E-40: Living Legend
Platinum plaques, yet no major magazine covers, if anybody has reason to complain, it would be the creator of over half of hip hop’s slang, E-40. Yet, while prepping for the release of his albums Revenue Retrievin’: Overtime Shift and Revenue Retrievin’: Graveyard Shift , the bay area legend tells The Well Versed why he’s not mad at the game, and talks about the other album he’s dropping this year.
The Well Versed: Ok, so right now you have your album coming out, Revenue Retrievin.’ This will be Overtime Shift and Graveyard Shift, correct ?
E-40: Yeah, it’s just a continuation to the Revenue Retrievin’ series. All brand new songs, 20 songs on each one, with 2 bonus songs on iTunes, so basically 22 songs on both of them.
TWV: When we look at athletes, like Kobe Bryant, who’ve won championships and are still going at it, we say, ‘He’s not really competing with these kids out there, he’s competing with those who came before him.’ In the rap game, nobody really came before and did it like you. Other than the money, what’s your motivation?
E-40- To be honest with you, if I had a million dollars, I’d still be rapping. Even if I was just making the music for myself and not selling it, I just really have a passion for music. I played in the band from 4th grade all the way up to high school. For years I played the drums. Back then, wasn’t no Pro Tools or studios in every city and every corner. There wasn’t none of that. Drums was our form of music. That was our outlet to even get close to making a record. That shows I really love music… and I got a message, I got something to say. A lot of people be like “What the hell is he saying?” I really don’t speak a lot of these square’s language. I’m gamed up bruh. You feel me? The streets, the inner city, I cater to the urban life. Those who want to feel me, they feel me. Those who are closed minded and set tripping about east coast/west coast, they can miss me and get somewhere where they love them at. I got a nice fan base of about 24 years, I’m not slowing down. I’m aging backwards, all gas, no brake pads. I’m running circles around a lot rappers’ favorite rappers.
TWV: Yea, that’s what I was getting at, you’re not slowing down…
E-40- And being in my own lane, doing what I want to do…now that I’m independent too?
TWV: That’s another thing, I don’t really hear anybody from the Bay, complain about the rap game. You hear a lot of rappers say “Ah, the game is sour now.” I don’t hear E-40 come out and say “I’m having these issues.” You always seem to drop your music, and do what you want to do. Why do you think the issues other rappers do?
E-40- I don’t feel there’s a reason to gripe. If I was gonna gripe, I could have griped a long time ago. Things like me never being on the cover of Source or XXL or any of the bigger magazines after all these years I’ve had gold and platinum albums. I feel that doesn’t do nothing but make me stronger. My lingo being looked over or taken and other people use it. I don’t gripe about none of that. I keep it wigglin, people say, “That’s what you should be tripping on, your lingo, and how you started the independent thing, and how everybody got rich on it. And you got rich, but not as rich as them, and your style, how everybody took that you rap fast and turn into their own thing.”
Man, I’m in my own lane, I’m E-40. When you hear my voice, you know it’s E-40. You know when my songs come on. I take an uptempo slap, and put some game behind my rap. It’s just me. I created the Mob music scene, along with Too Short, Mob Music, The Click. The condition of rap definitely ain’t how it used to be. There’s always been corny rap; the corny rap has been around since day one. It’s not really corny though, it’s part of hip hop. It may not be hardcore. I like good music. I like whatever sounds good to the ear. I like heavy baselines, hard kicking drums, but there’s a lot of rappers out there who have their own thing. If everybody rapped alike and sounded a like, we might as well be listening to the same album over and over again.
TWV: I can feel that, so with this new album, who do you have producing?
E-40: I got…you know who I got doing a track? I got Chad Hugo, he’s one half the Neptunes
TWV: That’s crazy. Normally we don’t really hear him alone. Normally, it’s either the Neptunes, or Pharell
E-40: Yeah, he did a track called “Beasting.” It’s a club banger, but it goes. I got my son, Droop E, he’s a rapper and producer. He produced and he’s the executive producer of my albums Revenue Retrievin’:Graveyard Shift and Revenue Retrievin’: Overtime Shift. He produced my last albums Revenue Retrievin’: Day Shift and Revenue Retrievin’:Night Shift. We got Bosko, we got Decadez. I got a lot of the young cats. I got Traxx, we got Raw Smoov, Non-Stop, out of Portland. I don’t have to have a lot of big names, but I got a track T-Pain produced, but you would never know T-Pain produced the track. It’s on some old-school West Coast sound. He’s on the hook. It’s not a commercial song like you would think. It’s not like we tried to go for the radio, it’s called “I’m Serious.“ It’s just good music. It has potential to go to the radio, but that’s not what we were trying to do, it’s got a mid 90’s type of slap.
TWV: So you said your son, Droop E is doing songs on the album, and you said he’s executive producing your albums, as he did the last ones. A lot of people in the game will feature their kid on a track and that’s it. What is it that he’s showing right now that makes you say, “Alright, let me have him do multiple tracks on the album” or “Alright, let me have him executive produce the albums?” With the exception of Master P, we haven’t really seen this before.
E-40: He was born in it. I had him talking on my album in 1992, he was three years old. We had a skit on there called “Questions” on Federal. Every time we’d take him to school, he’d ask me questions, so I turned it into a skit. Then, I had him on the album rapping when he was six years on a song called “It’s All Bad” from In a Major Way and that album went platinum. Then, he was on my Hall of Game album, that one went gold, sold 700,000 albums. He was on a song called Growing Up. So this boy has been rapping before any rappers’ son. That’s documented stuff. 18 years ago. Then his momma put him in piano when he was 9. So he knows the keys, He’s not Beethoven, but he knows what he’s doing.
TWV: He’s coming with that all-around game…
E-40: Right! Then I bought him a studio when he was 15. Because he used to always be in my studio with the engineers, and Rick Rock, and Bosko. He just observed and soaked up game, then he started producing. I bought him the studio and he didn’t stop. So he’s been producing. He’s also the owner of Heavy on the Grind Entertainment, which is the label I’m on through EMI.
TWV: People put their kids in the game, but nobody has done it with as much confidence as you have and put him in situations where he has an impact on your career.
E-40: Yea, you know what I like about it? I like that he don’t sound like me. He has his own thang. Even though he does my beats, he knows what fits me, because two heads are better than one, we work together, and he’s handled his daddy’s fame like we normal people. None of my kids act funny, they on some solid tide because that’s how I teach them.
TWV: As far as artists go, who do you have on the album; we talked about production, but which rappers are featured on the album?
E-40: I got my whole Sick Wid It camp, I got DBz, I got Turf Talk, I got Droop E, I got Laroo the Hard Hitter, I got Decadez, The Click, I got Devin the Dude, I got Bun B, I got Slim Thug, I got Tech 9ine, I said T-Pain, I got some local artists, Beeda Weeda, Filthy Rich, Stevie Joe…I got a lot of people, I went in.
TWV: You got Too Short on that joint?
E-40: Nah, I don’t got Short. Short is working on his solo album, and we worked together for our album, we got an album we’re doing together, called The History Channel.
TWV: That’s exactly what I was leading into, I heard about that. There’s gonna be a lot of game on that, you and Short have been going in for awhile.
E-40: Yes sir
TWV: What made you guys finally decide to do a whole album? Every time you guys come together it’s been a great song, and there’s been some game on there. To this day I tell people ‘Don’t buy an 85 thousand dollar car, before they buy a house.”
E-40: We’ve been trying to do that for the last 12 years. It’s just we were on Jive Records at the time, and for some reason, they wouldn’t do it. We kept telling them “Me and Short trying to do this album,” They just wouldn’t. We both independent now, we do what we want to do…it’s time. We both famous, we’ve been famous, we’ve got the name. You get two famous people together, successful rappers…and that’s my patna?
TWV: So the Revenue Retrievin’ joints are dropping the 29th, when are you guys looking to drop The History Channel?
E-40: We looking at either late summer, or early 4th quarter.
TWV: One last thing, you and Short are doing an album together. When people speak on the West, you guys are on the forefront. Short from the Town (Oakland), you from the other side of the bay. I don’t recall either one of you doing a track with Dr. Dre, who’s from Southern California. I saw behind the scenes for the Kush video, you were on the set, has that ever came up? I know you and Short are doing an album together, how could that opportunity be missed? What’s the possibility of that?
E-40: That would be big. I talked to Short last week, I had a show at the House of Blues this past weekend. He was gonna come to the show, he was in LA. Short be out there in LA all the time. I think Short is gonna be on there, I think Short did a verse or two for Dre, I was like ‘Dude, that’s good, at least he recognizes somebody from the bay’ Dre is cool, I guess you just gonna be around, on his radar. He got a lot on his plate, eventually one day we’ll get together make a slap, hopefully sooner than later. I respect Dre, I got a lot of love for him. When I talked to him, he showed me he ain’t on no bullshit, I just gotta be around him.
TWV: It was great being able to talk to you, Revenue Retrievin, March 29th. On the way out, for anybody who… I don’t know, has been living under a rock, hasn’t heard E-40, or hasn’t copped an album, what would you say to them about this album?
E-40: With these albums, these two I’m about to drop, I feel the same way I always feel. If you close minded, you’re just closed minded. Everybody don’t like soul food, everybody ain’t a vegan. If you’re not open minded, you’re not gonna get E-40, cuz E-40 ain’t ya average rapper. E-40 is beyond the average rapper. E-40 is light years ahead of his time, E-40 is gonna do what the average person ain’t. If you looking for something different in the game, if you want to get gamed up, listen to it, listen to the lyrics, if you don’t like it; get somewhere where they love you at. Go listen to something else that’s watered down, that ain’t really handling, that you already heard the same story over and over again. I’m gonna teach ya, get like a sponge, you can learn a lot from me. That’s where I’m at with it, I got a loyal fan base, as long as I got them, I don’t care about the people that don’t want to fuck with me. I don’t want to live in a house where I’m not wanted.
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