Club Shay Shay - E-40

Episode Date: March 15, 2021

On episode 25, Shannon welcomes in rapper, songwriter, record executive, & entrepreneur: E-40. E-40 talks Shannon through his many business ventures, from a childhood paper route in Vallejo, CA to his beverages like Tycoon Cognac & Earl Stevens wine, to investments in tech startups like Clubhouse. 40 Water’s business pursuits have always been anchored by his music. With hit records spanning three decades, E-40 has enjoyed prolonged artistic success. He has a wealth of stories about artists like Tupac, Too $hort and Lil Jon, as well as insight into his own unique, unpredictable style and slang. He educates Shannon on his extensive involvement in rap music history, within the Bay Area hyphy movement, Sick Wid It Records, and beyond. Shannon also quizzes E-40 on his Bay Area sports fandom, touching on Golden State’s 2015 NBA Title, his Mount Rushmore of Warriors players, & much more.#DoSomethinB4TwoSomethin & Follow Club Shay Shay:                                                                 https://www.instagram.com/clubshayshayhttps://twitter.com/clubshayshayhttps://www.facebook.com/clubshayshayhttps://www.youtube.com/c/clubshayshay Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news and the best analysis delivered by the time you get your coffee. The show hits every single game every single week, but I can't do it alone. So I'm bringing in all the big guns from NFL media like Colleen Wolf. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. New from Embedded. Who gets to compete as a woman? This question came up in ugly form at the Paris Olympics.

But it's not new. If she runs like a man and talks like a man, is she a man? not new. If she runs like a man and talks like a man, is she a man? Hear about the long history of sex testing women athletes on Tested, a new series from CBC and NPR's Embedded podcast. Listen to all episodes on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, welcome to another edition of Club Che Che. I am your host, also the proprietor of Club Che Che. And the guy that's coming by for a drink and conversation today, wow, he's a big one. He's a rapper, songwriter, record executive, a mogul, entrepreneur. He's been in the game over 30 years.

Mr. Sprinkle Me, the Bay Area's finest, and you can't mention the rap game without mentioning his name. Forty Warren, Mr. E. Forty. fights. Muscle paid the price. Want a slice. Got the rolling dice. That's why all my life I've been grinding all my life. E-40, what's up? What's up, family? How you doing, buddy? Man, I'm good, man. Thanks for stopping by today, man. I really appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Man, but you know, before we get started, you know, we've been dealing with this pandemic for like the last 16 months club shea shea had a hard time getting this reserve in you know so but uh i reached out to my good friend he fought and i got some of this this some of this tycoon cognac hello tycoon cognac right here man you know you know i know you got a lot of spirits you got tycoon you got earl stevens wine you got the e40 slurricane you got a tequila. Bro,

you got a lot of irons in the fire. Talk to me about it. You know, I started off selling wine online, and everybody knows it's natural like an Afro for me to speak about dope beverages because all my career from 1988 on up, you know what I'm saying? That's all I talk about. You know, I used

to talk about a lot of wine. You know what I'm saying? I always talk about Cognac and stuff like that and everything. But anyway, to make a long story short, I had an opportunity to sell wine online because I'm right next door to Napa, California. You know, that's wine country. I'm from Playa. We're from the same area, Cole. You know, I can stick my arm out there and now I'm in Napa. You know what I mean? That's how close we are. So I actually started selling Earl Stevens wine online.

I didn't want to call it E40. I know other drinkers. I just wanted to call it my real name, Earl Stevens. And give them that. And I wanted to make it when, you know, if somebody seen it and they wouldn't know that's me. But those who do know my real name is Earl Stevens would know it's me. You feel me? Right.

And I wanted to do that like on a speak easy type of note. You know what I mean? Like just like a whisper circuit. Like, you know i mean like just like a whisper whisper circuit like you know to see 40 stuff right you know what i mean so a lot of people right now don't even know earl stevens is me they don't even know that's my wine the mango scott will go crazy 18 alcohol 36 but anyway i sell wine online and um and then i ended up selling uh going to a distributor called southern glazed wine and spiritsirits. They tasted it. They was like, okay, we in. I sold a few cases to a few retail stores. Next thing you know, I sold 56 cases to a store in Vallejo called Food for Less. From Food for Less, that was a whole pallet. Next thing you

know, it was a truckload. Then Southern Glazed Wine and Spirits picked up a truckload, delivered it to all the on-premise and off-premise, general market, all over the chain stores, all that. And it just went and it took off from there and that was 2014 let me ask you a question what's the difference between earl stevens products and e40 products okay e40 products is more or less like the earl stevens products is kind of like um um ultra premium like super premium you know what I'm saying? The E40 products is like, you know, pre-mixed cocktail drinks, ready to drink pre-mixed cocktail drinks, like the Slurricane, E40 Slurricane,

Hurricane, Blue Lagoon, E40 Slurricane, Sweet Tea, E40 Slurricane, Hurricane, which I got from New Orleans, and E40 Slurricane, Yellowbird, which I got from the Bahamas. When I, you also, I think you sell pots and pans. I see you on social media. You be cooking.

You call yourself the goon with a spoon. What got you into cooking, and do you like cooking? Well, I love cooking, man. You know, being the oldest of four, you know, I had to make a way out of no way. You know, my mom and pop stayed divorced when I was eight and a half but my dad always stayed in our life you know i'm saying he stayed there to pay child support but but but for the majority of the situation i was the man of the house you know when we moved to a whole nother side of town and

my mom had to work two and three jobs and i had to you know be the be the oh i was the oldest i had to be a father figure to my my siblings you know right and so it was you know be the be the oh I was the oldest I had to be a father figure to my my my siblings you know right and so it was you know two uh two brothers that was in that house and my sister sugar tea so you know what I'm saying so we all we was raised I just taught myself talk kind of and then I also worked at a restaurant in Venetia California called the common house restaurants which I think way back then was pretty much a michelin star restaurant because all the rich people used to go there and i started off selling you know i started off um watching dishes you know what i'm saying as a teenager in there and then i worked my way up real quick i started washing dishes and uh working in the pantry making the um making uh what you call that stuff um

oh my god calamari and all that stuff calamari and then i started learning how to cook uh chicken corn on blue um you know when i went to the kitchen cook chicken corn on blue um um escargot uh london broil uh orange roughy fish like you know with almonds and pan pan fried you know i'm saying with uh and mussels mussels with wine salt lemon lemon so in other words you just picked up this by just watching the chefs and the other cooks cook because you're not really trained. You didn't go to school to be a chef or to be a cook.

You just watch other people do it. You like picked it up like, hell, I can do that. Yeah, definitely, most definitely. And that's how it happened, you know? And when my mother-in-law bought me, in 2014, she bought me a power pressure cooker. I'm like, I used to always hear, you know, see grandmama and them all the grandmamas they have a pressure but they have the old-fashioned kind that yeah put on the store they cut the kind is kind of

dangerous right yes you got to know how to really work them things with these when they came with the electric ones i was like oh this is this is this is easy and so i started learning that then i started just cooking everything in there then i I just started doing all the, I've been knowing how to cook. So then I started working my pots and pans game, you know, my oven game, you know what I'm saying? So I became the goon with the spoon, which, you know, that's a street word. My cousin B-Legit made that up. You know what I'm saying?

He came with the goon with the spoon. You smell me? And I just turned it into a, you know, we both say it in our lyrics. That's what we do. We share a game because we from the same thing. And, you know, we both say it in our lyrics. That's what we do. We share a gang because we from the same thing. And, you know, we pick up things from each other. And I didn't know it was going to become this big. So it became real big.

So I was like, I had my boy, Cousin Feek, have his guy make me a logo. And he made that. And it was the goon with the spoon. And we just took it there. Cousin Feek love you too, man. I meant to tell you. That's the guy I was telling you about earlier. Right.

Master P, I talked to him the other day, and he was talking about you and him go back all these years and he had mad respect for you. He'd say, that's my brother. And he was telling me how he hooked you up with the noodles. And he was like, man, he's like, hey, we eat noodles, so let's go ahead and put our iron in the fire and let's see what we can get cooking with this.

Because I think sometimes, Forty, is that people look, they're always looking to invent something that's never been invented as opposed to there's something that's already there. How about we improve on that and sell that to our communities? That's right. Why not? We can do, you know, now Black-owned businesses is in full effect, you know. He always had that state of mind.

I did as well we learned that early age early and that we had we learned that in music we was independent me and him we come up into my uncle saint charles you know what i'm saying yep so you know uh you know he got he came like they had rap snacks years ago and they they brought it back out him and james you know and then it went to noodles and then and now it's cereal and all kinds, they're doing their thing, you feel me? And on my end, I'm doing my thing, you know, with the adult beverages, and also got the Goon with

the Spoon products coming very soon as well, and we all talk, and it's all love, it's teamwork make the dream work, you know, and P had a choice, you know, James got at me and said, P wants you on these noodles, man, the Icon noodles, you know, and that's an honor and a pleasure you know because you know he he don't just pick anybody you know dude man so he ain't just gonna do so you know that show automatically how much love he got for

me we break when we break it bread you know i'm saying that's how we do it so we try to we try to preach black on you know entrepreneurship you know what i'm saying just you know being being being a vendor of record you know vendor of record is very important you know so that's that's that's what i am with adult beverages 100 owner of everything that i do you know and it don't have to be 100 owner you can have um business partners i got a business partner in um the lumpia company which i own a restaurant a filipino restaurant his name is alex rototo, Lumpia Chef. You know what I'm saying? So, you know, when you team up like that, maybe one day we'll do a Goon with the Spoon slash Rap Snacks,

you know, brand or something. You never know, you know, vice versa. So we just, it's all about, you know, you scratch my back, I scratch yours, bro. Let's go teamwork, make the dream work. Let's do this, man. You being from the Bay area, how much did being from the Bay and knowing they have Silicon Valley and

knowing that you're right next to Napa, how did that weigh on you? Like, cause you've invested in startups. You have these spirits, you have the wine. How heavily did that influence you being so close? You're like, man, I'm right here i might as well take advantage of this man you know be just being a good dude you know i treat people like i want to be treated you know and what i want for myself i want for others i'm a congratulator not a hater you know what i'm saying but i know let me tell you something if you hate

on somebody you ain't gonna have no good luck that stuff gonna come right back on you you know what i'm saying just and it ain't in my blood like i and i and especially when i know our people come from the mud we come from the grit we come from the motherfucking octagon you know what i'm saying right and i want to see us all win because there's enough money out there for everybody you know so being in that uh being right there vale, Napa, being in between, Vallejo got the best of all worlds of the Bay Area. We got our own thing. We from that Mare Island water.

Special people come from Vallejo. Something about that Mare Island water. I'm trying to tell you some real stuff. That's Bay Area water too. You can catch the ferry from Vallejo, straight direct, a straight shot to San Francisco same water we share the same water but that mirror island water that little surrounding dead water is something special so we got the best of all worlds you know get you know

being having relatives in certain cities and all that stuff and just being creative we all locked in now I'll tell you what um um silicon valley shout out to my man chameleon there you know what i'm saying yeah chameleon there my cousin tyson got at me he was like you know chameleon they're doing these startup companies you know you might want to holler at him at that time you know this is like 2012 2013 right well i didn't really know too much about it and i was like i knew about it but i didn't like i was much about it. I knew about it, but I didn't. I was like, how you do it? By that time,

Comedianary, I hit a few times. It was a couple of companies he got in in the early stage startups that got acquired and got an IPO. By the time I got in, it's like 2016.

It's 2021 now. I'm between 45 and depending on the next month, between 45 and 48 startup companies deep that I'm in. Early stage startups. A lot of people don't know I'm an early stage investor

in Clubhouse, one of the hottest things out right now. Right. You know what I mean? That thing evaluated at a billion within months. And it looked like it's going to be 5 billion at the end of the summer. So, you know, I ended up getting my feet wet in startup companies as well. Shout out to a comedian there.

You might see us at the basketball games, courtside, hanging out. Right. That's been my friend for many years. You know what I'm saying? Let me ask you this. Go back to your culinary skills. What's your favorite thing to cook? My favorite thing to cook is maybe fried rice, chicken and shrimp fried rice.

You know what I'm saying? I would say oxtails. Yeah, I love some oxtails. But you can't find them. We can't find them right here in Southern California. You go to all the stores, they're out. You serious? Because there's a lot of cats from Southern California got their Southern

in. Yeah, you know what's up. Hey, check this out. I had to crave it because, you know, my daddy's from Mississippi. Okay. My grandmom and granddaddy and them, they all from Louisiana. Okay. So I got that, you know, I'm from there.

I'm from there. Shoot. You know that? I'm from there. Shoot that you know they did you know i'm from that i'm from the shoe you know you know that i'm from the shoe i ain't starting you i'm from that era i'm i'm i'm i'm a i'm a i'm a valeo south dude you know what i'm saying i live i stayed at grandma i went to grammar state university of louisiana like i'm it's in me so you know i my my grandmama on my daddy's side straight from mississippi her name uh r.i.p grandmama on my daddy's side, straight from Mississippi, her name is RIP Grandmama Rebecca. She used to come, I go over there, she over there making hog head cheese with the eyelashes, eyeballs, everything in it. Where the hell I saw some-

Well, you know about that hog head cheese, you really down south, cause there ain't a whole lot of people know about hog head cheese. Come on, come on. Let me tell you about my grandma on my mama's side. She raised 11 kids. Her and my granddaddy. They touched on

people. My granddaddy was a preacher for 60 years. R.I.P. to Mother Thurman and Granddaddy Thurman. You know what I'm saying? One day I go over there to Millersville in the 1800 block and I go holler at grandma just to go visit them. She say, she say, grandson, go on over there to Lucky's for me and go pick up me some chicken feet. I say, what, grandma?

Yeah, some chicken feet. Just ask the butcher. Just say you're here for Mother Thurman. And I was like, okay, I'll do it for you, grandmama. And so I went over there. I said, hey, I'm here to pick up some chicken feet for my grandma. Oh, Mother Thurman. okay, no problem. Dude had it all packaged up, ready to go and everything. I brought it to grandmama. Grandmama had already had the cast iron skillet with the grease already warming up because it's right across the street. You know what I'm saying? Already warming up, all that good shit.

Man, she had her little seasoning in the bag already ready. Man, she washed them off, cut the feet, you know, little pieces. Get the toenails off. Get the toenails off. Took the toenails off. You know it, right? Man, she shook them things up, put them things in there, fried them up, and she got to eating them things. It looked kind of like different, but

I was tempted to do it, but I was kind of younger. I was like 19. You know what I'm saying? You're like, nah, I'm going to hold off. I'm going to hold off. But as I travel, you know, when we on the road, we stopping at Flying J's, and we stopping at Walmart, we going through the South Midwest, this and that there. We going to Publix and all these places.

We seeing more and more chicken feet. I say, man, I tell my folks, I say, this is my grandmama had me get y'all. See these chicken feet? So it's common in the South. Yes. You know what I'm saying? Yes.

Yeah, because, you know, I grew up, I'm from rural South Georgia. I'm heavy Georgia. So I grew up eating pig ear sandwiches, eating pig tails, eating chicken necks, eating pig feet, eating, you know, the wild game, the squirrel, the rabbit, the raccoon, possum. You ain't lying.

Because you know how I know? I watched the whole segment about you and your brother and your grandma. You love your grandma, bro. You know what I'm saying? She raised y'all, bro. Y'all had to walk hella far to school as a small little... I know your story. I know the struggle, bro. I know where you come from,

bro. And I'm proud of you too, bro. Trust that. Before you mention, I appreciate that. You mentioned that you started investing in startups and you're doing quite well in that. Has there been some opportunities that you like, I'm going to pass on this and they come to find out they hit? Not yet. Cause anything that, that has, I would say, I would say

fixtures that hit a few times, if they involve, it's like, they ain't involved like i'm in i'm in the company one of the ones that with oprah and people don't know what it is but it's just one of them right now right bianca millionaire and our host you know uh supreme partners team you know what i'm saying right and so we like we we all we like we in it but we just don't say nothing we just we cool you know what i'm saying but like i say i'm waiting anytime you got some big names or something in there that really didn't already, you know,

had a few companies that got acquired and IPO'd, you know what I'm saying? You want to get in. You want to be in those. Evidently, they know something. Evidently, they know what it is because they think about the future. Right. You know what I'm saying? If them big dogs got their name attached to it,

it's normally something good it it's normally something good it's normally something good bro what what was your what was your first business venture my first business venture um was i would say 1989 my brother um my me and my brother had a clothing store it was called new fat clothing right there in millersville on solano avenue okay and we bought a clothing store we would get our clothes we were so young that we wasn't able to have our credit you know we you know we we had to figure it out ourselves because we self-taught and we self-made and so we you know we would go to the garment district you know what i'm saying we would go to garment district to get our clothes we went to new york like you know and got you know get clothes for you know for a lower

price uh we uh we we went to the magic show the magic show used to be a big deal and in uh las vegas we went to there back then we got we hooked up with carl canai cross colors major damage all those they let us get in on cod ups cod UPS COD, cash on delivery back then. Right. And we would go to Cordelia if we didn't, if we miss a drop off or something, like if we was gone and we'd go pick up our clothes there and pay right there or whatever back then. You got to remember, this is the 80s, the late 80s.

You know what I'm saying? So, you know, we had new fat clothing up and running. So I take the little bread that I made, you know what I'm saying, So, you know, we had new fat clothing up and running. So I take the little bread that I made, you know what I'm saying, and go put it down. Payment, we had my man Studio Tone, you know, which produced a whole bunch of songs, Captain Save a Hole, and a whole bunch of sick with the records, Slaps.

You know what I'm saying? He stayed, his, we had studio, we had new fat clothing. Next to that was Davenport. Then further down, you had Rich Arts Barbershop. You know what I'm saying? Then you had Studio Tone Studios. So I'll take the little bread that I make, and I'm going to put a down payment down there on Studio Tone.

He'll go, you know, he'll go 100 bucks, man. Let me get in next Thursday. I'm going to have my lyrics already written. All I need is like four hours. And I'm going to come in here and knock out about four or five songs. And I was a youngster, so I knock out four or five songs complete right away. Like, you know, cats go in there and knock out songs but this was with a lot of thought in it.

You know what I'm saying? Right. They go in there and knock out a song and just do a verse or a verse and a half. No hook, it'll be incomplete. I have my Tupac on. I go in there and knock out four songs right away. You know what I'm saying?

So that was my first business venture right there. So you've been about this hustle thing for a minute. Just a teenager. So you got the clothes, you started a little clothing thing, but it seems to me you were doing the clothing thing because music was always because you're like, okay, I got $100.

I'm going to need some boo time next Thursday. So that clothing was the start, was the gateway to what you really wanted to do, which was music. That's right. That's what it was. It helped me out tremendously. You know what I mean? And I always had, you know, I used to work at the, I used to have a paper route.

Okay. You know what I'm saying? And on that paper route, my granddaddy had one earlier, too. He had one early in the morning. The papers would be delivered to me. He'd come pick me up, and it'd be delivered to him, too, but he'd pick me up, and it'd be early in the morning before school, like 5 a.m.

You know what I'm saying? Remember, mind you, I was in band. I played the drums from the fourth grade all the way to the 12th grade. They didn't have studios and stuff like that back when I was in the fourth grade on up. You know what I mean? Everything was manually. So anyway, so remember, I had zero period band. I mean, you got a dang near be at school at like 730.

So I had to be already dressed, everything. So granddaddy come pick me up 435 AM in the morning. And so one day I'm on the paper route with him. And I was an observer of the game. I've always been a student of the game. So I always pay attention to older people and everything. And I just used to observe everything around me. And one day I'm in the car with him.

And he was like, it was just me and him. He just, grandson. I said, hey, granddad. He just, you a heavy thinker, huh? I said, I am, granddaddy, because I was in deep thoughts. That's why I'm so thought like this. I'm just a thinker. You know what I'm saying?

That's why I'm woke. I used to work in South Vallejo during the summer at Vallejo Neighborhood Housing because I drew. I used to like to draw. I'd take an old house and you know what I'm saying, and I'd draw the old house and then show how it's going to look at the end when it's done,

complete, refurbished and everything. Yeah, I used to do that, man. I used to do, you know, I was a, I never let grass grow under my feet, man. Wasn't nothing standing still but an old-ass hill and a broken-down Bonneville on my behalf. You feel me? So, what inspired you to get into the music? What inspired you to rap? down Bonneville on my behalf. You feel me? So what inspired you to get into the music? What inspired

you to rap? What inspired me to rap was when I first heard the Sugar Hill Gang. 1979. 1979. Rapper's Delight. Rapper's Delight, boy. When I heard that, I'm like, what the hell is this new form of music? You know? And it was just everybody at my school

was singing it. It was new. Knew that song all the way through. It was about 20 minutes long, but everybody knew it. Everybody knew that song, man. The chicken did wood. The chicken tastes like something. It was like all kind of the hip-hop. I mean, you gotta remember, that was hip-hop. What was it?

79? What was that? That came out in 79, yep. 41 years ago? 42 years ago when that came out? That's a trip, bro. So basically, that made me start rapping, just playing around. Right. You know, that is. But Ford, I'm listening.

Now, when you started, your style didn't immediately catch on. It wasn't until years later that people appreciated your style, your flow, your cadence. And to this day, nobody has ever been able to replicate what you've been able to do on the mic. No, because my style is unpredictable because I don't even know how I'm going to flow. Like, it just depends on how the beat sound

or what, you know, whatever direction my flows take me. Cause I'm all over the place like space. Right. Everywhere like air, you know? And so I was like, I just, cause I can do it all bro. I can rap slow and I can rap fast. I rap real slow, laid lay back because i like mob music and then i just turn it turn it on then here come that you know that that mouthpiece with a shift

kit in it you know what i'm saying i guess just get the gas and you know i'm saying that's when the dual exhausts kick in and then when i take off that's when motherfuckers be like oh my god this nigga oh it's so wrong with him you know what i'm saying yeah so but but the style and the way you do it the the words the cadence that's what it is i mean your flow like i said nobody has ever been able to replicate that no we've seen rappers that you know rest your soul pop smoke he sounds like 50 and we've've heard rappers that sound like some of the modern day rappers. But you and that style that's so unique

to the Bay and to E-40. Why can't someone flow like that? So it's people I've grew up on too as well that, you know, you can say that has influences on me too. right you would never

know though um like like you but you got a kind of krs1 vibe definitely i got kris1 in me i got two short in me i got some brothers from richmond california named magic mike and calvin t yeah you know uh um can't go from utfo if you ever heard him, just Kangol from UTF-4. Yeah. That's why I made my voice like that. You feel me? Like, it's a lot. I got influences, too.

But when you put me all together, like, I got a lot of Ice-T in me. You won't even know I got Ice-T in me. Right. But I got, you know, I got the streets in me. And Ice-T's been straight street shit. You feel me? Right. So anyway, it's a whole bunch of rappers, man.

And it's me, too, with my character. And my cadence comes from playing the drums. Right. If you listen to my cadences, it's drum. It's percussion. It's a percussion flow. Right. You know what I'm saying?

You, as I mentioned when you first started out, they're like, man, that's whack. I mean, nobody was really trying to collab with you. So what were you thinking then? You're like, damn, man, I'm out here doing what I do. I mean, nobody was really trying to collab with you. So what were you thinking then? You're like, damn, man, I'm out here doing what I do. I know my stuff good. I know it stinks. But I can't get no love. Man, it bothered me.

Actually, I'll tell you one day, man, in 1988, we had me, my brother, my brother Mac D. Shop, my cousin B. Legit, t we was called mvp most valuable players we had a place called the pros um pros djs um we we played our music for them it was like probably maybe 50 50 uh people in the room maybe 100 i don't know and um i was like so we played it and you know know, they was, they, no one gave us no feedback. My man Casper, which I talked to last week, he was like, what do you guys think? And no one said nothing. They didn't say nothing about like, man, you know, you need to go back to the drawing board. I think you should work on this a little more.

It's like y'all not quite there or whatever. They just did us like that. So I left, man, my heart started racing. I started having a panic attack. Like, you know, like, I started getting anxiety. That was my first time ever experiencing anything like that. You got to understand, I had one foot on the turf, and I had one foot in the vocal booth. Right. So I wasn't, you know what I'm saying?

I wasn't going either way. Yeah. So I'm stressed out. So I don't know. I'm worried about if one of these old scandalous-ass motherfuckers is going to try to kick in my dough, and I'm going to have to open them up. Or if, you know what I'm saying?

Or if I'm a popo finna be on my anus. You know what I'm saying? So I'm like, you know, I was stressed out. I was caught between a rock and a political hard place. It wasn't a catch-22. It was a catch-23. Luckily, I had like I said, my grandparents, my aunties and them, my mom and them, everybody

prayer warriors. they wanted to. I'm the chosen one of the family. You know what I'm saying? And they knew. They seen it. They knew I was going to be somebody. They knew I wanted out the streets. They knew that I wanted to be this influencer.

They knew I wanted to be a motivator. You know what I'm saying? I'm here to inspire. You know what I'm saying? And they knew what I was going to be. So anyway they that that did what it did i i was holding a grudge up until recently when my uncle said charles like man you know what don't don't don't say the word hate um when you hate when you don't like somebody just

say you don't you don't you you know you you don't you don't rock with them you know i mean something like that you know i'm saying because you say you know that can come back on you because there's a lot of people i can really have I can really not ever like in my life. You have problems, have issues with. Yeah, because they did me wrong. You know what I'm saying? Right. But I'm a real good person, you know?

And so. But for me, at the time, did you think they knew they were doing you wrong? Or it was just that, what do you think their thought process was? Now that I'm older, because, you know, with age comes wisdom. Immaturity, absolutely. As I get older, I get wiser. So I'm thinking on the outside looking in, they probably just didn't understand how, you know,

we was ahead of our time. Right. You know? But at that time, my style didn't develop that quick like that. It was like kind of normal. That was my first little goal. So I'm like, man, it was right in the pocket. It wasn't like it was some old shit. Like I'm old now. Like my style everywhere, like air little goal. So I'm like, man, it was right in the pocket. It wasn't like it was some thole shit.

Like, I'm thole now. Like, I must out everywhere like air. You know what I'm saying? So I'm like... Your style was like a Tesla. Tesla been out for a minute, but they didn't get hot until like the last five, ten years, and now they blowing up like everything. Nitro. Just like Tito's vodka. Took him 20 years to really get known everywhere.

And look at him now. Millionaire status. You see what I'm saying? So your realm wasn't built in a day. You feel me? But they caught up. They finally caught up. Now everybody rapping fast. Now everybody know what's happening now. Now everybody know all my slang words is just now surfacing that

I said when some of these rappers was kids. Before they wasn't even born, I was saying the words that they credit a lot of rappers for. But I don't even trip because I'm older and wiser it's like i know history repeats itself right i know how it go and they got it from somebody they got it from somebody got it from somebody got it from me you feel me you you got it that's your style they don't came by folk they don't came like four people after you but that's you in real life and so you know like i said i am so uh i'm so much in a happy space man and a and a good I'm here to be motivated, man.

And more people want these youngsters to see how I get out. I'm not into no sucker stuff, man. I'm just trying to be solid, not solid. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news, previews, recaps and analysis delivered straight to your podcast feed by the time you get your coffee. No dumb hot takes here, just smart hot takes. We'll talk every single game, every single week, but I can't do it alone, so I'm bringing in the big guns from NFL media. That's Patrick Claibon, Steve Weiss, Nick Shook,

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And who doesn't want that? Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Did you ever think about changing your style because you weren't getting the love, you weren't getting the play that you thought you deserved? So did you think about changing your style, your flow? No, my mama told me, she said, whatever you do, boy, you just keep rapping fast. Because she used to see me, I didn't even know what it was.

I rubbed my neck like back here and it was, oh, listen, my shoulders would be real tense. So one day my auntie said, why are you so tense, boy? She was like, and I said, I don't know. I said, a little stressed, I guess. She said, I was stressed. I was stressed out at a young age. Right.

You know what I'm saying? So I didn't know. So I was like, my mama used to always tell me, she said, boy, keep rapping, doing your thing.

She was always, she always motivated me. She used to tell us, you know, she raised three boys and one girl on Magazine Street. She's like,

y'all get out there and be men. Get out there and be men. Experience the world. And that's what we did. She gave us our freedom to go. That's why we're so ahead of our time.

We'll be, we'll be out of, when we was 15, 16, 17 years old, we everywhere, I'm talking about out of state. We all over the place. And my mom was still working three jobs. Worked in the hospital. You understand me?

We worked at Mr. Jimmy's around the corner on Fulton Street, I mean, on Laurel Street in the hillside. Worked at Vallejo neighborhood house. And I used to wash walls with her. Worked at Maggie's hamburgers on Venetia road. Like, you know what to wash walls with her, worked at Maggie's Hamburgers on Benicia Road. Like, you know what I'm saying? She's doing all these side jobs just to take care of us. You know, my dad paid child support, but you know, that was

you know, four kids, you know, and we was into sports, so $400 wasn't enough for four kids. He didn't want child support. He was not raising kids. I know, because he had to pay $410. I think it was $410 total for four kids, which he did, because he worked for PG&E. You know, I love my pops.

You know what I'm saying? But like I said, that wasn't enough for us. We was active. We played football, baseball. We played all week. Right. And boy, we— All of us were able to play.

$400 last you a week. A week, bro. That's what I'm saying. You feel me? I'm looking at your resume. You's what I'm saying. You feel me? I'm looking at your resume. You've dropped 27 solo albums. What is the thought process when you go into the

I mean, do you need a beat and then write or do you write with a beat in mind? What's the process like for E-40 writing a song? Well, first off, it's more than 27. That's old data, because they say that,

they've been saying that for the last four years. So what you up to now? We want to make sure we get it right. Bernie? It's okay, fam. This is you reading out the thing. It's like, I don't even know now. I got to count, because I dropped something

like in December, you know what I'm saying? Okay. Because they haven't added, you know, the Beat Me and Be Legit album, you know, Connection and Respect. They didn't do Me and Too Short, History Mob, Function Music. Like, they ain't adding, you know, the one Me and Too Short just did recently. They ain't added

all the group albums I'm in with The Click, My Brothers and Sisters. You know what I'm saying? My Brother and Sister. My Brother's and Sister. Anyway, make a long story short, but no, let's get back right where you say you. I'm sitting up here trying to correct you about how many albums. What was the question after that? I ask you when you go in, are you do you need a beat and write to the beat or have you written a song with a beat in mind?

you written a song with a beat in mind? Man, a lot of times I do write songs with a beat in mind. Um and then but uh what I do I take notes. Okay. So you know if I if I say huh I make up something like uh you know um they say wrong what they say they say uh life ain't promised tomorrow I say life ain't pro life ain't promised today and I say, life ain't promised today. And I say that in my little tape recorder, or else I write it in my notes on my iPhone. Life ain't promised tomorrow or today. You know what I'm saying? OK. And that's something my uncle and them used to say.

You feel me? That's how I say it, right? I come just like that. And then that's how I'm so thrilled. Like, I'm all over the place. So that's how I'm so like I'm all over the place so you know that's how I write but I would love to I love when a beat has a hook to it

when these producers send it with the hook whether they write the hook in my voice like they write it and say 40 you say this part on the hook because I'm going to give them their publishing their writer splits all that that's all cool you know people don't write for me but if you want to write a hook for me all day do it you to write a hook for me, all day, do it.

You can do a hook for me if you want to. You know what I'm saying? So you have no goals for others. Everything that 40 spit, 40 wrote. Oh, yeah, man. But, you know, we also have every rapper can, you can, hey, if a motherfucker lying, if they ain't saying, and they got a house full of their partners, and they say, 40, what we saying it like this now, this the line if they saying they in that they got a house full of a partners and they say 40

Well, we saying it like this now This is the new word they saying and they just say and they say and you put that in or they say What if you say it like this just a couple of lines everybody bought a couple of bars So what they would they folks around them? Yeah, it's called vibing every rapper Fuck what they talk about? They know it You know saying we all got even though we write, we do, we write all shit, but I'm just saying, every writer participate like that, you know,

whether they co-writing, helping them come with a hook or something like Ideal Flow, you know what I'm saying? Family members, like all that shit, you know? So that's how that shit go. 40, you've had, you've been on a track with Tupac, Too Short, Lil Jon, Snoop Dogg, Mac Dre, Big Sean, Scarface, Ty Dolla $ign, Yo Gotti. Who brings out the best? And when you were on a collab with one of those guys, you know they're going to bring it.

Are you saying, you know what? Oh, I got something for him. I got something today. I'm going to lay this track down. This thing going to be a smoker. Anybody I do a song with, period, is friendly competition. I'm going to try to outgash you, no matter if it's your song or my song. I'm going to try to outgash you. You want to try to turn the man up on his own song? How you going to come to the man's house and go try to put your feet up on his coffee table and show out in front of him?

You know why? Because it makes the song bigger and greater. Because it's called Friendly Competition. So both going out, it's going to make the song super hard. Right. Super, super hard. Like, I got a song right now that I'm dropping the video for in a couple days. And that song is called I Stand On It.

Now, we did this song about four months ago, and we put it out, but we just did the video to it, and I'm just now like, damn, man, we was all gassing on that thing. Like, it's tremendous gas. It's like unheard of gas. It is Joyner Lucas, myself, and T.I., and we on there rapping like,

Joyner always rap like that, but me and Tip, we ain't never rap like that. Well, I always rap like that, but me and Tip, we ain't, we never rap like that. Well, I have a little bit, but me and Tip, we ain't rap like that in many years. You know what I'm saying? It's like new school, but we never rap like that. But when you hear it, it's gassy. In every word, you can hear

it. And just, y'all look out for that video. It's called I Stand On It. So like I say, man, I can do any style. I'm all over the place with my flows. And I just love creating things being different when you different you become an innovator if you sound like everybody else you know what i'm saying if you're if you if you continuously just want to be the second do what's what's whatever's in you can do whatever whatever is in because it's good to keep your eye on the ball so you won't strike out you know what i'm saying so you won't go down you know looking you know what i'm saying right keep your

eye on the ball and dial in because the reason i say that is you got to turn with the times or the time's going to turn on you but you got to do it in your way and your and keep it in your jurisdiction within your envelope and and make it you because like I say, it was a time in the Bay Area, it was called the hyphy movement. Right. Due to people like my man Rick Rock, Droopy and so on and so forth, Trax Million and a whole bunch of other producers,

the beats became up-tempo, especially Rick Rock, because me and Rick Rock had them up-tempo. And I'm like, man, all you got to do is just spit what's going on, you know what I'm saying, in your way. Spit it. You ain't lying. Tell what's going on. Put some game in there, a few bars.

You know, do your thing and just do it on an up-tempo beat. A lot of cats, man, I ain't with that, man. It's just my music. Nigga, I'm the one who made my music. I created that. Me too. Legit and Ab Banks and Studio Tone and Mike Mosley and Sam Bostick and Rick Rock and all us. You know what I'm saying? Right. Going down the line. But I'm just saying

like, we just doing something. We adjusting to the times. It's different times. We got to be innovators. So up-tempo beats, spitting that good old, spitting straight gasoline over them is where it's at because the cast was like man we're dead man i'm keeping they were stubborn i'm like man you ain't stubborn you just don't know how to do it or you just don't want to push your brain to do

it you know i'm saying a lot of people got stuck in the mud not trying to adapt and i stayed with the youngsters and the new generation and still was me and outgassing motherfuckers and still to this day i'm a half a century years old and i still wrap circles around the majority of the motherfuckers your favorite rappers trust that who haven't you worked with that you would like to work with as far as maybe a collab maybe a producer because i i think it was somebody that I think it was Dr. Dre. I don't know if you've done anything with Dr. Dre and you said you would like to like to do something with Dr.

Dre and you would think that, hell, he from Cali. I'm from Cali. We'd have linked up at some point in time by now, but it just hasn't happened. I really don't think Dr. Dre mean anything by it. It's just, I'm not, I don't stay in LA. Right. I'm in the Bay. So I think if I was closer to him, I've been this Dr. Dre. Dr. Dre love me being around him.

You know what I mean? That's how I feel. Right. Because I'm a character. I'm a good person. I ain't scandalous or none of that shit. You know what I'm saying? Right.

I'm just a creative person. He creative, I'm creative. But I figured, man, like I say, as you get older, you get wiser. And with age comes wisdom. I'm like, you I figure, man, like I say, as you get older, you get wiser. And with age comes wisdom. I'm like, you know, that day might come. It might come. Have you picked up the

phone and tried to reach out? I mean, you know. We tried before. You know, we tried to do a song. Actually, I did. He sent me a song to my man Silk and me and Short. And guess what? We never did go all the way through with it. It wasn't me or him. We don't know what

happened, but that beat never... Because you know, Dredd sent on some beats. He had sent on some good songs. They say there's a lot of songs he got in the boat that he ain't put out yet. You know what I'm saying? I was like, okay. One of them songs, I was like, oh, I can't waste

these lyrics. I'm going to use this on another song, right? You know what I'm saying? But that ain't why, man. That ain't why. It's just we just haven't had a chance to connect. But he is on Mount Westmore. He got on a song for Mount Westmore, Me, Snoop Dogg, Too Short, and Ice Cube. He did do that because, you know, that's Snoop in Ice Cube, real friend.

You know what I'm saying? I got respect and love for him. You know what I'm saying? But when we have met and ran across each other, it's nothing but love and respect. You started this Bay thing, but one of the biggest Bay Area rappers is Tupac.

And a lot of people have him on their Mount Rushmore. You have a very unique, you can tell stories about Tupac that very few people can because you knew him on a different level. You knew him back then before he blew up and became Tupac, Death Row Tupac.

Talk to us about Tupac and how did he push you to become the rapper you became? Well, I think we pushed each other because he grew up on me but at the same time he became he blossomed quicker than me right and i and i grew up on it was artists that started it before me as well like shout out to mc hammer yeah hammer yeah you know but i've always been there like you know i'm since 88 like music on the shelf since 88 that ain't too hard to you know ain't too many you, I just didn't blow up right then and there.

My, my came a year and a half later. I started, you know, when I came with, you know, the shit that a fuck with your brain and less side and Mr. Flamboyant and all that good stuff. And it just started taking off from there. You know what I mean? Right. But I would say, man, so many, so many stories. Let's see. Let's see. I'll tell you about a phone conversation. You know what I'm saying? Because I tell a lot of other stuff when we and, you know, together. about this before he was like 840 because we was going to hang up on the phone we was talking and then we were going to hang up and he said oh oh I meant to tell you man uh you might want to invest in this you know in this this this thing I came with an idea man I want to call you know

they got Planet Hollywood I think I think I want to do something called you know I'm saying gangster cafe man well you know you have all the gangsters like you know Al Capone and Lucky Luciano and you know all these cats on the walls but it's's a, it's a, it's a cafe. As you, they serve food, they got, you know, they playing music from the rolling twenties or whatever, you know what I'm saying? Or wherever, whenever that era was. And you know what I'm saying? He was, he had it laid out. He had that ideal and that was interesting because he wanted all of,

he wanted all his partners to invest in it and whatnot. And he had the vision. And, if he did something like that, he would have raised that money. He would have raised that money. He would have started a fund and all the fixtures would get in. This is owned by 40 and a whole bunch of

other cats. It's just the opportunities wasn't there at the time, but he had all the visions. He was ahead of his time and he did so much in so little time the man was only 25 years old and let me tell you something and he got that bay in him and he player about it for sure the way he carried himself you know all that you know what i'm saying the man the man the man was a um a fashion like the way he was a he was a real true thug with it but a gq looking thug like the way he carried himself the way he was a real true thug with it, but a GQ looking thug, like the way he carried

himself, the way he dressed, his whole swag. He was heavy on the Versace. Yeah, you know what I'm saying? You know, that was the look. All of us wore Versace and Kuzmin. New silk shirt. I had a few of them too, Fawley. I had a few of them on silk shirts with that print. That was our look. That was what was

in at the time, you feel me? It print. That was our luck. That was what was in at the time. You feel me? That was real bossy. What made Pac special in the rap game? What was so unique about him? Because if you think about Brenda had a baby and he talked about the song, I forget, about his mom. Dear Mom, I think that was.

But anyway, he talked about, I mean, yeah, he talked about the violence and the drugs and all that stuff, but he talked about real life, you know, uh, how Brenda, how she gave up, you know, got pregnant at 13, 14 and the love for his mom. What made him so unique? He talked about the street he talked of his vision his uh his storytelling um he uh you know being from um you know black panther background his mom and you know all that stuff he was like a rebel you know and uh one thing he touched on was the octagon you know the trap the cage

you know i'm saying the soil the hood the the you know i'm saying the the smudge you know and that's that's that's what he does and that's what made him so unique and he is he uplift male and female spirits because you know it touched home with the stuff he was saying yes what i mean know what I mean? And that's what made him so dope. And he did a lot of what they call pain rap. He was doing that way back then. That's why we all felt it. We all felt it. And that's what he specialized in.

That's why his music lasted so long. That's why you got to consider him the greatest rapper of all time. It ain't what he just did in the vocal booth, but him being an actor, a poet, like, you know what I'm saying? Doing poetry, you know, he did. And just being a leader. Like if you, you know, right now,

you know, during this whole pandemic, you know, during the, during the, and the protesting, yeah, you know, he'd the and the protesting yeah you know he'll be on the front line with the biggest mouth yes with a bullhorn with a hell of people behind him you know what I'm saying that man was

ahead of his time bro and you know I hate when people don't give people their roses when they alive you know what I'm saying give people their roses when they alive. You know what I'm saying? Give people their roses, man. You know, because you would look back and just be like, man, how did he do all that? You know what I'm saying?

Right. He did so much in solo time. And look at how long his albums lasted. Yeah. You know, look how long they lasted after he passed. It was so much music out there, bro. Yeah, it's going to be. It's hard to find a rap album that's harder than All Eyes On Me.

And I was on that thing, baby. I was on it. That's platinum. Come on. Diamond. That was – hey, that was special. And like you said, he was 25. If you look at he and Biggie, Biggie what? Biggie had like basically a two-year, two-and-a-half, three-year career.

Pac, even though he was with Digital Underground, I'm talking about as a solo. I mean, he didn't have a decade. He didn't have 20 years like a lot of these rappers had. Can you imagine if he had a decade or a 20-year run, he and Biggie, what the rap game would have been. Sometimes God want him upstairs early, man.

I figure he wanted the angels looking over people like myself and a whole bunch of other cats. He called him in early, man. And I can imagine he would I mean, he'd be a billionaire for sure. He'd be a billionaire because he was very intelligent and he wanted to learn.

He wanted to learn from white people and other people like he wanted, but he wanted to be, he would have probably, you never know what he would. It was groundbreaking things. His mind was so deep and he, and he loved his people. He loved, he loved, he loved what he, what he is black, you know what I'm saying? But he knew, you know, he would have been that rebellious slave that would have been learning how to read behind closed doors. How you say that? He wouldn't care about getting his back whipped and shit like that.

He let his nuts hang over his shoulder. He was with it. He had heart, man, period, you know? So, man, I can imagine him right now man a billionaire and salute to jay-z too man i love everything jay-z is doing man i really i really i respect him as being a real man and uh you know a great husband you know he loves his queen they like they teamwork make the dream work you know what i'm saying and they rocking you know what i'm saying i love the great examples of an afro-american how were you able to stay out of away from the west coast east coast battle that inevitably claimed biggie claimed

tupac we see a lot of because Because before Biggie and Tupac, rappers weren't getting killed. They were pillars of the community. They were to be protected. And now you see Existential. You see Pop Smoke. You saw Biggie, Tupac. You see... I'm like, they're supposed to be off-limits.

40, you know, when we were growing up, there were certain people that were off-limits. They were untouchable in the community yeah um you know i stayed prayed up just every because i prayed before i like if i got a certain phone call to make to somebody or sit down i try to ask god to guide my thinking process and my tongue to say the right things and hope that the other person that I'm talking to are the other people that I'm talking to and take it the right way. And we work it out because communication is everything. Right. You know what I'm saying? So I would always I trip because even though I'm from the West Coast, you know, they used to call me the West Coast Biggie. I tripped because even though I'm from the West Coast, you know,

they used to call me the West Coast Biggie, you know what I'm saying? You had Biggie over there. He wore a Kanga. I wore a Kanga. Even though he was younger than me, you know what I'm saying? I was wearing Kangas when I was, you know, 14, 15, 16 years old. Right. I used to get them from the MB mall and he's my mall. You know what I'm saying? And then Berkeley at the Berkeley hat shop. You know what I'm saying? Like, anyway, to make a long story short, we kind of were similar, you know, but that was the look.

You know what I'm saying? We had – we wore the same kind of clothes. But the thing is, is that I actually, you know, I was like, let me – let me kick back and watch how everything unfolds with the East Coast thing, because I would go to New York and get nothing but love. Like, you know, I was with Jive Records. That was my distribution I was with. So, I'm out there in New York, and it's

like, I'm just walking, you know, down the street, like, going to get something to eat or something. I'm with maybe some representatives from Jive, you know, showing me, you know, on our way to, because everything is walking distance and everything when you're going into these big buildings and all this stuff like that. So I'm like, everybody just blowing the horn and shit. 40, 40, man, we, we, we fuck with you, bro. We fuck with you, bro. Like you wouldn't know that it's so much, it's really a lot of

love out there that we haven't collected. I went to Harlem. I caught me and my man Dave House. We all went, we went to, we caught the, not the bar, what's that, the subways, we caught the subways. And went to Harlem, from Manhattan to Harlem. Man, when I got off, when I got out of, when I got off the subway and walking down, you know, what was that, Is that 110th, 105th Street? What street is that? The main one

in Harlem. Yeah. Sylvia's at and all that. Yeah, I know exactly what you're talking about. Yeah. So we walking down that thing, man, there's so much love. This is during the time when the shit, all of East Coast shit and all that. There's so much love, you know what I'm saying?

Like, they fuck with certain people. I know if I was from of East Coast shit and all that. It's so much love, you know what I'm saying? Like, they fuck with certain people. I know if I was from the East Coast and I seen E-40 from the West Coast and I watched his movement and watched how different he is and how he carry himself and shit like that, because I'm not a shit starter. You know what I'm saying? I ain't into

all that shit. That shit don't move me. I'm not with that. You know what I'm saying? If I watched how he carried himself and I met him, I'd be like, man, I want to meet that shit. That shit don't move me. I'm not with that. You know what I'm saying? If I watched how he carried himself and I met him, I'd be like, man, I want to meet that brother. And I seen him, I want to meet him. I would like me. I would like E-40 because I'm a unique dude. You know what I'm saying? And I'm dope. And I carry myself in an intelligent way. So it's like, I just had nothing but love, bro. So I don't know man i just got let me see all eras of hip-hop i've seen it all i'm talking all of it i've seen it all only parts i missed was maybe you know the south bronx days the the days when you know

of uh you know uh meli mel um and them you know back when they were shooting them videos back in remember that grandma's flashing the finish but i watched it yeah but we seen it after Melly Mel and them, you know, back when they were shooting them videos back in. Remember that Grandmaster Flash and the Fittest? But I watched it. Yeah, but we seen it. That's how they had their movement. Big Daddy Kane. Now, I'm in that movement. I love watching that.

Oh, you love it. Yeah, you were in Big Daddy. Big Daddy Kane. 85, 86, yeah. I love that era. You know what I'm saying? Big Daddy Kane was one of my favorite rappers and still is.

I would love to hear some music from him today because I like his swag. He was a real player. Haircut him at school with Scrap Lover, the way they used to dance and shit. They was a real player. Big Daddy Kane was a real player about his shit, you know what I'm saying?

I used to watch all that, Coogee rapping, all them. What was that group called? Was it called the Syndicate? Not the Syndicate, the... It was all of them. They did a video with the cowboy hats on and everything. It was, oh my God.

Ace was in it. Oh man. That might have been it. That was the beginning of the golden era. Because you had that from like 86, and then you had that movement, like you mentioned, of KRS-One. You had Eric being Rakim, EPMD. I mean, you had – I mean, whew.

I used to watch it all. MC Shan and them. Come on, Eazy-E. Look, what about East Coast? MC Shan and them, bro. Yeah. MC Shan. them, bro. Yeah. MC Shan. A lot of people don't.

I used to watch MC Shy D. People don't know. MC Shy D was the first rapper out of Atlanta ever. I'm not a star. You know what I'm saying? He had slaps. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

You know? I used to. Hey, Lou Skywalker. When I'm at Grandma State University, we used to go. We was hyphy. We used to go dumb in 86, 87 to throw that dick. Throw that dick.

Luke Skywalker now. I watched so much of hip-hop. Back then, we was just tuned into the TV, watching video soul, watching all the outlets. Then when MTV started playing hip-hop, that just took the cake. We loved it. You know what I mean?

And so here we are, man. 2021. When East Coast, you had the West Coast, you had the East Coast and all of a sudden there was this Southern rap that came onto the scene. Lil Jon. How did you and

Lil Jon connect to start making music? Well, I used to love the Ghetto Boys. Yep. And all them cats out there, man. You know, 3-2 them. You know, 3-2 and Big Mike them and all them. The Houston cats. Yeah, Houston cats. You know,

Bun B and A-Ball, you know, they had all them. They're my folks, man. RIP Pimp C. Them was my real folks to this day you feel me? So I hooked up with Lil Jon I remember he had a song called I Like Them Gals

you know what I'm saying but his guy his guy was too short. Too short me being on the road a lot of shows I would do with too short and Spice One, people like that, you know what I'm saying? And Lil Jon would be on the road with Too Short. And I would always, you know,

chop it up with him and this, that, and the third. And I was like, so Lil Jon just started winning, started just having hella slaps. So I said, man, we way past, dude, let's get in there. You know what I'm saying? We did a song called Rep Your City. I was in a few of his videos before that. Then he in a then he did rep your city with me pd pablo i think yeah rep your city that was a pretty big song in the middle and that was there was during

the time when it was kind of like a drought during the out here in the bay area i had mustard and mayonnaise out and it was like 2002 I believe and you know so it was like but that's I was hitting big in the Midwest in the South with that song you know what I'm saying and so that was the beginning of our relationship as far as being good you know knowing that we can make good music together and uh and our friendship became closer you know and uh he stayed solid man and uh so 2003 uh my distribution deal was up with uh jive records and so i was like i asked god you know what should i do and he a voice came to me like call little john like call little john and i hit him on a two-way page that back then we had

two-way pages i real say, call me, man. I'm out of my deal. Let's talk. You know what I'm saying? He was like, you out of your deal? I say, yeah. He say, man, let me call my people. I'm going to call you right back.

He called me back within at least an hour. And all his people agreed, you know, all the BME staff. You know what I'm saying? And so he was like, he said, they're ready to do it. Send me your lawyer contact, right? And that's when I did a deal with Lil Jon and BME Click. And my career, and, you know, my career just started all over again. More.

It wasn't over because I was still popping. Right. But the attention wasn't on the West Coast. So all that time that attention wasn't on the West Coast, mainly the Bay Area. The attention wasn't on the Bay Area. Right. So I'm holding on like a hubcap in the fast lane.

Right? Right. And so, you know, like I i say if you just keep playing your position staying solid great things happen you know what i'm saying right now you know i'll go i'll go to the studio and stank on your studio which is um uh uh outcasts in the studio and you got little scrappy and all all a young generation being me clicking there working in different studios and whatnot and they all showing

me love. We kicking it. We drinking the whole woo-wop and it was time for me to work the next day. So I go in there and I get out and I, you know, I put me and Scrappy and we did some songs together and all of us, we all worked together and I just went full-fledged ahead and knocked it down

because they they got me like a it wasn't an airbnb it wasn't airbnb but they rented out a apartment that i was living in for three weeks and i took advantage of that three weeks in atlanta and i went crazy every day in the studio our sessions would start at 12 at night all the way to 12 in the afternoon. You feel me? Right. And then we head over to Busy B's or What do you know about Busy B's and that's Mother Chicken. Come on. Yeah, you don't know.

I used to get the turkey. Oh, you get the turkey wings? Mother Turkey wings, hell yeah. And I love Smothered Chicken. Anything smothered go good with me, right? I'm with it. So we put that shit out, man. We did it, and then he took us to,

so he'll say, so one day we went to Beautiful's. He said, we going to Beautiful's. I said, Beautiful's? He said, yeah, watch. I think it's called Beautiful's. And he was like, we went there, and they had whiting fish, you know, fish and grits. They had grits with cheese in it and all that. They had all the salmon, salmon cakes, tuna cake.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Hey bro, you know, I told you, man, that's the kind of stuff I rock with, you know? So we are not, he'll say, man, today we gonna do all up temples, do all up temple songs. I've said this before, but I just love john's uh you know he was my tutor he taught me he he's like you know what that's dope right there take that ad lip off that's why my get a report card album was so great because it wasn't overly done like you know i'm so

creative i'm all over the place even he'll make me do a and i'm and me being open-minded knowing this man got hella hits up under him i'm open-minded so i'm listening to him he like you know what i can put a drop in that song right there in that verse and make it sound dope but i think you can come better and i'm open-minded i just come better i just come anew and that's the problem i'm not big-headed i'm i'm you know i'm open-minded if you listen If you listen and learn, you know what I'm saying? Things work out the best, bro.

We made that motherfucking album a classic. Might get a report card with nothing, but I can sing a whole show. I can do a whole 20-minute segment show, 25 minutes. I can do 25 minutes to 30 minutes on just that album alone. That's how many slaps it had. You know, from fucking Go Hard or Go Home to

You in That Booty to Tell Me When to Go to... Hey, you hit another part with you. Hey, Phony, you hit another part with that one. Come on. You cry and have your hands on Shake-Up. I ain't got no growing stuff. I was just talking about I wasn't really going to grow none until I

said this shit hella funny. Let me just fuck with it, dude, because everybody in the Bay Area had dreadlocks. Not one person, not one rapper. Everybody. You feel me? So all I'm doing is adapting to my soil. So what was so beautiful about it

is I had high-fee movement over here. I was part of. I participated in. And I also participated in the snap movement with Snap Your Fingers with Lil Jon now, you know what I'm saying, and so on and so forth. So I was just, it was just a great space, and I never let up.

Like, I tell people anytime you get, you know, you got some momentum, do not take your foot off the gas, man. Keep your foot on the gas. Stop playing. Then you in that booty. That's my, I feel like that, too. I'm trying to get, you better give me your number the gas. Stop playing. You in that booty. That's my I feel like that too. I'm trying to get you to give me your number or something. Come on. They don't even

know that's Candy from the Atlanta Housewives on the hook. Oh, is it? That's her singing and everything. That's her on there with T-Pain. So she came in and did her part in the middle. She in the vicinity on everything. Candy. That's the folks right there. Oh, man. Candy Bird. I didn't know that. Yep. She got the platinum. She got the vicinity on everything. Candy. That's the folks right there. Oh, man. Candy Berry. I didn't

know that. Yep. She got the platinum. She got the platinum thing on her wall and everything. Ask her to show that one day. She'll show it to you on the show. Say, take me over to that platinum you in that booty motherfucking RIA approved album. You know what I'm saying? Platinum certified. You know what I'm saying?

That thing was nice. You mentioned that you went to Grambling. Now, I mean, Grambling, Louisiana. Grambling is in Louisiana. You're from the West Coast. Did you feel out of place? Because they ain't hip. They went on game, you know, like Farty Water being from the Bay.

Yeah, I was looking at the old pictures my father, Walter Bensworth, sent me the other day. And I'm looking at the California picture. It had like a California car, all the cats from California. And I'm looking at it and I'm like, I see Walter Bensworth III Jr. I see B-Legit and I see myself. And I'm looking at, we all on one side. And I said to my wife i say who who what who the most swag that motherfuckers on here and she circled it because i sent the picture to her text he just and it was us right it was me be legit water we were so motherfucking

you could tell we were from the bay you feel me like you could just tell we were swapping i can show you that i can send that picture to you you You would be like, oh, them motherfuckers, yeah. You could tell. You could see the difference. Like, we was gamed up. There's something about us. Right. You feel me?

But, yeah, I went to Grambling. And we met a lot of good friends to this day. I was just talking to my boy, Reggie Pugh. You know what I'm saying? Out of Oakland. You know what I'm saying? He's Oakland, you know what I'm saying? He's from Oakland, and he was solid all the way through, and he's my friend to this day, you know what I'm saying?

We met all kind of people from the Bay Area, from EPA, Marin City, all of them. We all clicked up. We had our Vallejo partners out there, too. I went out there with two Vallejo cast, my man D., Dion Davis and Brant Jones, which is be legit. Right. We all drove, we all drove out there and, and, and be legit a yellow Mustang 5.0 hit 50. You feel me? Right. He slid out there, you know? So it was, we met a lot of good people. And we, we kind of, like we, like I say, we already got that cut.

I have my great grandma, my, my granddaddy's mama stayed out there. And we stayed at her house for three days in Ruston, Louisiana. Yeah, I know exactly where. Yep. I had a couple of teammates that are in the NFL that played that was from Ruston. Right. And that's only 20 minutes from Grambling.

Yeah. You know? And so we stayed at her house for three days. The reason is she worked at this cafe. I think a lot of tech is in Ruston. Huh? We have a tech. I think a lot of tech is in Ruston, Louisiana.

I think it is. Yep, it is. Yep. So my great-great-grandmama, she would go to work every morning. And she'd say, y'all just make sure y'all clean behind y'allself. She said, here's the food. She had a freezer, the kind in the ground. I mean, on the ground.

Yeah. She had a regular refrigerator. She had hella good-ass food in there. I think she just went and bought it for us. That's what it's called. It's called a deep freezer. A deep freezer. And it was food. It was food I'd never seen in my life like it was

chicken patties fried already that you could just put in the oven and what like it was you know you gotta remember i'm a teenager i'm 18 you know yes i'm like we look at it and she her house was spotless and she lived by herself oh she was like 77 back then you know i said she lived to be 94 you know what i'm saying yeah but anyway uh we waited and the reason we stayed at her house for three days is because we had to wait for our dorm rooms we had to make the register getting our classes all that right you know i'm saying we didn't want to mess up so we we we wanted to get there a couple days early so that's how we did it and so i i it was so many people that we connected with out there.

And the New Orleans cast and the New Orleans and Baton Rouge cast, we had became close. A guy by the name of Jubilee, very known out there in New Orleans. You know, man, Alfred Payton, you know what I mean? Alfred Payton, me and him got into it back in the days. And me and him solid like this. Now, I got nothing but love and respect for him. He picked me up at the airport right before the pandemic, you know, for the Bayou Classic and all that stuff last year. You know what I'm saying? Right. So it's like we but we all became close.

And then it's like there's so many other people from not rappers not rappers but people from florida detroit all these cats you meet all them people and you stay close with them for many years so anyway make a long story short a short story long i didn't feel out of place but i did i will tell you this i used to have a perm before i went before i went to grambling on my way up there i cut my perm in arizona you know because my wife went to beauty school too And so she used to do my perm but I cut It on my way up there I was a skinny Dude and you know it was on my

Shoulder I used to call it Lord Jesus perm Because it used to dangle right here So Deion was like man You know we finna go to the south you know We don't know if they gonna be thinking you know we know We West Coast we know we play a player We don't know how they gonna be thinking about you You know know, we know we West coast, we know we play a player. And when we, we don't know how they're going to be thinking about you, you know, with a perm, you know? And I was like, I thought about it. I'm like,

and I hadn't had my hair done in a couple of days, a few days. So I, you know, cause wifey would do it and shit, you know what I'm saying? So all that shit, man, I might want to cut my shit, man. I go to Arizona, we stopped by a motel, a broken down motel. I said, man, let's go, let's get some clippers, man. Let's go. Let me cut this shit. I cut that shit bald. When I went to Grammar, I go to the,

I get in line to get my food when I'm up there. I had an earring in my ear. I didn't have two. I had one in the left ear because back then you could only have it in your left ear. I mean, it was to each his own, but that was a proper thing to do, putting it in your left ear. You know what I'm saying? Even with me having it in your left ear. I mean, it was to each his own, but that was a proper thing to do, putting it in your left ear. You know what I'm saying?

Even with me having it in my left ear, I'm in line. The lady did. The older lady in the line for the lunch to serve you the food. She was whispering to the other lady and be legit and all of them heard it. She was like, look at that boy earring.

Look at that earring in that boy ear. I'm like, look at that boy earring. Look at that earring in that boy ear. Look at that earring. I'm like, what? The old ladies, the old heads, they did not like seeing guys with earrings, be it left ear, right ear, or either ear. They was like, no, sir. They didn't like it, bro. They didn't like it. I still kept my motherfucking earring in my

left ear. I was like, fuck you. I had too much respect. I wasn't going to say that to her. But in my mind, I'm like, fuck you. You know what I'm saying? I just ignored it, you know, just kept it. Boy, when I try to tell people about black college, because I went

to an HBCU, I went to Savannah State University. Yeah. There's nothing like homecoming because I went to an HBCU. I went to Savannah state university. Yeah. There's nothing like homecoming because it's like a gigantic family reunion. You got people, you got classes coming back to class of 68, the class of 78, the class of 1982, they coming back and a we family, the step shows the walk across the yard, being in the- In my mind, I was a cue dog, in my mind. I used to hang with them dudes, they was cool.

Hey, and you know, on the yard, you got the Greek and the Sauron parts. They got them sitting in there, they doing their step thing, they practicing getting ready for the step show that weekend. Boy, I tell people, ain't nothing like that experience. I wouldn't trade that experience for anything.

Me either. I wouldn't trade. I'm so glad I went because I wasn't planning on going to college. Be legit. Said he finna go. And I was like, I'm finna go too then. You ain't finna leave me out here on magazine street, partner. You know what I'm saying?

I'm going too. You know what I'm saying? I went. It was the best thing ever I can ever do, bro. It taught you how to be a man, too. You know? You're washing your own stuff. You got to go.

Yes, yes. You know what I'm saying? You know, the wash house is further down on the campus, way down there. You got to get your bag. You know what I'm saying? The whole woo-wop. We was doing it. I had Master P on yesterday, and

he talked about you, and he made special reference to your uncle, St. Charles. And he talked about how you and him, especially your uncle, St. Charles, hooked him on to the game, to the distribution deal. Talk to us about that

time in your life and in P's life about what your uncle did for you, for you, for him, and how that was the start of, he said, that's the start of my business right there when I started thinking like, okay, I can do this. He afforded doing it. I can do it.

True. And you know, and my uncle, it's a trip because he taught, he wasn't just, he was a guy I always looked up to as a kid. It used to be a show called Creature Feature. And he, my uncle knows how to paint,

draw, everything. Like, when I go to my grandmama's house, him and my uncle Bruce, which is his brother, R.I.P. Bruce, he would, they would have drawings on their wall. so i used to draw on my own wall at home they had nice drawers like cartoons everything right because i can draw my daddy can draw hella good my daddy painting all this i got that good i got it from both sides of the family just down the third so i was i knew that um my uncle was special because he would do sculptures.

He did sculptures, like clay sculptures of like, you know, whether it's a female, a male, or whatever, monsters. Like he, one of them dudes that could be in Hollywood making a mask for movies and stuff. Right, right, right, right. Costume design. Yeah, exactly. And so they was like, Uncle Chucky, Uncle Chucky going to be on Creature Feature.

It was a big deal on TV. We stayed up late. Moms had to stay up late because it used to come on like 1130 at night. You know, we supposed to be in bed at 9 a.m. as little kids. You know, I mean, 9 p.m. or 8 o'clock. When you in third grade and fourth grade, you know what I mean? Right, right. You know what i'm

saying so i was about to stay up that night to see uncle chucky we could say charles you know what i'm saying and we was like wow he on creature feature creature feature played all the old movies and stuff right anyway make a long story short we knew he was something special he had record he had a couple of records in the 70s and and he did it on his own, independent. You know? It didn't blow, blow, blow, but his experience rubbed off on us. He taught us. He taught us.

So when we came in the game, I used to always tell him as a little kid, Uncle Chucky, Uncle Chucky, I want to make a song. We want to make songs. Me and D-Shot, we would always say, we want to make records. Like a little kid. He always do this with him you know with the money so one day we you know it was that day came and he really you know that was the mvp record he did the artwork on it you know just before final cut uh just because just because

before uh what you call that shit phot Photoshop. Yeah. Photoshop and all that. He just knew what to do. You know what I'm saying? We got our records pressed up over at Rainbow Records. You know, this was vinyl. This is 88 when we came out with that record. And we would always put our record up a year before. So if we did an album that we done with and it's out,

it comes out, say for instance right now, it's 2021, it's March of 2021. We will put 2022 on there, bro. Because the reason why, this was our method, because we wanted whoever catch it eight months later, because we knew it was going to get eight to nine, 10 months later, we knew it was going to take forever to get to, you would say, Atlanta, Nebraska. Right. You know what I'm saying?

Texas, Arcana, or Oklahomaoma or wherever it's going to we do everything with snail mail back then right you know what i'm saying we were sitting there through ups you know ground right you know what i'm saying seven day yeah yeah exactly so by the time everybody started getting hip to it it was going to take that long. We was prepared for it. So we were smart like that. But my uncle, I tell you, so Pete, you know, Pete was doing his thing, too. But he was learning as he go and he seen us get down. He's having a lot of success. And, you know, and Pete was working hard like he he everybody rock winning. But a lot of people didn't because it was so many great rappers in the Bay Area.

Right. And Pete was really spitting game. Pete really from the streets. Everybody rocked with him, but a lot of people didn't because there were so many great rappers in the Bay Area. You know what I'm saying? And P was really spitting game. P really from the streets, not just New Orleans streets, Richmond streets, Bay Area streets. You know what I'm saying? And he wasn't no suck out here. You know what I'm saying?

Nobody tried to play him or nothing like that. He was just a solid dude. And he had that motivation. God gifted him with that. And he went to St. Charles. And St. Charles charles said here this is what you do he listened man that man put his own brain together with how he wanted to work out his plan getting the new world getting uh the deep south the sticks to participate with him as well he got all the west coast cats together the west coast bad boy he's like he did his thing bro you know what i'm saying and i salute him for that and my

uncle saint charles i really salute him because me. And my Uncle St. Charles, I really salute him because me and D-Shot, we was talking the other day. My brother, we were just talking about it the other day. Like, man, that dude really taught us a lot. Like, how to become men. Like, get bank accounts and stuff like that. Like, you know what I mean? Like, really, you know, fictitious

names and DBAs and get business licenses and, like, taught us a lot. You know what I'm saying? He taught us how to be entrepreneurs. And I'm glad that I cherish him to this day. I give him his roses. He'd pick up the phone anytime. And that's my mama brother. You, he said that the one thing that you taught that that St.

Charles taught him is about distributor is banking on yourself. He always say the Bay, they push independence. And the things P said that he thought, and you can correct me if I'm wrong. He says, he believed independence teaches you hunger. He says, because it's only going to go as far as you take it. He says, sometimes guys team want to do these three 60. And then, you know, you get the big money up front and all that, but you get lazy because you got them doing the work but now when the thing is like when you you know you

gonna eat but they gonna eat every time you eat as opposed to the independence you eating the lion share they gonna eat what you leave not eat before you do. You know it, bro. And he telling the truth because, you know, it's people, no disrespect to nobody, but it's people that have been on major labels for many years and they kind of, you know what I'm saying? I ain't gonna say got babysitting, but they don't know no other way when it comes to like, once they deal is over or whatever, they don't know the other way because they never been independent.

They never knew how we had to do it. You know, we, we come in again, we was in it by force, not by choice it's good that force was good we didn't have we had to go get it on our own and becoming it and being independent it was beautiful it was a blessing in disguise you feel what i'm saying right so you know that made us be better hustlers um better men and appreciated more Like right now, I'm going to be honest with you, and I'm not trying to plug anything, but I'm just telling you the truth. What I'm doing right now is

just set, okay, the streets, when I rap, right? When I rap, when I came into the rap, I'll say it's the same hustle, just different product. Right. This liquor right here, same hustle, different product. I sell adult beverages bro and i'm doing it independently i'm doing it the long way but it's the right way so at the end of the

day i'm gonna get the last laugh god willing first of all the thing is i'm doing it independently so each state requires different credentials and different things you got to do to get your license some states are controlled some states are you to get your license. Some states are controlled. Some states are, you know what I'm saying? You know, some states are easier to get. Right. I'm saying. So it's like, this is what I'm doing. So God willing, within the next 12 months, I'm most likely be in about 37 states. Being the vendor of record, own boss no nothing you feel what i'm saying nobody to answer to i sign the checks i call the shots everything it's the long way but it's the right way and that's

what p did independently that's what we did independently, Sick With The Records, No Limit, Swab House, so on and so forth. Rap a lot. So many, Lou Skywalker and them. You know what I'm saying? The whole shit. Like, we can go on and on forever, you know? You've been able to have a hit in every decade. Rapper's Ball, Tell Me Where To Go, Sprinkle Me, Captain Sabre, Whole Choices.

How do you enjoy the longevity that you've enjoyed? Man, I love it, bro bro i thank god for everything and i you know like i say i uh i figure um you know you just keep the faith be a good person keep your eye on the ball i love rapping, even if, you know, I'm an old man. To some, I'm an old man now, but I'm not, though. You know what I'm saying? My spirit, like, you wouldn't, if I didn't tell you my age, you probably wouldn't know. You probably know I'm probably about, I'm probably a good 42, you know, probably 40, you know, and if you looked at it

and I didn't tell you, you would never know I'm really, my spirit and my charisma and the way I carry myself ain't no regular 53-year-old cat, bro. Right. You know what I'm saying? That's all I'm saying. And I'm not trying to be young. I'm just me. I promised myself when I was young that when I get older,

I'm not going to be dressed hella ancient and all that old bullshit, man. Right. You ain't going to rock the stage with the real socks? I'm not finna be dressed hella ancient and all that old bullshit, man. I mean, it's the new, it's... You ain't gonna rock the Stacey Adams with the real socks? I'm not. They gotta be clean. They gotta, they gotta, the jeans gotta be a little, you know, slimmer at the bottom. They can't be all flared out.

Can't wear no big britches. Them ain't in right now. You gotta look, you can look fly. I see some motherfuckers that was fly the other day, Snoop Post and them, some OGs. They had the gray beards, but them niggas, their outfit was clean. They had their jeans at the bottom. The jeans

wasn't all flared out. They was, you know, they fitted. They had some dress shoes on. Them niggas was fly as fuck. You know what I'm saying? And that's how you gotta be if you're gonna do it. You feel me? You got some of the Bay Area words. I mean, you feel me, you smell me, for shizzy, for show, gas.

How do you come up with these words? And then when you come up with them, you're like, because people still use them. People talk like that. So at the time that you're coming up with those words, do you think they're going to have the longevity that they're going to have? Oh, I don't know. You know, I just – man, just me.

You know, one thing about being from the Bay Area, it's a beautiful thing because you're surrounded by gang. Look how I just put that together. Being from the Bay, it's a beautiful thing because you're surrounded by gang. You feel me? Yeah. And that's, you know, and you got so much – Being from the Bay, it's a beautiful thing because you're surrounded by gang. You feel me? Yeah. And that's, you know, and you got so much.

You have so many people. I like to rock with the older, the OGs, the older guys. Right. Because they done been through it. They done seen it. You know what I'm saying? They done did it. They done been around it.

And they can wake your game up way more. Like the OG, like the young young generation a lot of them don't mind listening to me when i talk to them right they'll be like you know good thanks i appreciate that that made my day right there thank you you know the ones who want to be silent and listen to it they listen so being in the bay i learned you know and me being creative coming with stuff you know just coming with slang and all that all since i was a little youngster you know what i'm saying i used to read the dictionary and i come with long words and all that stuff a lot of these words and stuff i say you know what i'm saying a lot of that shit man is really just from observing and observing the older guys and then putting my

putting my thing. My way to it. You had your flavor. Right. A lot of words just come from my brain. Right off the top. Before we finish, I might come with a fresh one out of nowhere. See that?

Yeah. Not nowhere, but nowhere. Out of nowhere. He just one out of nowhere. Like I don't see that. Yeah. Not nowhere, but nowhere. Out of nowhere. He just came out of nowhere with that. You feel me? Right. I mean, because you were the first one I heard when they start, when people say,

oh, but that thing slap. You were the first one I ever heard use that word when it's talking about something is good. First rapper ever scream a slap. Ever in life. Whenever you say, oh, that's slap. Oh, that's slapping. First rapper ever, ever say it there. That's you. Rapper. Yes, sir.

Yes, sir. And there's so many other ones. You know, and I trip on, you know, I see some cats or, you know, the word broccoli the other day. Broccoli. They're calling weed broccoli. And it was like, they was giving, they was cred the other day. What? You know, calling weed broccoli. And it was like, they was giving,

they was crediting other rappers. I'm like, that's okay. They don't know. You know what I'm saying? That's okay. Because the kids, I'll be like, I just know that some people wasn't even born when I was, when I, even when I had to,

I had a song out called Broccoli in like 1999, 98. It was actually called Broccoli. Smoking that broccoli now it takes me out. You know what I'm saying? That's how the hook went. We used a cameo slap. I had Otis and Suge singing on that thing and the song was called Broccoli and it was on my double album which is

almost platinum right now, way past gold and the album was called Element of Surprise. First rapper talking about applied pressure. Surprise the element, applied pressure. Surprise the element, applied pressure. Tycoon, 1995, the intro to a platinum album in a major way. What's happening, folks? It ain't nothing but me, your Tycoon talking partner, player partner, E4. I said Tycoon talking partner. Rewind it when y'all get a chance 1995 i was screaming that as a rapper no other rapper was screaming and before that i said it and my brother and them said and everybody that was with

us screamed it on the house so it's like i didn't make up the word tycoon it's in the dictionary but i'm talking about that rappers don't say that became very popular and i was the first one screaming it and we go on and on forever you You know what I'm saying? Choppers, calling pistols choppers. First one talking about choppers. First rapper ever talking about choppers, triple beam scales, everything related to the soil. Trust me, Yola, units calling keys units. You feel me?

Yeah. Man, I ain't putting extras on it. This ain't no cap. This ain't New Era. it this ain't no cat this ain't this ain't uh this ain't this ain't this ain't new era there's no cat bro this ain't missing the nest no cat bro for real you know what i'm saying let's talk about let's talk about something i know you really really love and you've been you was rocking with this team when it wasn't popular, you're Golden State Warriors. I see you sitting courtside a lot. What did it feel like when you guys finally won the championship in 2015?

Because I know that was a long time coming. Because there were some lean years in there, Forty. I was watching Matt Barnes and Stephen and who else was it? Matt Barnes, Stephen. Barron Davis. Barron, BD. When I was watching that, I was like, oh, man, we might get one. We might get one.

We might do it. They're out there playing a street ball on them because to me, them dudes are street cats in the NBA. I love them dudes. You know what I'm saying? I'm like, yeah, we finna get one. Even before that, I loved the Warriors, of course saying? I'm like, yeah, we finna get one. So, you know, even before that, you know, I loved the Warriors, of course. But I'm like, we getting closer.

And, you know, I just used to hate when the powers that be over the Warriors would always, once we get a good player, they'd trade them or something. Or they'd go somewhere else. I was like, oh, man, damn. So now that we got our new powers that be in there, I love them. They're doing what they can do and we've been to that thing for the last five years

when they went was some of the best times of so many people lives from the Bay Area. You know, just being there, whether you in the nosebleeds, whether you in between, whether you courtside, it was just so just great i mean five times in a row bro and they won three out of them things

you feel me and being courtside me being ain't nothing like courtside experience you know you you rubbing shoulders with the you rubbing shoulders with the big willies in order to get in that's another thing you networking i done met so many uh people there uh that that i've had opportunities to break bread with just from being there being a good person not being fake just being a good person being a people's person hobnobbing shaking hands kissing babies hugging folks networking you know what i'm saying stuff like that and just being a good dude will get you a long ways and that's what i did and and ain't no experience like courtside when you can be still i said right by the bench it's time i said several times i said right like i'm part of the bench like

i'm on the team in my mind i'm an nba player too i will okay you're a warrior fan you're a warrior fanatic and you know all the players. Give me your Mount Rushmore players. Will, Rick Barry, Steph, BD, Klay Thompson, KD, Chris Mullen, Nate Thurman, Draymond Green. Give me your Mount Rushmore, your four best players in Warriors history. Okay. I would have to say Rick Barry. Okay.

I would have to say Steph, of course. Yep. I would have to say Steph, of course. Yep. I would have to say Clay. Okay. I would definitely have to. That's a trip. It ain't because they... I would have to say... I also have to say

Will Chambler, for sure. Chambler. I wouldn't even leave Will off the fact. I can't do that. That's Chambler. I'm wondering if you can leave Will off the fact. I can't do that. That's impossible to do. I would have to say. How many did I say? That's it.

You only get four. How many would I say? What all I said? You got Will. You got Steph. You got Klay. And you got Rick Barry. That's not bad.

That's not bad. That's not bad. It's plenty more. But that's not bad. That's not bad. That's not bad. It's plenty more, but that's not bad at all. I remember they had Robert Parrish, and I was mad when they traded him, and he became a Hall of Famer. He went over to a green team. Yeah, exactly. I was like, man, he became a Hall of Famer, man.

Yeah. Robert Parrish. I just hate when they used to trade all the good players like that so quick, you know, but now they got new ownership and everything, and everything is much better. We just have a lot of injuries. That's all that's been messing us up. When you sit courtside, are you doing a Drake –

are you trash talking or are you just sitting watching the game? Because you know Drake be on the – Drake be on courtside, and Drake be talking trash, be talking crazy, be getting involved. I only talk big Bronco when it's like a Drake, a Travis Scott, or somebody like that that's there and their team is playing us. That's when I talk big shit to them. Yeah, yeah, what's happening? Yeah, you know, I'm – oh, man, one thing,

I'm a master at getting in that head, you know what I'm saying, picking. Right. But you don't talk to the players, you don't talk to the opposing team players. No, no, no, I leave them, cause I like them, I like a lot of them. I would say a couple of things to them, but not like, I like, I shake the hand at the end,

like Bronny, LeBron, I love LeBron. Right. Cause he fucking, he a killer on the court. He just, you know, he's so dope. Like, he wouldn't be the Gators if not, you know what I'm saying? So like i i i i kind of like brad you know you're gonna miss that he'd be on the you know shooting and stuff like that but i love dude man and when he when when people like that come off the court i shake their hand you know and shit like that like i was talking to it was one of them guys who was the what's the boy what's the boy that played with

play with Durant now yeah yeah I say man I seen him after one of them basketball games man and we was in like the hallway when we played when we played I think we played Cleveland and I think I was

at Cleveland or something. Or either it was somewhere we was at. It was a finals though. Yeah. They got us. It was a game that they played that they, I say, man, I ain't going to even lie. He was just sitting there just chilling. And I'm like, I say, man, I ain't going to even lie.

Man, you dope as fuck, bro. You know what I'm saying? I gave him a big ass hug and said, man, I ain't going to lie. You dope as fuck, bro. You know what I'm saying? Like, you just got to give it up to certain people. Because, you know, ain't no need to be mad at other teams and other players. Right.

I mean, you got to realize that all these dudes kick it together. They vacation together and everything. They friends. When I played baseball and football, we would be enemies on the court. I mean, we'd be enemies on the – in the baseball diamond or on the football field. But when we get off of that thing, we finna go eat some pizza or something together. Right.

Two separate teams, you know, the opposite team. You know what I'm saying? So all these cats, they all cool with each other and everything. No matter how aggressive they look on the court like they don't like each other, everybody be vacationing and everything together, man. They all in contact. Raiders or 49ers? I would say 49ers, though I never

said anything ever bad about the Raiders. I'm from Vallejo. I'm not from Oakland. I'm not from San Francisco. You know what I'm saying? I'm 30 minutes from Oakland and like 50 minutes from Frisco, but i am northern california bay area you know you got to be neutral so you got to be neutral you you try to and then my all my cousins everybody i tried to like the raiders and the 49ers because i grew up on dave

casper jim plunkett i grew up on jerry rice and joe mont Montana, Steve Young and them, Merton Hanks and them. I had neighbors that stayed in my neighborhood. I had RIP Chester McLaughlin. I had Daryl Russell. Daryl Russell stayed in my neighborhood, like literally walking distance around the corner. They all stayed in my neighborhood. I had Dana Stubblefield stay four houses down from me. I had Merton Hanks stay.

These are 49ers. Ricky Waters. I had all of them. So I would go. Sometimes they would invite me to the game. So I'd go to a Raiders game and I would go. But I would have my main team's 49ers. So I had 49er gear on. You know what I'm saying? People wasn't

really tripping. You know what I'm saying? So it's like I don't have nothing against the Raiders and no one ever on the internet can ever say that I said fuck the Raiders, and no one ever on the Internet can ever say that I said, fuck the Raiders, this, that, and the third, no matter how bad they say it about me. They want me to be a Raider fan, but I had to pick a side a long time ago because my cousin and all the Raider fans, Rick Rock and all them cats,

they was like, you got to pick a side. And I was like, I want to roll with the whole Bay Area package. They was like, this was 20 years ago. They said, you got to pick a side. I said, man, all right, fuck y'all. I'm going 49ers for life. Hey, I want to get you out of your own deal for 40. Let me ask you a question. I need your Mount Rushmore rappers

all overall and your Mount Rushmore Cali rappers. I like that. So I want the four greatest rappers. East Coast, West Coast, South, I don't care. I need four. Okay.

All right. All right. All right. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Yeah. All right. You want me to go with the four greatest? The four greatest.

I want four of these. Four greatest rappers. I switch it of these. Four greatest rappers. I switch it up every time somebody asks me. Is that OK? Because this just happens like that. We do what you do. OK. Ah.

OK. OK. Tupac, of course. And I can't say me, right? No me. No me. You can say you if you want to. OK.

OK. See, because i'm in a whole another category i'm not a lyricist i'm a gang spitter right you know me all right but although i can bust although i can be a lyricist because i got bars right i got i i got i got i ain't even took the bar exam i got i still got bars though you feel me but anyway i would say uh um tupac of course okay that's one got three more spots i gotta say ice cube man i just have to because you know man people you know no matter how much he rapped nowadays or whatever he did enough in a few years that he got out that you gotta remember he used to write for nwb nwa so just imagine all that shit all that gas he had you feel me yeah and so it's like i would have to say ice cube uh and i'm gonna leave me

out of this because i just want to be fair even though i know I feel like I'm the greatest of all of them. Right. You know what I'm saying? But I'm going to leave it out because I want it to be a good thing. And this ain't, I'm not taking no favor to them and I'm just talking about the people let me see, I would say I would say Tupac, Ice Cube

I would say and I'm not saying this just because everybody else say it because I'm a real motherfucker. The reason I'm going to say Jigga is because if he did a versus right now everybody would be like

man okay I forgot that motherfucker had that song right there. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Damn. Damn I didn't know he had. I forgot. Because people get song right there. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Damn. Damn, I didn't know he had it. I forgot. Because people get amnesia.

They don't know. First of all, it ain't even just lyrics. And it ain't platinum and gold albums. It ain't that. It's what you're doing outside of the vocal booth as well. Right. Just skipping over real quick, that's why I consider Muhammad Ali

the greatest boxer of all times because of what he did outside his contributions to our culture and everything like that there. You feel what I'm saying? Right. So anyway, with Jigga, it's just the innovation, the inspiration, the things

that he's doing. He's took hip hop to another page. You gotta put him in there. Right. You got to. You know what I'm saying? So you got Tupac, you got Ice Cube, you got Jay. Yup.

Got one more. I got one more. I got one more. To be the greatest of all time? Yup. Man, that's a hard one. I got one more. To be the greatest of all time? Yep. Man, that's a hard one. That's a super hard one, man. That is super hard.

There's so many I want to say. What's that? Somebody got to get left. Look here. You didn't bring all your friends with you. You had to leave some of them. So you got to leave somebody off, Paulie.

I want, you know, four. Why am I, you know, it'd be tripping me out. Cause they say Mount Rushmore should be five people. It should be fine. They not adding another head. You're not

going to South Dakota and getting another head on that mountain. They're not doing it. They're not doing it. Oh, man. Oh. You know, I can't and I don't want to base this on who I grew up on because I grew

up on a lot of people that I love and feel like they're definitely top 10. You know what I'm saying? Right. But I got to keep them on Thow Wow. I got to say, could I base this on what you did in your early days and what you're doing now

as far as other shit, too? You can base it on whatever you want. This is for's list. This is not my list. This is not anybody else. And if you want to debate, go debate your cousin in the barbershop. But this is 40's list. I got a tie. Okay. Who you got?

I'll say Snoop Dogg and Biggie. Okay. I'm leaning towards Snoop because of... Now, don't get it fucked up. If Biggie was still living, I really think that if Biggie had more albums, because he was dope as fuck. Yeah.

And he knew the potential. You know what I'm saying? If he was still living and had more albums, I can base it on... Snoop got longevity snoop is a walking icon snoop is into he got his hands all over he all over the place like space you know i'm saying he's still here uh you know i mean i i gotta i have to say snoop on that but don't get it fucked up biggie top 10 for sure you know i'm saying right i love nas as well you know

i'm saying but that's now we get into the top 10s and shit like you know I'm saying? I love Nas as well. You know what I'm saying? But now we getting into the top tens and shit. You know what I'm saying? You said four. So I would have to say besides me, you know what I'm saying? I'm not in it. I took myself out of this. I would have to say Pop. You got Pop. You got Cube.

You got Ho and you got Snoop. Yep. All right, give me Cali Rappers. I need four Cali Rappers. E-42, short, ice cube, and Snoop. That's it? That's it. That's Mount Westmore. That's Mount

Westmore of the West Coast. Period. Sorry. Well, a couple more things, Forty. I've asked if they were alive versus battle. Prince Michael Jackson versus battle. Michael Jackson.

Whew. Mariah Carey. If fans are blessed. Y'all know that. It's Michael, bro. I don't know, man. Prince start playing that guitar. He get on that piano. You know, sometimes it's so painful. Mike start dancing and hitting that hee-hee-hee.

He hit the post. He start hitting at a door. He start when doves cry. Oh, man. Hey, Mike come out there and get to playing that Billie Jean and all that shit, boy. And some of the Jackson slaps. You know what I'm saying?

Come on. Jackson 5. Jackson 5. Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston. Woo, that's a tough one. I'm going to say the most effective to me. The greatest love of all. Man, Whitney Houston's music will make you cry, bro.

Yeah. Seriously. And then you get to thinking about all the stuff she went through and how she's not here no more. Whitney Houston, bro? I'm just keeping it one thou wild. Okay, versus battle. Hov Drake.

Oh, that's a real tough. Oh yeah, now come on with it. Come on with it now. Cause you know Drake did in so little time with most do in a lifetime. Yeah, yeah. Should I put that together? I didn't even try that.

See how they did that? Oh my God, that's a tie. You can't have no versus battle. You can't have no tie, no versus battle, Pony. Yes, you can. Me and Tushar was a tie, right? The baby won that. You and Tushar was collabing.

How you going to be joining in on his song? See, this is the thing. With Jigga, it's tricky. That's what I'm saying. Because really, I remember I was on the soundtrack with him. It was called Sprung. Sprung soundtrack. Jay Brown got me on that soundtrack

and Jigga was on there as well with me. It was 1996. Uh-huh. And I remember, you know, I remember watching Jigga. That was with Tommy Davidson and Jamie Foxx, right?

I believe so. Yep. Yep. That soundtrack, I believe that was gold. I think I got a gold record in my hallway along with Booty Call and a whole bunch of other contact back in the days you know what I'm saying

but I just knew Jigga I gotta say I realized that the man put in a lot of see what it is is that dude they start accepting hood shit on the radio when he came in right

and I ain't trying to shine the light back on me but a lot of my ghetto anthems that people love they wouldn't play it on the radio back then they'd be they'd try to categorize my shit as a local not global you know what i'm saying that's how they did me it was like it was a fucked up i gotta like i say i'm older and wiser i can hold a grudge against a whole bunch of motherfuckers how they used to do us on radio and not the bear used to get done but anyway right let's get back to jigger jigger really got a body of music man a long list of his his catalog is longer than train smoke man people don't realize that right and and it was big records that you know even his soil shit was

being a was able to be played on the radio and when you got all that and then you got you know that machine behind you as well and he don't get it up he started off you know independent i think he was with priority records on the first one reasonable doubt the whole woo-wop you know and he started off back with jazz jazz oh io. I remember that. He used to be in the videos. Because I remember when he came back and resurfaced in the, like, like, 89, 90s, he was jazz-o somewhere around there. I see him there. I'm like, man, this dude look hella familiar. So he started, 93, I think he came with his one song.

And they was like, man, all my guys are like, man, dude got a little bit of game about himself. Like, he kind of woke and shit. You know what I'm saying? You know, we're bait niggas. So we look at who kind of laced up, who gamed up. You feel me?

Right. Okay, you know what I'm saying? And we felt the same way about Biggie, too. You know what I'm saying? Like, these niggas is different. Them niggas gamed up, you know? And so, anyway, make a long story short

and a short story long. I just think that Drake in so little time, he did a lifetime of work, and that's gonna be heavy man but i really think that jigger will win because drake with drake is a trip because drake got slaps that was for the broads but the dudes love it too and then he got that hip-hop shit too like drake can rap i fuck with drake heavy that'd be a good versus I would love to see that

versus everybody would that'll break the fucking internet Lil Kim or Nicki Minaj uh damn I just wish I love Lil Kim you know every time we have I haven't met her

she was always sweet, always cool. I loved her music, especially in the earlier days. I just haven't heard any new stuff lately. I kind of look at sometimes I've been around youngsters and some of the youngsters

they say, Unc, you keep it going, man. But a lot of the OGs, they be trying to get at me and be like, man, y'all don't understand how we used to do it back then. And they was like, man, the answers are telling me, Unc, I tell them, man, it ain't about what you used to do, it's what you're doing now. And, Unc, you keeping it going. You feel me?

So it's about what you're doing now, too, as well. I'm not saying Lil' Kim ain't doing them, but Nicki Minaj is more on the gas. Like, She's continuously putting out music and content like that. You know what I'm saying? I respect them both, but I think on that one right now, in 2021, I think

Nicki will win. Last, producers of producers, Dr. Dre, Quincy Jones. Oh, man, why you gotta do that? That's crazy. That's crazy. Oh, my God. That's

a heavy one. You deep for asking that. You really deep for asking that one right there, Brody. I would have to say... Because you know Quincy go back with Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra. I love Dre. Only reason I would say Quincy...

Dre did a lot too. You know Quincy got that Michael Jackson. There's too many different categories. Like Dre is more urban hip-hop, but Quincy is urban hip-hop too. Urban because Quincy, people don't know he did Sanford and Son. Yeah. He could do Sanford and Son. Yeah.

And many more. Yeah. When I listen to that, I'm like, who thinks of something like that? Who thinks to play, who thinks to make a song with all of them? I don't even know what kind of, what he used to make that shit. Like, how do you do that, bro?

You know, so I'm like, I would say, I would say, I would say, I love you Dre, but Quincy. Because of what he's done, if you look at his body of work, it's twice as much. Yeah, nobody can touch Quincy. Nobody can touch Quincy because, like you said, Quincy goes back 50 years, and he goes from Sinatra to Ray Charles to, you know, he did Barry White. He did Michael Jackson.

He did so many. But if it came to hip-hop? Yeah, ain't nobody got me. I mean, what? Maybe Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis? When it come to hip-hop, can't nobody fuck with Dr. Dre. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Not with the Snoop and the Tupac, his own album, Kanye, Eminem. Not with his body of work. Not with his long list of train smoke. He should go long with a train smoke. Talk to me, baby boy. I appreciate this. Bro, we gonna have A. This thing gonna be hot. I appreciate

the time. And like I said, bro, I know you 25 years, so you've always given me love. So I appreciate the support. Continued success in the Tycoon, Slurricane, Goon with the Spoons, the Noodles. Bro, I appreciate everything. Let's go, baby.

I love you, baby. Appreciate it. All my life. Been grinding all my life. Sacrifice. Hustle paid the price. Want a slice. Got the roll of dice.

That's why. All my life. I've been grinding all my life. All my life. Been grinding all my life. Sacrifice. Hustle paid the price. Want a slice. Got the roll of dice. That's why. All my life. I've been grinding all my life. Sacrifice. Hustle paid the price. Want a slice.

Got the roll of dice. That's why. All my life. I've been grinding all my life. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news and the best analysis delivered by the time you get your coffee.

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