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Innovative rapper unleashes his most universal album to date "Grit and Grind" -E40's brand new album proves that the often-imitated, slang spitting, emcee who has been dropping rap classics since '89, both solo and with his family crew The Click, is as innovative and entertaining as ever. As with his previous two albums, 2000's "Loyalty and Betrayal," and last year's Click album "Money and Muscle," "Grit and Grind" also brims with E40's refreshingly adventurous trademark style: a unique rapid fire rap flow packed with his seemingly never ending vocabulary of cleverly created slanguage.
But if on "Grit and Grind" ("grit and grind meaning dealing with the struggles in life") E40's flow seems just a little easier to follow you are absolutely right. "Grit and Grind" is my most universal album so far since I took time out for people to hear exactly what I am saying. I slowed down my spit," said the Vallejo born, Bay Area emcee paraphrasing a line from the album's infectious, funkalistic leadoff single, "Automatic," featuring Fabulous.
Besides Brooklyn emcee Fabolous other album guests include Afroman (raps and produces), Eightball, Petey Pablo, UGK's Bun B, Kokane, B-Legit, Keek The Sneek, Harm, Brethren, Stomp-Down, Suga-T, Lil Jon and The Eastside Boyz. Meanwhile E40's trustworthy stable of producers including Mike Mosely and Sam Bostic, Rick Rock, and Tone Capone again join him throughout this funk-driven, future rap-classic. Also making a cameo on "Grit and Grind" is E40's seven year old son "Bam-Bam".
One of the eighteen-track album's destined hits is "Rep your City" (also featured on the upcoming "Drumline" movie soundtrack). Featuring Petey Pablo, Eightball , and Bun B from UGK with production by Lil Jon and The Eastside Boyz "Rep Your City" is an irresistible chant-along, all-city anthem that packs universal appeal. Likewise for "The Slap" with its sing-along refrain "The beat keeps knockin down my rearview mirror" and also the groove-driven, riding-song "Whump Whump" featuring Keek Da Sneek (3XKrazy) and Harm.
Guaranteed to delight E40 fans in his native Bay Area is the "Da Bay" -- an autobiographical track, with the hook-laden chorus "I'm sorry baby I can't change my ways cause I grew up in da Bay where the hustlers play," and in which he reminisces on his pioneering DIY Bay Area approach to rap music distribution: "Remember 'Mr. Flamboyant' back in '89? Well back then I was selling tapes out the trunk of mine I put the car in the park and let the beat explode. Guess how many tapes I sold? "The answer to that question would be a lot. In their formative, pre-Jive years E40 and The Click, who carried on fellow Bay Area rapper Too $hort's approach to selling out the trunk, took the business to a whole new level by pioneering an interstate, street savvy marketing campaign in getting their music heard and sold. Countless rap artists later studied and copied their marketing and distribution blueprint. E40's business plan wasn't the only thing borrowed by other rappers. His slang ("75of the words I made it up") has always being a hot commodity and one that he admonishes these "game-goofy" imitators (slang for those having no game or play of their own) in the amazing track "Why They Don't F**k Wit Us".
"I rap fast but you can quote my rhymes/The greatest game spitter of all time The most underrated rapper in the game/But everybody want to use my slang". Of course E40 knows well that imitation is the highest form of flattery and consequently he is quite content to continue making up new slang for others to appropriate. A prime example is his new expression "It's All Gravity" (an updated twist on it's all good, it's all gravy, it's all gravy-train, it's all gracious, etc.) which pops up in the tracks "Falling Rain," "Roll On," and of course on the similarly titled track "It's All Gravity."
Another great new track packed with memorable E40 slanguage is "Lifestyle" in which he likes to "Smoke tweed, get keyed all day and drink brews/Eat, sneeze, fart, shit, burp, and get paper/Spray myself with sucker-repellent and shake-hater" In fact Lifestyle's rich and vivid verses prove what an innovative lyricist/poet E40 truly is. Hollow point staple spray turf titan, Soil block warrior from the avenue, Mean mugging like I'm mad at you, ...... a hooligan, a heathen, wolverine Everybody on my team got a triple beam, tossing candy to the dope fiends Million dollar spot, million dollar dreams, four or five different techno marines Plushed out SUVs, smokin leprechaun flowers in the back seat Watchin Austin Powers with the windows up tacked tryna get where we gettin Talkin to the operator on my own star system"
Straight-up party songs on "Grit and Grind" include the drinking song "My Cup" featuring Suga T and the old school, eighties style, Rick James influenced, Mike Mosely/Sam Bostic produced "7 Much," featuring Kokane, which gives the recipe to one of E40's favorite liquor concoctions Num Num Juice (vodka, 7Up, and cranberry juice). On a more spiritual perspective is the uplifting, motivational, Rick Rock produced "Falling Rain."
Meanwhile on the fun Afroman produced "Roll On" lyrical duties are shared by both Afroman and B-Legit.
Other album tracks include the funky Rick Rock produced "End Of The World," the slow rolling, street-slang packed "Pimps N' Hustlers" with an intro by Stomp-Down, and "Mustard and Mayo" featuring an intro by 40's son Emari and the memorable and true line "I've been imitated but never dislubricated."
In addition to "Grit and Grind" E40 has been busy on several other projects including a collaborative album with Too $hort entitled "The History Channel," which is expected to drop in the coming months and a mixed media (DVD/CD) project entitled "E40 Presents The Underrated." He is also in the midst of writing a sitcom pilot and is finishing up the much anticipated E40 dictionary of slang that will assist fans decipher the unique slanguage heard on "Grit and Grind" and previous E40 albums.
