E-40

E-40 earned a reputation as the embodiment of Bay Area rap after establishing a loyal local audience long before national attention arrived, thanks to his flashy rhymes laced with such original and expansive slang that it eventually inspired a dedicated dictionary. His business-minded drive helped nurture a thriving hip-hop community in Oakland and his hometown of Vallejo. One of the earliest Bay Area artists to secure a major-label deal, he reached platinum status with his 1995 Jive debut In a Major Way. During the 2000s he expanded his major-label catalog with projects that routinely entered the upper reaches of the R&B/hip-hop chart, among them the 1996 release Tha Hall of Game, 1998’s The Element of Surprise, and 2006’s My Ghetto Report Card, each attaining gold certification. These efforts exerted wide influence across the West Coast and into the South. The range of tracks that feature his voice, from Lil Jon’s platinum-certified “Snap Yo Fingers” in 2006 to Big Sean’s multi-platinum “I Don’t Fuck with You” in 2014, further illustrates the respect he commands. At the same time the hyphy sound that energized the Bay Area scene gained broader traction, and no one championed it more consistently than E-40, who kept issuing multiple full-length projects each year, among them Revenue Retrievin’ in 2010, The Block Brochure in 2012, and the six-volume The D-Boy Diary in 2016. The Gift of Gab landed in 2018, while Practice Makes Paper followed in 2019 and peaked at number 32 on Billboard’s Top Hip-Hop/R&B Albums chart. Alongside joint work with Wiz Khalifa, K Camp, and Suga Free, he formed the supergroup Mount Westmore with Too $hort, Ice Cube, and Snoop Dogg in 2022 and then dropped the solo album Rule of Thumb in 2023.

Born Earl Stevens on November 15, 1967, in Vallejo, California, he made his recorded debut in 1990 on the Click’s EP Let’s Side, which Mike Mosley and Al Eaton co-produced. His first solo album, the nine-track LP/14-track CD Federal, appeared in 1993; Studio Ton handled production for the set, issued by Sick wid’ It in conjunction with the regional distributor SMG. The independently released, regionally popular single “Captain Save a Hoe” (also known as “Captain Save ’Em Thoe”) from the six-track Mail Man EP helped him land a contract with Jive Records in 1994—the same imprint that had housed Bay Area pioneer Too $hort since 1987. Jive reissued “Captain Save a Hoe” on 12-inch and added two bonus tracks to the Mail Man EP; Studio Ton produced nearly every song on that project except the Mike Mosley and Sam Bostic beat “Ballin’ Out of Control.”

In 1995 Jive alone put out four E-40-related titles: a reissue of the Click’s Down and Dirty, a fresh Click album titled Game Related, a reworked edition of Federal, and the new Studio Ton–produced In a Major Way that also involved Mike Mosley/Sam Bostic and Funk Daddy. Of that flurry, In a Major Way became the breakthrough, highlighted by the collaboration “Dusted ’n’ Disgusted” with fellow Bay Area hardcore rappers 2Pac, Mac Mall, and Spice 1 plus several other tracks that became fan staples; the album moved more than a million copies and elevated the rapper’s stature.

Starting with Tha Hall of Game in 1996, E-40 placed six further 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), and Breakin News (2003)—plus another Click project, Money & Muscle (2001). Across these releases he retained his core regional supporters while attracting a growing national audience. Beyond “Captain Save a Hoe,” two additional Jive singles reached the Billboard Hot 100: “1-Luv” in 1995 and “Things’ll Never Change” in 1996. In the late ’90s he also appeared on Southern rap albums such as 8Ball’s Lost, Master P’s MP da Last Don, and Scarface’s My Homies, all in 1998 alone.

His Southern connections crystallized most clearly in 2006 after his Jive contract ended, when he teamed with Lil Jon and BME Recordings for My Ghetto Report Card, released through Warner Bros. The album, which showcased beats from Lil Jon alongside Bay Area producers Droop-E, Rick Rock, Studio Ton, and Bosko, became his strongest commercial showing in years and returned him to the Billboard Hot 100 via two strong singles: “Tell Me When to Go” featuring Keak da Sneak (number 35) and “U and Dat” featuring T-Pain (number 13). That same year he joined Lil Jon on the platinum hit “Snap Yo Fingers.” His 2008 album The Ball Street Journal led with the Lil Jon-produced “Break Ya Ankles,” followed by the Akon collaboration “Wake It Up.”

Two years later he resurfaced with the double album Revenue Retrievin’, divided into a street-focused Day Shift and a club-oriented Night Shift; the series expanded into a quadrilogy in 2011 with the simultaneous arrival of Revenue Retrievin’: Overtime Shift and the darker Revenue Retrievin’: Graveyard Shift. Another three-disc batch, The Block Brochure: Welcome to the Soil, Pts. 1, 2, and 3, followed in 2012. In 2014 Sharp on All 4 Corners: Corner 1 and Corner 2 appeared, with Corners 3 and 4 originally slated for 2015 yet preceded by the first two volumes of The D-Boy Diary in 2016. Throughout this period his stature as a respected Bay Area veteran remained intact through guest spots on multi-platinum hits by Big Sean (“I Don’t Fuck with You”), Ty Dolla $ign (“Saved”), and Yo Gotti (“Law”).

In 2018 E-40 joined B-Legit for Connected and Respected, contributed to the Oakland-set film soundtrack Blindspotting, and issued the full-length The Gift of Gab. The following year brought Practice Makes Paper, promoted by the track “Chase the Money” that featured Quavo, Roddy Ricch, A$AP Ferg, and ScHoolboy Q. He returned in May 2020 with the EP The Curb Commentator Channel 1, which included appearances from Wiz Khalifa, Suga Free, K Camp, and B-Legit. Terms & Conditions, a joint project with Too $hort, surfaced that December and was succeeded in March 2021 by the single “I Stand on That” featuring T.I. and Joyner Lucas. In 2022 he launched the supergroup Mount Westmore alongside Too $hort, Ice Cube, and Snoop Dogg, while also releasing the singles “It’s Hard Not To” with Sada Baby and “In the Air Where It’s Fair” with Cousin Fik. Late in 2023 he returned to solo work with the full-length Rule of Thumb.