E-40 “Mr. Flamboyant” (1990)
Produced by: The Click
E-40: “How the song came about was, first of all [flamboyant] was a word that we always used to say in the neighborhood and around Vallejo, and throughout the Bay. You know...flamboyant means somebody that's flashy, love to showboat, ya understand? Lightweight arrogant, but at the same time—ya understand me?—solid. And I was messing around at a studio out there in Fairfield, California, with my patna by the name of Bobby Ford. And he had a few sounds on his keyboard, at the time, and I went in there and I said, 'You know what, let me play around on these keyboards.' And I came up with the bassline, and then he had a couple of samples in there, and i threw them in there, and came up with the beat. I did the beat, he engineered it for me.
When we first did Most Valuable Players, we was in that mode where we were from a small town called Vallejo. We felt like, Radio is the only way to do it.
“But you know the style that I used on it, I wanted to do one of the most ignorantest styles of all time, and I did that. That was 22 years ago. Basically, that's how it came about, man. I did that start, stop-and-go, Snoop-type delivery flow. And then I went to add in the little parts at the beginning and at the end—mainly at the beginning...I used to always go to the Goodwill, and give away clothes when I got older, cause I always used to get clothes from the Goodwill and the Salvation Army. So I'd go there and I'd see old records. I'd see some shit from the 1920s. I took the beginning of it and put it at the beginning. you know what i mean?
“I'm gonna be honest with you. When we first did Most Valuable Players [Ed.—his group before The Click], we was in that mode where we were from a small town called Vallejo. We felt like, Radio is the only way to do it. And we found out the hard way. We pressed up 4,000 vinyls, and we really didn't put our heart and soul, we didn't put our street knowledge in it. We were trying to make radio songs and whatnot and make it off top. But we said, We gon' change our name to The Click, cause we one big family, and we gon’ give ‘em all our street knowledge and give ‘em the game the real way. And after that it was over. We never looked back from there. You gotta realize Most Valuable Players was made in 1987, and it came out in ‘88. See what I'm saying. Flamboyant was 1989, 90.”
E-40 “Carlos Rossi” (1992)
Produced by: Studio Ton
I told Studio Ton, take that part and sample that. Take my voice and let's sample it and slow it down—and this is before Screw music was out. DJ Screw and them, they used to listen to me, in Houston.
E-40: "My momma was working very hard, doing three jobs...she just worked her butt off, man. On the weekends she started to play this song called 'Living for the Weekend.' She'd sit down and reminisce. She was a single parent, even though my daddy never left our life...and her stress reliever was always drinking wine. She would have [Carlo Rossi] Rhine, she didn't have the Burgundy. She would have the Rhine and as I got older, she would drink that and relax her mind and live for the weekend. So that's how that came about.
“On one of my songs on Down and Dirty, the album with The Click, was a song called “Let's Get Drunk.” And I have a line where I say, "Perkin' off some of that top of the line wine, Carlos Rossi." So I told Studio Ton, take that part and sample that. Take my voice and let's sample it and slow it down—and this is before Screw music was out. DJ Screw and them, they used to listen to me, in Houston. And this is 1992, and you gotta remember, it was screwed. It was like [in slowed and throwed voice] "tooop off the lliiine winnne carlos rossi"—see what I'm saying! It was slowed up. So what happened was, we took that and turned it into a song, like painted a picture. Me, B-Legit, and Studio Ton took that beat and made the slap. And there it is: classic music.”
E-40 “Bring the Yellow Tape” (1993)
Produced by: Studio Ton
For a long time people stopped wanting to hear stories, but I'm like, Fuck it I'm gon' let my nuts hang over my shoulder and start telling stories.
E-40: "I say, 'Studio Ton, gimme one of those sinister mob, something just like a movie theme, like I'm telling a story.' Back then, storytelling was really in effect. That’s what it was about and when you paint a picture it's always classic music—and that's why I went back to telling my stories. For a long time people stopped wanting to hear stories, but I'm like, Fuck it I'm gon' let my nuts hang over my shoulder and start telling stories. And that's what I've been doing lately.
“So basically 'Bring the Yellow Tape' was a way of saying something went down on the block and the streets is blocked off. Yellow tape, they got the white chalk, the body outline, all that, you know it's a crime scene. I was just imagining that, and I turned it into a story, like this is how it really go down though. My lyrics complimented the music and the music complimented my lyrics. I got a great imagination, and I pay close attention to my surroundings and I'm very observant. When I was young I was a student of the game.”
E-40 “Practice Lookin’ Hard” (1993)
Produced by: Studio Ton
E-40: “‘Practice Looking Hard’ came from a song that Boots [Riley] had. He said a line in there, 'I got a mirror in my pocket and I practice looking hard.' So I called Boots up. I said, 'Boots it's a part of a song that I want to use off your record. Is that cool?' He was like, 'Man, it's cool, 40.' So I did it and I made sure that Boots was in the video with me shining, cause Boots is a good type of dude, and to this day he a good dude. I was like, lemme pay homage and have him in there, and I called Tupac down and got him in the video.
He said a line in there, he said 'I got a mirror in my pocket and I practice looking hard.' So I called Boots up. I said 'Boots it's a part of a song that I want to use off your record.' I said, 'Is that cool?'
“And 'Practice Lookin Hard' was pretty much, back in them days one of those situations where everybody in the videos wasn't smiling too much. I mean we wasn't doing that much smiling in the late '80s, early '90s, because we really didn't have too much to smile about. It was ghetto children with attitudes. They have something to prove. We was going through it. I was much younger. I smile now because I'm living much better, and my life is not as crazy as it used to be. But back then, we would be mean mugging... See so now what I say is 'I used to practice looking hard but now I practice being solid.' That's my new little thing. I didn't really have to practice hard; I just used to look hard. Back in them days you'd look in the mirror and just be mean mugging, like, 'OK, lemme get my mean mug on.' I used to burn rubber at every light, mean mugging everything there was, cause that was my attitude. That's how we did back in them days. So I wrote the song to it."
E-40 f/ The Click “Captain Save A Hoe” (1994)
Produced by: Studio Ton
E-40: “‘Captain Save a Hoe’ was a person that's really like saving a broad—he pillow talking her, he's soft in the game. He'll do anything he can to try and get at this broad that got more miles on her than US Airways, ya smell me? [Laughs.] She done been around and he wanna be a rest haven and save her and turn her into a housewife, and he'll go all out his way, to get in her draws. He's the type of dude buying her clothes, cars, whatever he can do. So I wrote that cause it's a lot of my buddies out there that's Captain Save a Hoes. So we came with the heavy mobbed out bassline—that's mob music.
‘Captain Save a Hoe’ was a person that's really like saving a broad—he pillow talking her, he's soft in the game. He'll do anything he can to try and get at this broad that got more miles on her than US Airways, ya smell me?
“So anyway to make a long story short, Studio Ton came up with the bassline to ‘Captain Save a Hoe,’ and I put my sister Suga T on there. I put B-legit in there, and D-Shot. The whole family was in there all vibing, the whole Sick Wid' It camp. I came with the title and my brother D-Shot was thinking of a hook. And D-Shot was like, ‘Man remember that song by Frankie Smith? It was called ‘Double Dutch Bus’?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah I remember.’ He was like, ‘We used to just ‘iz-i-iz-uh’—you know, speaking like that, in pig latin.’
“‘Uh-iz-I-iz-I-should I save her?’ And then Suga T came in there like, ‘I wanna be saved!’ We just started vibin’ and all of us came with the hook. D-Shot played the biggest part in the hook. I came with the concept. Everybody did their job. B-Legit gassed it. Suga gassed it. I gassed it. D gassed it.
“That song became a song that to this day people quote and use the word Captain Save a Hoe. We wasn't expecting ‘Captain Save a Hoe’ to be a big smash hit. We didn't know. It did its thing on the street, and it was to the point where it created a big enough street demand that the radio had to play it. So the radio was like, ‘Man you got a clean version of this?’ I was like, ‘No, but I can make one for you.’ [Laughs.] You can't say ‘ho’ on the radio so I had to change it to ‘Captain Save em Tho!’”
E-40 f/ B-Legit & Mac Shawn “Sideways” (1995)
Produced by: Funk Daddy
E-40: “That all came together with my patna Funk Daddy in Seattle. One thing about the producers I work with, the majority of them, they let me put my two cents in. Cause I'm more of a composer. I'm not a full-fledged producer, but I can be one if I want to really spend my time on straight being a producer. I found out the bassline that I wanted him to do and he came with the drum pattern. We just both collabed on there, but he did the job. Sideways, it's like driving fast—like, the car is souped up and you just showcasing. You just getting it sideways, you know what I mean? Smoking up the block, bending corners, stepping up in the hood.”
E-40 “Da Bumble” (1995)
Produced by: Sam Bostic
Sam Bostic produced the track, but I came to him and said, ‘Sam, I want you, with this song right here, to flip ‘187 Proof’ by Spice 1 and turn it into your song, your own way.’
E-40: “I call that ‘Mobbed Out Playa Type Metaphors and Punchlines.’ Today, a lot of rappers, all they do is just metaphors and punchlines. It really don't be no storytelling or messages. That was my version back in 1995 of metaphors and punchlines, that slick-talk. I put some real game behind it, talking ghetto slang and shit. That was something real motherfuckers can relate to, that really was going down in the hood—just raw shit. I was kinda like, ‘Fuck this don't need no hook. Lemme just gas it all the way through.’ I didn't trip off no hook or nothing. The beat was blapping and I just called it ‘Da Bumble.’
“I called it that because it was trunk-rocking. Sam Bostic produced the track, but I came to him and said, ‘Sam, I want you, with this song right here, to flip ‘187 Proof’ by Spice 1 and turn it into your song, your own way.’ And he did. The beat came out so hard man, you could just go in there and smoke the fuck out of the microphone.”
E-40 f/ Suga-T “Sprinkle Me” (1995)
Produced by: Mike Mosley and Sam Bostic
That came from OG Stomp Down. OG James Bailey—we called him JB—him and my sister used to mess around. He would always say, ‘I like to sprinkle the kids.’ What that mean is to teach people.
E-40: “That was the biggest hit before [‘U and Dat’]. That came from OG Stomp Down. OG James Bailey—we called him JB—him and my sister used to mess around. He would always say, ‘I like to sprinkle the kids.’ What that mean is to teach people. Lace ‘em with game, put something in my mind that's right on time. Tell me the rights and wrongs, dos and don'ts.
“Mike Mosley came with a little melody, with the beat and everything. Then Suga T was in the studio. It was Sam Bostic, Flat Top got on the guitar, and Mike and Sam put the beat together. And at first I wasn't really liking the beat until Mike started humming a little melody. Then I just took it there, you know? We didn't even have a title at first. We didn't go in there thinking it was a single. We just did it, and everybody liked it.”
E-40 f/ 2Pac, Spice 1, & Mac Mall “Dusted ‘N’ Disgusted” (1995)
Produced by: Mike Mosley
E-40: “‘Dusted’ is really a word we use like, ‘Man that boy got dusted’ or ‘Somebody got dusted last night.’ Like got smoked, got melted, got killed. Shit like that. I said I wanted to make a title called that and Mike Mosley had this one beat. He came over with Sam Bostic and he was like, ‘You scared of this beat.’ That's how we used to talk to each other to build up our confidence—we liked to challenge each other.
2Pac sat down, rolled him up one of them motherfucking swishers, had a pen and paper, and he wrote that shit so quick. It was like ten minutes, for real.
“He'd tell me, ‘40 you ain’t gone smoke that beat, you ain't gone gas that beat. You ain’t gone do a good job.’ I'd be like, ‘Yeah, thanks for the confidence. I'm gon’ tear it up just cause you said I can't.’ So he came over and forced it on me. He was like, ‘This beat raw, you scared of it, you scared of it!’ I said, ‘You know how I am, Mike, you know I'm gonna tear this shit up. Watch!’ So, we got up in the studio, we were in L.A. Pac came down to the studio, we had the beat already on deck. I had already did the concept. I knew who I was going to put on there, that shit was so local.
“But this is one of my great memories, Pac came out to the studio—I think it was Larrabee Studios—and the hook was already on there. I think Spice 1 had already did his verse. Pac was down at the studio and Pac said, ‘Let me hear that shit.’ I let him hear it. Pac said, ‘That shit hard!’ So Pac sat down, rolled him up one of them motherfucking swishers, had a pen and paper, and he wrote that shit so quick. It was like ten minutes, for real. And we gassed that motherfucker. We was drinking and shit right before that. Getting right.”
E-40 f/ Levitti “1 Luv” (1995)
Produced by: Studio Ton
“Me and Nas came out on major labels at the same time. Nas was doing his thing in New York and I was doing my thing. He didn't hear mine until it came out and I didn't hear his... It just came out around the same time. His video for ‘One Love’ was playing on BET at the same time as my video for ‘1 Luv.’”
E-40: “That was an actual phone call [on the beginning of the song]. That was my cousin Kaveo, he was in the pen at that time, and he was like, ‘This yo patna mayne!’ Kaveo was telling me about the things he was going through while he was in there. Me and Kaveo grew up together. So a lot of shit that he know, I know. I said, Lemme dedicate this to the incarcerated playas in the game. Lemme just explain life, go through the hard times, and cover every part of the game. That's why a lot of people in the penitentiary feel me, because they can relate to the shit I was saying.
“So, then Levitti came, and Levitti got the kind of voice that'll make you cry when he's singing. And Studio Ton collaborated with it, started singing the hook, as well as Levitti and I just did the song. I dedicated it to the struggle and all the people that's incarcerated, all the incarcerated soldiers out there.
“Me and Nas came out on major labels at the same time. Nas was doing his thing in New York and I was doing my thing. He didn't hear mine until it came out and I didn't hear his. Matter of fact, every time I see Nas, we always been cool. It just came out around the same time. His video for ‘One Love’ was playing on BET at the same time as my video for ‘1 Luv.’"
The Click “Hurricane” (1995)
Produced by: Studio Ton
E-40: “I first got into [drinking Hurricanes] when we was at Pine Bluff, Arkansas. We were at this legendary club I forgot the name of. But anyway we were at the club, it was the end of the night, and we had been drinking gin and juice for like two weeks straight. Gin and orange juice, gin and cranberry juice, gin and grapefruit juice, gin and pineapple juice. Gin. We was just gin'd out. We had been drinking so much every day, when me and The Click was out there on the road, we couldn't get drunk.
So we drank that shit and as soon as we took four or five sips we was perking instantly. I was like, ‘What this called?’ She was like, ‘Hurricane, baby!’
“So me and B-Legit go up to the bartender. We talk to the lady like, ‘Do you have something that can get us there, like, right now? Get us perking ASAP?’ [Laughs.] She said [imitates southern accent], ‘I got the right thang for ya baby!’ [Laughs.] She went in there, she hooked us up. It was hurricanes, but we didn't know the name of it at the time. So we drank that shit and as soon as we took four or five sips we was perking instantly. I was like, ‘What this called?’ She was like [imitates southern accent], ‘Hurricane, baby!’ [Laughs.]
“I was like, ‘This shit jammin! This shit good as a motherfucker, AND it got me right. What'd you put in this?’ She said, ‘Grenadine, pineapple juice, 151 Bacardi, Bacardi Light, and then triple sec.’ You can use Malibu rum, put all that shit in there, and you can use the green grenadine or the red grenadine. We prefer the red, that’s what she used. And ever since then, we was drinking hurricanes.
We shot a video to it, and they played it on BET one time. At that time, BET had some program director in there that was against alcohol or whatever.
“That's one of those motherfucking drinks that if you really want to get there, it'll get you there. When you drink it with a broad, the broad gotta be careful because she gone be like, ‘Mmmm this is good!’ and next thing you know she gone be drunk as a motherfucker. You don't notice that the liquor is hitting cause it tastes so damn good. You got that triple sec, Malibu rum, motherfucking pineapple juice, and that grenadine in there that's really putting that sweetness to it. And then you've got that other hitting shit like that 151. And that Bacardi Light in there, really just hitting on the tuck.
“So to make a long story short, we said, ‘Let's make a song about hurricanes,’ And that unfolded. We went in there and made it and that became one of them ones. We shot a video to it, and they played it on BET one time. At that time, BET had some program director in there that was against alcohol or whatever. We made [the video so that] Hurricane was a girl in a genie bottle.
“They only played it one time and after that they never played it again. But I'm glad that that dude does not work there no more. All our lives we would get set-tripped on, because other people from the East Coast would get to play their songs that had alcohol in the video and everything. But when it comes to us West Coast Vallejo, they wouldn't play us. But guess what? The album went gold with just that single and another song called ‘Scandalous.’ No video play, bruh.”
E-40 “Record Haters” (1996)
Produced by: Rick Rock
E-40: “I was actually watching Rap City on BET and Joe Clair—I named him Joe Cleezy—was the host and he was interviewing Rasheed Wallace. And he was like, ‘What you think about hip-hop, Rasheed? You got Wu-Tang, Redman, and Nas.’ I forget the other names he mentioned. He named a few East Coast rappers. And Joe was like, ‘You got them over here on the East Coast, and on the West Coast you got E-40, and in the South you got Goodie Mob.’ So Rasheed Wallace was like, ‘I don't fool with the E-40s and the Goodie Mobs, it's strictly Wu-Tang on mine.’
“Wu-Tang is good people. I ain’t never had anything against none of the people who he named. It was just that, he dissed us. So I said fuck that. I'm sitting up here watching it myself. This ain't no 'he say, she say' shit. It's not like I had somebody call and say like, ‘40! Rasheed Wallace just clowned you on TV.’ Nah, I sat up there and was watching! Like, 'This motherfucker clownin’ on the boss!?' I said, ‘I'm finna get on his helmet!’ [Laughs.]. I felt like the motherfucker was a hater so I called it ‘Record Haters.’
Rasheed Wallace was like, ‘I don't fool with the E-40s and the Goodie Mobs, it's strictly Wu-Tang on mine.'...I was watching like, 'This motherfucker clownin’ on the boss!?'
“The way AZ got in it, it really wasn't his fault. I blame the magazine 4080. They had said some shit in there that made it seem like AZ was trying to clown me. But he wasn't, I came to find out. Actually I'd like to kind of apologize. It was the magazine which is not in print anymore. Journalists and magazines can be messy.
"But I want to let everybody know that years ago me and Rasheed Wallace squashed our little situation. He came to me and apologized. We were in Portland doing a big show with like 10,000 people for a radio station out there. Rasheed was hosting and backstage he was like, ‘Man, 40 I always wanted to tell you, I just want to apologize brother. I'm a man and I respect the hustle and everything you brought to hip hop. I was immature back then.’ Man, I shook his hand.
"We got up on stage and shook hands and squashed that little shit right there. So I ain't got nothing against him. Matter of fact, I’m a fan of him with his basketball. Back then I said, ‘Stick to basketball. Lemme do what I do as a rapper, you do what you do.' I don't have no problem with him in my heart at all. He said what he said, but he was a man and apologized. I respect him for that."
E-40 f/ Too $hort & K-Ci “Rapper's Ball” (1996)
Produced by: Ant Banks
“It was a big record and we shot the video to it. Pac had came through [to the video shoot]. We were in my camper and he was playing some of his music. It was touching man because every time I’m on the subject it kinda gets to me because that was the last time I seen Pac.
E-40: “That was the first time me and Too $hort got together. All I ever wanted to do was a song with him. We used to miss each other in the traffic, we knew all the same people, and we used to go to the same studio. But God works in mysterious ways. Ant Banks really played a big role in there. And the track that we used was a play-over of one of Too $hort’s songs. And back then it was called ‘Playboy $hort.’ And I said, ‘The best way to do this is to put $hort on it.’
“That was the first time that the word 'fa sheezy' was ever said on wax. There's a lot of people that made they names off of that, that done made rap names off just what we said. People don't really know that that comes straight from the Bay Area. It was a word that was circulating around the soils and it blew up.
“It was a big record and we shot the video to it. Pac had came through [to the video shoot]. We were in my camper and he was playing some of his music. It was touching man because every time I’m on the subject it kinda gets to me because that was the last time I seen Pac. A few months later they tell me he got shot in Vegas and I'm like, ‘What happened? Who?’ I couldn't believe it and I didn't know it was that bad, cause you know how Pac was—he had been shot before and he was a strong-minded dude. Sometimes it’s mind over matter. But that time he didn't make it.”
E-40 f/ Otis & Shug “Hope I Don't Go Back” (1998)
Produced by: Ant Banks
So I'm a soil narrator, I speak for the soil.
E-40: “That track was brought to me by Ant Banks. Otis and Shug—two great singers [who are brothers] from out of the Bay Area—they got on the record and killed the hook. [The beat] was a playover from Ramsey Lewis and Earth, Wind, & Fire.
“The concept was whatever you doing now, you like what you doing. But whatever you was doing before, you didn't really like it. So I'm a soil narrator, I speak for the soil. I broadcast live on Magazine Street telling somebody else's stories, or pretty much telling mine.
“Being the narrator, I'm saying if a motherfucker was selling dope back then, he don't want to go back to selling no damn yayo cause now he's rapping, or he's an athlete, or now he's doing this or that. Like, he's made a better life for himself. If a motherfucker work at the oil refinery, he don't want to have to go back to working at the oil refinery. That's why I named it ‘Hope I Don't Go Back.’”
E-40 f/ Too $hort & K-Ci & JoJo “From the Ground Up” (1998)
Produced by: Ant Banks
There'll never be another E-40. There'll never be another Too $hort. It just won't. We cut from a whole different cloth and they don't make ‘em like us anymore.
E-40: “See me and Too $hort put that together cause neither one of us came up under a big-time rapper. Too $hort came up under himself. He did his own thing. He wasn't fucking with no big-time rapper or nothing like that and I wasn't tied to no big-time rapper. We really did it from the grass roots. We did stuff that today's artists wouldn't be able to do, man! Cause nowadays you got push—we didn't have no Internet, none of that shit, man. It was all because we had true talent.
“I'm not knocking today's artists, I'm just saying we had some shit that everybody else just didn't have. There'll never be another E-40. There'll never be another Too $hort. It'll never be another Spice 1. It just won't. We cut from a whole different cloth and they don't make ‘em like us anymore. We was just telling our story about how we really sold tapes out the trunk of our car, really did it from the ground up. It was really word of mouth, we didn't need radio play. It was really hood shit. The hood is what made us.
#23 E-40 f/ Otis & Shug & Too $hort “Earl, That's Yo' Life” (1999)
Produced by: Ant Banks
E-40 “Big Ballin’ With My Homies” (1999)
Produced by: Ant Banks
They came through in a box Chevy slappin’ Sir Mix-a-Lot’s ‘My Posse's on Broadway!’ I'm talking about that shit was knock.
E-40: “Man, I was out there in front of my grandmama's house in Millersville, Vallejo one day and one of the twins, I believe it was Michael or Marcus Gibson, they came through in a box Chevy slappin’ Sir Mix-a-Lot’s ‘My Posse's on Broadway!’ I'm talking about that shit was knock. I'm like, ‘What's this family? That shit hard, right?’ He said, ‘Uh, the nigga Sir Mix-a-Lot, my nig.’ I was like, ‘Man that shit gone. Woo, that shit go!"
“I loved that song. Then I fucked around and seen the video about a month later. I was like, ‘Oh my God, this shit hard!’ So I always wanted to use that beat and I just wanted to call it ‘Big Ballin’ With My Homies!’ So that's how that whole thing came about.
“I revamped it years later, hella years later. I called Mix-a-Lot, I had to take care of business with him. He didn't have no problem with it. He wasn't able to [come down South for the video shoot] because he don't fly. He rides the bus. He don't fly at all. He would've had to come all the way from Seattle, and he would've had to get here on a bullet train if we had one. But we took care of business and that's my guy.”
E-40 f/ Otis & Shug & Too $hort “Earl, That's Yo' Life” (1999)
E-40: “When people ask me who I grew up on, the first person to come out of my mouth is Too $hort, even though Too $hort is only a couple years older than me. But he started a little bit earlier than me. So his tapes were circulating out in the neighborhoods before me. So obviously I'm a fan.
“I'm one of those fans that's gone make sure that I'm not gone take somebody's shit and not pay homage. I'm gone make sure I include 'em with it and they part of it. Cause I know if somebody wanna use some of my kind of shit, I'm not gone trip too much. But it's just common sense and also a respectful thing that you gone reach out, that's how I've always been.
“So with 'Earl, That's Yo' Life’ that was one of my favorite songs when I was in my mannish days. You know, sliding through in my Cougar with the ZNAs and Vogues with the chrome, the gold grill, the gold luggage rack with the gold tips, the elegant lights with the canvas top. That whole shit.”
E-40 “Big Ballin’ With My Homies” (1999)
Produced by: Ant Banks
They came through in a box Chevy slappin’ Sir Mix-a-Lot’s ‘My Posse's on Broadway!’ I'm talking about that shit was knock.
E-40: “Man, I was out there in front of my grandmama's house in Millersville, Vallejo one day and one of the twins, I believe it was Michael or Marcus Gibson, they came through in a box Chevy slappin’ Sir Mix-a-Lot’s ‘My Posse's on Broadway!’ I'm talking about that shit was knock. I'm like, ‘What's this family? That shit hard, right?’ He said, ‘Uh, the nigga Sir Mix-a-Lot, my nig.’ I was like, ‘Man that shit gone. Woo, that shit go!"
“I loved that song. Then I fucked around and seen the video about a month later. I was like, ‘Oh my God, this shit hard!’ So I always wanted to use that beat and I just wanted to call it ‘Big Ballin’ With My Homies!’ So that's how that whole thing came about.
“I revamped it years later, hella years later. I called Mix-a-Lot, I had to take care of business with him. He didn't have no problem with it. He wasn't able to [come down South for the video shoot] because he don't fly. He rides the bus. He don't fly at all. He would've had to come all the way from Seattle, and he would've had to get here on a bullet train if we had one. But we took care of business and that's my guy.”
E-40 “L.I.Q.” (1999)
Produced by: Bosko
E-40: “That's lightweight mob music, but that's funk music too. Like Zapp and George Clinton and that kind of slap. So I had the boy Bosko do this one right here like this. He took this piece out of that song. Well, actually he didn't do none of that cause he played all that over and made it original. Like you know how you listen to a song and say, ‘Man I wanna take this beat, so I’m gonna revamp it in my own way where I ain't gotta pay nothing?’ It ain't got nothing to do with nothing and it sounds different and it's just called revamping. And that's what he did. You know you can just take a couple bits and pieces. Producers do it all the time. You take a certain melody, cut it short, or make it longer or whatever. So that's how that came about.
Bosko was the king of the talkbox in that day.
“Bosko was the king of the talkbox in that day. Now you've got your—what you call that?—AutoTune and what they call that other thing? Vocoder. Well Bosko used the talkbox. Like, he used the shit that Roger Troutman used back in the day. He just killed that shit. It was one of them slaps. And I just went in there and you know—that's a hood motherfucker's everyday thing to get up and hit the liquor store, ya understand me? [Laughs.] That's how we do it. A lot of times I try to speak for the shit I went through, or the shit other people went through. So hitting that liquor store is like the everyday routine for a hood motherfucker. Whether he going in there to get some Swishers and a pack of Zags or whether he going to get some liquor. [Laughs.]”
E-40 “Loyalty and Betrayal” (2000)
Produced by: Rick Rock
E-40: “That's one of my favorite songs ever. Rick Rock did the beat and at the time I said, ‘I want people to listen to the beginning of the song, you gotta remember how many years ago this was.’ This was 2000. Right when the beat came on I said, ‘Tell me when,’ and Rick Rock says, ‘Go!’ [Laughs.]
Everybody wanna be the Iron Chef and don't nobody wanna wash dishes, work in the pantry, or mop the floor.
“The reason it's named ‘Loyalty and Betrayal’ is because some people really will be loyal to you and loyalty really goes a long way. A lot of dynasties, camps, and teams break-up. They go their separate ways and fall out because it's always someone who wants to get in there and do something crooked and be unloyal. Instead of playing his position, he wanna get greedy, let the devil get in him, and turn him Judas. He become a shady motherfucker cause he feel like he should be the number one guy.
“Everybody wanna be the Iron Chef and don't nobody wanna wash dishes, work in the pantry, or mop the floor. Everybody want it right then and there. Everybody want that number one spot. So that's why I say it in ‘Loyalty and Betrayal’ cause that's how it is. Some people gone be loyal, and some people gone betray you. And so I just covered all parts of the game in that song.”
E-40 f/ Nate Dogg “Nah, Nah” (2000)
Produced by: DJ Battlecat
You could put someone else on the hook and you'll say, ‘Okay, this is clapping.’ But when Nate Dogg get on the hook, now you're saying, ‘This is remarkable!’
E-40: “First of all, Nate Dogg was a good friend of mine and my whole family—The Click and Sick Wid' It Records. We fucked with Tha Dogg Pound back in the day. Nate Dogg always kept it solid with us, through thick and thin. R.I.P. Nate Dogg, a true talent. He made a lot of people great hits. I say the hook is very important. You could put someone else on the hook and you'll say, ‘Okay, this is clapping.’ But when Nate Dogg get on the hook, now you're saying, ‘This is remarkable!’ That's how Nate Dogg was.
“So ‘Nah, Nah’ came about with Battlecat. Battlecat did his thing. I called Nate Dogg and said, ‘I got this song I need you on.’ So he came out here to the Bay Area and we went to my boy at Infinite Studio and put that thing together bruh. Went in there, did the song ‘Nah Nah,’ and then we did the video to it. We had a great time up in there. You know we got right. And we got some good herbal essence in us."
E-40 f/ Fabolous “Automatic” (2002)
Produced by: Rick Rock
E-40: “Fabolous was doing his thing and still is. And Rick Rock had done ‘I Can't Deny It’ for Fabolous. So I had Rick Rock do ‘Automatic’ for me. And my cousin Tyson Davis was like, ‘Man, put Fabolous on there.’ And he was cool with his sister Tina Davis over there at Def Jam. So, we got it together and Fabolous came through. He got in the video with me and we did our thing man. Classic video!”
E-40 f/ Turf Talk & Doonie “Gasoline” (2003)
Produced by: Rick Rock
[Turf Talk] is my favorite rapper in the world. He's the rawest rapper on the planet. I’m just keeping it 1000.
E-40: “That was the song that the hood cats used to go dumb to and get real hyphy on without anyone saying anything about hyphy. I’ve been on uptempo beats for years. Rick Rock came with that beat and I was like, ‘Let's call this ‘Gasoline’ cause that's what I’m gone spit, gasoline.’
“It's before motherfuckers was saying ‘gas.’ Like, ‘Man that nigga gassin!’ So that's what it was about, me just gassing the track, spitting that gasoline. And that's all I did was gas it. It was raw shit, like shit you can really paint a picture about. And that's how that unfolded.
“That boy [Turf Talk] is my favorite rapper in the world. He's the rawest rapper on the planet. I’m just keeping it 1000. He's my favorite rapper in he world and his voice fit the hook. He came with the hook, I came with the title. And it came out to be one of them ones. He was younger, and shit, even better now.”
E-40 f/ Keak da Sneak “Tell Me When to Go” (2006)
Produced by: Lil Jon
E-40: “When I first signed with Lil Jon I said, ‘Man, I’ma be me. I want you to give me some new flavors but I also want to cater to my area, my region. I'm gonna want some uptempos, some midtempos, and some soft shit. We gone mix it up.’ He was like, ‘Okay.’ So first song we did [that day] was ‘Muscle Cars.’ I already knew I wanted to do a song called ‘Muscle Cars.’ So I said, ‘Jon, make me an uptempo slap. I wanna call it ‘Muscle Cars.’’ So he made the beat and killed. I said, ‘Lemme call Keak da Sneak cause I want him on this track.’
Keak wasn't never in Atlanta like that. Just the fact that that particular day he was there, I was like, ‘Whoa! What are the chances of this?’
“So I called Dame Fame—a good friend of Keak da Sneak—and I say, ‘Fame, what's your email cause I want to send you this track called ‘Muscle Cars’ that I want Keak to get on.’ He was like, ‘Okay, but me and Keak in Atlanta.’ I said, ‘Y’all niggas in Atlanta? WHAT! Man if y'all don't get your ass to this studio and come lay this verse to this shit!’ [Laughs.] Keak wasn't never in Atlanta like that but I was. I would be out there all the time. But just the fact that that particular day he was there, I was like, ‘Whoa! What are the chances of this?’
“They came over there. We had a good time too. We got right. We got perkin’ and whatnot, we got that herbal essence in us, that good broccoli, and what-have-you. The beat was made. Keak da Sneak came in there did the hook, did his verse, I did mine. Turf Talk was in the Bay, so we sent it to him.
“In the meantime and in-between time, that same day that we did ‘Muscle Cars’—me, Keak da Sneak, Lil Jon, and Dame Fame, were all still in the studio. Lil Jon was still on the MPC and that boy just came with that ‘dun dun-tsk, dun dun dun-dun tsk.’ Just came out of nowhere with the beat. Like, ‘Ooh, what the fuck is that!?’
Lil Jon came out of nowhere with this beat. Like, ‘Ooh, what the fuck is that!?’
“Then the boy Dame Fame and Keak da Sneak was like [whispering], ‘Tell me when to go. Tell me when to go.’ And I said, ‘Spit that shit to me, boy!’ Like [raises voice], ‘Tell me when to go! Tell me when to go!’ And I was like, ‘That's hard.’ It was like magic. Next thing you know, the boy Lil Jon got the Run DMC sample from ‘Dumb Girl.’ Then I spit a verse, Keak did his verse. Then Jon said that at the end of the song there needs to be a chant. That we needed to talk about all that shit that we do out there in the Bay and make it a chant. That's what I did. And the shit became a smash.”
E-40 f/ T-Pain & Kandia “U and Dat” (2006)
Produced by: Lil Jon
E-40: “So Lil Jon produced that track and he came with the beat. I had my boy Al Capone in the studio, he's been rolling with my camp for years. That's a good friend of mine. I had my boy Maurice Garland and I had Sean Kennedy from San Jose in the studio as well. So we all in there as Lil Jon made the beat.
People don't know that T-Pain really can sing. He put the AutoTune on there cause that was his signature sound.
“Then Al Capone is like, ‘Yo, we need to get an R&B singer on there. We need to get somebody that's not overexposed, but got the cold pen that’s really up-and-coming.’ So we thinking. Next thing you know, Al Capone says, ‘You think you can get that T-Pain boy on there?’ And it just so happened that my dude Maurice Garland—who is a writer—was in the studio. And Sean Kennedy was like, ‘Maurice just got finished doing a write-up on T-Pain.' And Maurice says, ‘I got a line on him. Lemme call him.’
“So he called Bu (Akon's brother) and we told him T-Pain needed to come down to Stankonia Studios. Next thing you know, the boy T-Pain was walking in the door. It just so happened that T-Pain was in Atlanta at that time. He came in there, did the hook, and killed it. He didn't even need AutoTune. He put that on after. People don't know that, but T-Pain really can sing. He put the AutoTune on there cause that was his signature sound, but the hook was already raw like that.
We wanted Keyshia Cole to get on there. She was gonna do it, but she backed out at the last minute saying she don't want to do that type of music. She missed out on a smash hit.
“Then we called Kandi from The Real Housewives of Atlanta. Kandi's a writer but she's also an artist. She was in the legendary group Xscape. At first, I wanted Keyshia Cole to do the part Kandi had wrote. Kandi came down and put the girl's singing part down, the little bridge. And she wrote it for whoever we wanted to put on there.
“We wanted Keyshia Cole to get on there. She was gonna do it, but she backed out at the last minute saying she don't want to do that type of music. She missed out on a smash hit. So we were like, ‘Kandi you stay on here then. We're gonna keep your part on here and you get in the video. It became a smash hit. It was the biggest record I ever had in my life.”
E-40 f/ Turf Talk “Got Rich Twice” (2008)
Produced by: Droop-E
On My Ghetto Report Card—the one that they called such a hyphy album—there was only two hyphy songs on there really.
On <em>My Ghetto Report Card</em>—the one that they called such a hyphy album—there was only two hyphy songs on there really
E-40: “That's just new millennium mob music. That came about when Turf Talk came with the concept. He was like, ‘Man, you really have got rich twice.’ Cause I got my second wind. And that's just a little saying. He came with that one and we use that to this day.
“Even though Northern California turned they back on mob music—there was always one or two mob music tracks on each of my albums no matter what. Even when they didn't want it. On My Ghetto Report Card—the one that they called such a hyphy album—there was only two hyphy songs on there really, ’Tell Me When to Go’ and ‘Muscle Cars.’ The rest of the 16 songs was all just different shit.”
― in my world of loose geirs (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, 4 April 2011 15:40 (thirteen years ago) link
three weeks pass...
six months pass...