Everyone caught onto the hyphy element of the last album, and how it represented the hyphy movement at the time. How has that changed, or how is that different from this CD? My thing is, I always have been hyphy. But even on my last album, there were only like two or three so-called hyphy songs out of 20. I’m a well-rounded cat. I had my Southern stuff on there. I had my mob music. I spit, man. The first single was hyphy. “U And Dat” wasn’t hyphy, but muthafuckers go dumb to it, though, you smell me? This album is well-rounded, it’s the complete package. It’s me. It’s E-40. It’s what I do. I make slaps, for the trunk. That’s what I make. I design it for the trunk, you know, the trunk and the clubs. Shit that’s going to make a muthafucker fuck with it. And I’ve got a lyrical display on the album, where I show that I can get on some old-school lyricist type shit on a few of the songs. You smell me? And I got my own little way I get down, you know. I think I’ve got one of the realest songs in the world on my album. It’s called “Tell It Like It Is.” I don’t recall nobody coming like that in a long time. What do you mean by that? It’s telling them how it is. Not [about] rap, because I don’t give a fuck about this rap shit. I’m talking about life in general. When they listen to the song “Tell It Like It Is,” everybody’s gonna be able to relate, because somebody is going through the same thing. Or somebody done had that same shit done to them, or they did it to somebody else. It’s just on some loyalty shit. Who did the beat on that? Rick Rock did it. A lot of times muthafuckers are like, “I know it’s cool to be partying and hyphy, and going to the club, and throwing out money in the crowd, and riding on big rims and shit, but where’s the real shit at?” So I got all that shit on there. I’ve got that kinda shit on there. You just gotta listen. Sometimes my shit can go over their head. And then a few years later, they’re like, “Oh, I didn’t know 40 said that, my bad, okay. That nigga be saying some shit.” You smell me? What was the process of making that song? Did the beat come first? It was all at the same time. When we were making the beat, I said I wanted to make a song called “Tell It Like It Is.” The beat made me do it. Me and Rick Rock were fucking around at the Orange Room, and the beat was so gangster and sinister. It sounded like some shit I could just spit on. And I decided to talk on the hook, do the hook, the whole thing. Take it to the face, you know? So that’s me, talking to myself. I’m talking as if I’m somebody from the outside looking in. But it’s really me talking. And I just talk like, “Man that nigga 40, man I fuck with him, whoop, whoo, whoo. Cuz at 20 years in the game...stay consistent, whoo, whoo, whoo,” You smell me? That’s how I get down. With two decades in the game, how do you keep it fresh for yourself and for the fans? I just like to stay doing my thing, but at the same time mix it up a little bit. I’m staying current without going out of my jurisdiction. Spit some game, you know what I mean? And give the people what they want to hear, man. I know music has changed, though. A lot of people are saying, “I want that mob music,” but they don’t even know what “mob music” is. They think “mob music” is “shoot ‘em up, bang, bang” music. That “walk up to a muthafucker and shoot him in the head” type music. That ain’t it. Mob music is a certain sound. I’ve been saying “mob music since 48 // OZONE MAG
1989, so a lot of these youngsters don’t even really know what that shit is. The rappers know that 40 is the nigga that put that “mob music” out there. I’ve been in this for so long that it really defies logic for me to still be around. A lot of cats ain’t never been through what I’ve been through. The streets fuck with me. The suburbs fuck with me. Nationally, everybody fucks with me. There are some rappers that’ve been around as long as me, like LL Cool J and Too $hort, and I’ve got love for both of them. But I’m in my own category. I’m E-40, you smell me? I just feel like I’m a wellrounded cat. I rap all kind of different ways, you dig what I’m saying? I can rap on any kind of beat you give me. A backpack beat, you smell me? I’ll beat that shit back lyrically, you smell me? You give me a mob-ass track with a heavy ass bassline with a swing beat. Something with that gangster shit, where I can spit some gangster shit over it, put that dope game in it. Talk about life in general, talk about some bitches. Talk about money, talk about all that shit, that’s what I do. You smell me? Give me a party song. Give me something real international. Gimme a crunk beat, gimme a snap beat. Gimme something that’ll break your ankles, I’ll get on that. I can rap with the South cats, I fuck with them. That’s one thing about E-40. I can do it all. You can’t put me in one category. People say I’m known for slang, but I’m known for game, too. I spit that shit. You get love from so different areas: the suburbs of the Bay Area, and the push from cats like DJ Shadow, is that just some ecclectisim you get from working out of the Bay Area? Earth is my turf. It ain’t just for dough. I got love in the South, the Midwest, people don’t understand. Like, those who are just now finding out who E-40 is, or those who’ve been knowing who E-40 is; I don’t think they know how respected E-40 is globally. I’m not going to lie. I’m my biggest fan, but at the same time, I’m a humble and hungry dude. And I stay on the airplane, and everywhere I go, [I get] the utmost respect. If a muthafucker doesn’t respect for me, they must not have done their due diligence. They’re just on some of this right now shit. You know what I mean? Not knowing what I brought to the game. I brought so much to the game, it’s ridiculous. And the real niggas? The real muthafuckers, up out that 80’s game? Them niggas know how much I done brought to the game, or how far I done came because I was a real nigga in the traffic, gettin’ gusty. Out there getting it. You smell me? I don’t have to base my life on that. You know how muthafuckers be like, “Aw, that nigga ain’t real.” Nah, I just spit real shit. I spit real shit. I started from no airplay at all. None. For seven years. I started [rapping] in 1987 and May 1993 is when I first started getting airplay. We came from nothin’. What was the first record you got played on the air? “Call Me On The Under,” which is me and my brother D-Shot. Mean Green broke that out there in Houston. And then “Captain Save a Ho,” Greg Street and the Bay Area DJs, way back in the days, they broke that. Greg Street broke it out there in Dallas, and Mean Green broke it out there in Houston. It started just circulating all over the place. Big Tigger was fucking with “Sprinkle Me, way back in the days. “Call Me On
The Under” was on my brother D-Shot’s album, and I was on that song with him. “Practice Looking Hard” was another song that finally got some airplay. So 1993 was when we first started getting airplay. [During] the 6 years before that we had put out numerous records as SickWidIt Records independently. A lot of cats couldn’t have done that. They couldn’t have done it without the big push from the machine, the big majors behind them. This was all word-of-mouth. There was no big promotions. This was just all “soil spit.” It was straight head shit we were spittin’, so niggas related to it, and they fucked wit’ it. They rode to it in their cars, and woke up in the morning and ironed their clothes to our shit. You smell me? And to this day, they still fuck wit it. On last album, muthafuckers said, “Aw, 40 done switched up a little bit...I like that old school shit.” Nigga, this is the new old school. This is what it’s about. You smell me? They don’t make ‘em like me. You don’t see too many muthafuckers that’ve been in the game for 20 years and are still staying afloat like the Love Boat. Those stubborn muthafuckers fall by the wayside. They started right with me, but they wanted to stay in one mode. They wanna rock one particular way. And that ain’t no disrespect to nobody, that’s just the consequences you got to deal with, but me personally, I feel I’m a well-rounded rapper, and I’ve got a lot of shit to say. If you look at any of my music from way back in the days, from the Federal album in 1992, you’ll see I had versatility: I had a reggae style, and I spit some ole New York shit, too. My style is so unorthodox, and so muthafucking futuristic, I mean, it done lost a lot of people. To this day, some muthafuckers really think I’m whack, but they don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about ‘cause the shit goes over they head. They’re just square as a box of muthafucking Fruity Pebbles. They’re lame suckas. They need to get some get-right about their macking, man. The unorthodox nature of your rhyme style, to me, has a lot to do with the Bay Area. It’s an interesting mix of people and perspectives. It’s an ill spot. You have place like Berkeley, San Francisco, Oakland, Vallejo, and San Jose all coming together. You have the home of the Black Panthers and black consciousness, mixed with Silicon Valley types; hippies. All that shit. What’s the difference between a lot of those cities in the Bay? There really ain’t no difference. Just people from different little cities. Really, the Bay ain’t that big. So, you add all them cities up together, the whole Bay is just the size of one city in Texas. It’s really little. So we’re all connected to each other, just a few exits away. We can get to any soil in Northern California within an hour. In L.A., it take you 45 minutes to get from one side of town to the other. It’s different cuts of cloth out here, but for the most part, we all breathe the same air. Let’s talk about that early independent grind, like you and Short. You both seem to be still making stuff that’s relevant to this day. What do you attribute that to? Man, we’re just so ahead of our time. We just stay creative. We came back [to the Bay], and that shit is like the ripple effect. You pass it on through the generations, you know? Our OGs were taught by their OGs and their OGs were taught by their OGs and it trickels all the way down, you smell me? So it’s up to us to lace some of these other youngsters.