E-40

Synonymous with Bay Area rap, E-40 built a devoted regional following prior to gaining national exposure with flamboyant rhymes peppered by slang inventive and extensive enough to warrant a lexicon. Throughout his career, E-40′s entrepreneurial spirit has cultivated a flourishing scene in communities such as Oakland and his native Vallejo. Among the first Bay Area rappers to sign to a major label, E-40 went platinum with his first release for Jive, 1995′s In a Major Way. Through the 2000s, he added to his major-label discography with albums that regularly debuted within the Top Ten of the R&B/hip-hop chart, highlighted by 1996′s Tha Hall of Game, 1998′s The Element of Surprise, and 2006′s My Ghetto Report Card, all three of which went gold. Each release proved highly influential, not only on the West Coast but also in the South. The breadth of the tracks on which he is featured, including Lil Jon’s platinum “Snap Yo Fingers” (2006) and Big Sean’s multi-platinum “I Don’t Fuck with You” (2014), is another representation of the esteem in which he is held. Concurrently, the Bay Area rap scene, invigorated by the hyphy sound it cultivated, grew in popularity. It had no bigger champion than E-40, who continued to crank out multiple full-length projects on an annual basis, including 2010′s Revenue Retrievin', 2012′s The Block Brochure, and 2016′s six volume The D-Boy Diary. The Gift of Gab arrived in 2018, followed by 2019′s Practice Makes Paper which hit number 32 on Billboard’s Top Hip-Hop/R&B Albums chart. Along with collaborations with Wiz Khalifa, K Camp, and Suga Free, in 2022 he formed the supergroup Mount Westmore with Too $hort, Ice Cube, and Snoop Dogg.
Born Earl Stevens on November 15, 1967, in Vallejo, California, E-40 made his rap debut in 1990 on Let’s Side, an EP by the Click. The EP was co-produced by Mike Mosley and Al Eaton. In 1993, E-40 made his solo album debut, Federal, a nine-track LP/14-track CD produced by Studio Ton and released by Sick wid' It in association with SMG (Solar Music Group), a regional distributor. In 1994, on the strength of the regionally popular, independently released single “Captain Save a Hoe” (aka “Captain Save ’Em Thoe”) from the six-track Mail Man EP, E-40 signed a recording contract with Jive Records, the home of Bay Area pioneer Too $hort since 1987. Jive re-released “Captain Save a Hoe” on 12″ and also re-released the Mail Man EP, adding two bonus tracks; all the songs on the EP, including “Captain Save a Hoe,” were produced by Studio Ton, except one of the bonus tracks, “Ballin’ Out of Control,” which was produced by Mike Mosley and Sam Bostic.
In 1995 alone, Jive released four E-40 albums: a reissue of the Click’s Down and Dirty; Game Related, a newly recorded album by the Click; a reconfigured version of Federal; and In a Major Way, a newly recorded album produced by Studio Ton, Mike Mosley/Sam Bostic, and Funk Daddy. Of these numerous releases, In a Major Way proved E-40′s breakthrough. Featuring a collaboration with fellow Bay Area hardcore rappers 2Pac, Mac Mall, and Spice 1, “Dusted ‘n’ Disgusted,” in addition to several songs that would also become fan favorites, the album sold over one million copies and took the rapper’s career to a new level of respectability.
Beginning with Tha Hall of Game (1996), E-40 released six additional solo albums on Jive — The Element of Surprise (1998), Charlie Hustle: The Blueprint of a Self-Made Millionaire (1999), Loyalty and Betrayal (2000), Grit & Grind (2002), Breakin News (2003) — plus one further album by the Click, Money & Muscle (2001). Over the course of these albums, E-40 maintained his regional following and picked up additional fans nationally. Besides “Captain Save a Hoe,” two of his Jive singles charted on the Billboard Hot 100 (“1-Luv,” 1995; “Things’ll Never Change,” 1996). During the late ’90s, E-40 was also featured on Southern rap albums such as 8ball’s Lost, Master P’s MP da Last Don, and Scarface’s My Homies in 1998 alone.
E-40’s ties to the South became most clear in 2006, after the expiration of his contract with Jive, when he partnered with Lil Jon and his BME Recordings label for My Ghetto Report Card, released in association with Warner Bros. The album — featuring production from Lil Jon as well as Bay Area beatmakers Droop-E, Rick Rock, Studio Ton, and Bosko — was E-40’s most successful in years, and it marked his return to the Billboard Hot 100 with a pair of impressively charting singles: “Tell Me When to Go,” featuring Keak da Sneak (number 35), and “U and Dat,” featuring T-Pain (number 13). That year, he also appeared on Lil Jon’s platinum hit “Snap Yo Fingers.” His 2008 effort The Ball Street Journal featured the Lil Jon production “Break Ya Ankles” as its lead single, followed by the Akon feature “Wake It Up.”
Two years later, E-40 returned with the Revenue Retrievin' project, a double album split into two separate releases. The Day Shift version featured the more street-oriented cuts, while the Night Shift version was filled with club tracks. The project turned into a quadrilogy in 2011 with the simultaneous release of his 13th (the varied Revenue Retrievin': Overtime Shift) and 14th (the very dark Revenue Retrievin': Graveyard Shift) albums. A year later, he returned with another batch of releases, this time divided into three single discs titled The Block Brochure: Welcome to the Soil, Pt. 1, 2, and 3. The year 2014 saw the launch of a four-part album as Sharp on All 4 Corners: Corner 1 and Corner 2 landed. Sharp on All 4 Corners: Corner 3 and Corner 4 were scheduled for 2015 but were preceded the following year by “books” one and two of The D-Boy Diary. Meanwhile, E-40’s status as a venerable Bay Area fixture was sustained with appearances on hits by Big Sean (the multi-platinum “I Don’t Fuck with You”), Ty Dolla $ign (“Saved”), and Yo Gotti (“Law”).
In 2018, E-40 collaborated with B-Legit for Connected and Respected, contributed to the soundtrack for the Oakland-set Blindspotting, and released the full-length album The Gift of Gab. Practice Makes Paper, promoted with “Chase the Money” — featuring Quavo, Roddy Ricch, A$AP Ferg, and ScHoolboy Q — arrived the next year. He returned in May 2020 with the EP The Curb Commentator Channel 1, featuring appearances by Wiz Khalifa, Suga Free, K Camp, and B-Legit. Terms & Conditions, a collaboration with Too $hort, arrived that December and was followed in March 2021 by the single “I Stand on That,” featuring T.I. and Joyner Lucas. In 2022, he debuted his supergroup Mount Westmore, comprising Too $hort, Ice Cube, and Snoop Dogg. He also issued the singles “It’s Hard Not To” (with Sada Baby) and “In the Air Where It’s Fair” (with Cousin Fik). ~ Jason Birchmeier & Andy Kellman