Major Way. Though he has tasted platinum, the term “regional” is one that 40 has never made a clean break with. Heavy radio and video support should make the breakup painless and amicable once and for all.
“I’m in it for the long run. It’s gon’ be a grind, and I’m just breaking in this new Hyphy movement to the world.”
With his latest opus, “My Ghetto Report Card,” debuting at #1 on Billboard’s R&B/Hip Hop chart and #3 on its Top 200, he’s off to his best-ever start. “The reason I named it that was, because in my soil, in the ghetto my report card is straight A’s across the board. I just wanted to touch all angles of the game with my album. I got a mixture of a little bit of everything.” After 10 years with Jive Records, 40 released My Ghetto Report Card via Warner/BME/Sik Wid It/Reprise on March 14, exactly 11 years—to the day—after releasing his only RIAA-certified platinum album. Coincidence? Maybe. Ironic? Sure; and who doesn’t love irony?
E-40 has always been known to be an original Hip hop artist, which is somewhat of an oxymoron in today’s game. It’s as if everybody was in line waiting to receive their Hip Hop manuals, and somehow he received a different copy. His style, wordplay and countless slang concoctions/contributions have always been deemed ahead of the rest. Some of it earned him a cult following. Some of it turned folks off.
“If you’re talking about something that they don’t know, sometimes people can be late like FEMA and catch it two or three years down the line,” he says. Now, some of it turning on those once off and turning out many new to his “start, stop and go, scoot-type” style. “A lot of cats that never heard of me are starting to learn about me and my history.”
My Ghetto Report Card’s lead single, the Lil Jon-produced “Tell Me When to Go,” featuring Keak Da Sneak is Hyphy 101 for those new to Crunk music’s younger cousin.
The mixture of E-40 and Lil Jon may seem a bit … strange, but it’s unordinary connections like these that in the ears of many, often bring beautiful musical results: Eminem and Elton John, Kanye West, Jon Brion and Adam Levine, Jay-Z and Linkin Park etc. Agree, or disagree, or agree to disagree.
Jon and 40 first joined forces alongside Bun B, 8Ball and Petey Pablo on “Rep Yo City” from E-40’s 2002 release, Grit & Grind. “That was a winner, and we knew our chemistry was there. My raps over Lil Jon tracks is just ‘A plus.’” Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz re-released the song on their Kings of Crunk LP later that year.
Hyphy—a term coined by Keak Da Sneak— “Means energy, being energetic, free, letting yourself go. It’s a stress reliever,” voices 40. “Now we’re getting off into the movement. It’s the dance; it’s the cars. It’s the culture, the clothes, the way we talk.” The video for “Tell Me When To Go”—directed by Bernard Gourley—is a four minute, 95mph, black and white fastball to the face. “It’s vintage E-40, but it just got a new school twist.” It’s a new Bay.
It’s a twist many are happy to hear. In an age where some younger Hip Hop fans consider The Notorious B.I.G. to be “old school,” E-40 may also make that cut in their eyes, but he’s a vet, and it’s a vet’s job to take care of the young pups.
E-40
Hyphy or not, Bay area, Califoolya or just plain Hip Hop artist, 40 stayed true to himself musically and allowed his evolution to come naturally. “You gotta make the Hip Hop fans nowadays believe in what you’re doing. A lot of times they can see right through you and see if your game goofy.”
My Ghetto Report Card contains a host of features including: UGK, Turf Talk, Mike Jones, Juelz Santana, Too $hort, T-Pain among others and production work from Lil Jon, Rick Rock (Tupac, Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes, Xzibit) and 40’s son, Little E aka. Droop-E.
Aside from music, he went half on a Fatburger with former Oakland Raider, Chester McGlockton, the rights to 10 Fatburger franchises in NoCal to be exact. The first is approximately 10 months old. The days of running wild in the streets and selling music from his car are long gone for Earl Stevens.
“When I was a little young mustache, talking too the OGs, they used to always say, ‘You gotta always have something to fall back on, and don’t try to make this street hustin’, flea flickin’ thing an occupation, because you’ll want to do it forever. You gotta be in and out.’ I always paid attention to the older cats. That’s just me just being a student of the game and listening.”
He currently has spot dates scheduled in Georgia, Oregon, California, and a tour is in the works. The stars are aligning for E-40. Prepare for the light show.
“The rap game without E-40 is like a pie without crust.”
Who likes pie without crust?
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