It’s been said time and again that hip-hop is a young man’s game. But tell that to E-40 and he’s more likely to laugh in your face. The Bay Area rhymer, now clocking in at 47 years of age, is an anomaly in hip-hop, an MC who has mixed underground grit with an uncompromising dedication to his craft all while putting a traditionally underappreciated region on his back for a generation. Over his career, 40 Water has maintained a vice-like grip over the Bay’s hip-hop scene with an eclectic style that defied convention and gained him the credibility to be both an ambassador for his city and a well-respected lyricist who has made appearances on albums as diverse as 2Pac’s All Eyez On Me, UGK’s UGK 4 Life and Gucci Mane’s The State Vs. Radric Davis. It’s a resume that few can match and many have envied.
In short, 40 is a rapper’s rapper. His influence can often fly under the radar: slang phrases like “Fo shizzle,” “It’s all good,” and “You feel me,” for instance, are staples that he helped introduce but that are often credited elsewhere. But students of the game know what time it really is. 40 has had records bouncing around the Top 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 in three different decades, including his most recent guest spot on Big Sean’s “IDFWU,” which came complete with a football-themed concept video that pitted Sean as the quarterback, DJ Mustard running the ball, Kanye West as the head coach and 40 announcing from the broadcast booth. In a way it’s a microcosm of his career; E-40 has never been the focus, the center of the mainstream’s attention, but his voice reverberates through much of what is heard on the radio now.
Now it’s been more than a quarter century since 40 made his debut in the rap game back in 1988 with his group MVP, a three-piece crew made up of his brother (D-Shot) and cousin B-Legit, and 40 doesn’t see an end in sight. Since March 2012, he’s somehow managed to put out six solo albums and two full-length collab LPs with fellow Bay native Too $hort, and he’s got another four albums--Sharp On All 4 Corners 1, 2, 3 and 4—on the way, with the first two scheduled for December and the following two in the works for March. With 31 albums in 26 years, XXL caught up with E-40 to find out what it is that makes The Godfather of the Bay so impervious to Father Time
In short, 40 is a rapper’s rapper. His influence can often fly under the radar: slang phrases like “Fo shizzle,” “It’s all good,” and “You feel me,” for instance, are staples that he helped introduce but that are often credited elsewhere. But students of the game know what time it really is. 40 has had records bouncing around the Top 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 in three different decades, including his most recent guest spot on Big Sean’s “IDFWU,” which came complete with a football-themed concept video that pitted Sean as the quarterback, DJ Mustard running the ball, Kanye West as the head coach and 40 announcing from the broadcast booth. In a way it’s a microcosm of his career; E-40 has never been the focus, the center of the mainstream’s attention, but his voice reverberates through much of what is heard on the radio now.
Now it’s been more than a quarter century since 40 made his debut in the rap game back in 1988 with his group MVP, a three-piece crew made up of his brother (D-Shot) and cousin B-Legit, and 40 doesn’t see an end in sight. Since March 2012, he’s somehow managed to put out six solo albums and two full-length collab LPs with fellow Bay native Too $hort, and he’s got another four albums--Sharp On All 4 Corners 1, 2, 3 and 4—on the way, with the first two scheduled for December and the following two in the works for March. With 31 albums in 26 years, XXL caught up with E-40 to find out what it is that makes The Godfather of the Bay so impervious to Father Time