E-40

He’s a rap innovator, a business-savvy tycoon and one of the music industry’s most consistent success stories. Yes, E-40 is all those things, but he’s probably best known as a slang creator, a man whose distinctive gift of gab gets lifted and used in the rhymes of Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg and others. Now, the man with the terrific tongue returns with his most polished product to date, the imaginatively titled The Ball Street Journal.

Given his status as a rap music and rap business pioneer, E-40 justifiably kicks off The Ball Street Journal with “Ambassador.” Here, over a ridiculously catchy Rick Rock beat complete with a choice Digable Planets sample, 40 Water gives a Cliff’s Notes version of his musical legacy. “What I’ve done over 20 years defies logic,” he says. “I’ve got a chance to see cats come and go. It’s not normal for somebody to be in the game this long and to still be able to keep up with the Joneses, or to do better than the Joneses. I’m OG, but I’m still current and cold. Let me tell those who don’t know how long I’ve been in the game, what I’ve established and see how I’ve paved the way for those that are rapping now.”

One reason E-40 has remained relevant in the tumultuous rap world is his supreme lyricism. On the reggae-flavored “Hustle,” he boasts that the “chain around my neck look like a playground swing” and that skill like his is “rare like white running backs.” Then, E-40 delivers a trio of Lil Jon-produced party starters, the hyper “Break Ya Ankles,” the hyphy-flavored “Sweatbox” and the sonically shifting “Turf Drop.”

Fortunately for rap fans, E-40 has persevered throughout a career that stretches back to the 1980s. It was then that the Northern Califoolya legend was born. E-40 was among the first rappers to make a major dent independently. With his own Sick Wid It Records, E-40 established himself as a street-certified, business minded rapper. Early hit releases such as “Mr. Flamboyant,” Federal and The Mail Man spread like wildfire throughout the West Coast, Midwest and South.