The E-40 song with the “most ignorantest style” he could manage
Bay Area legend E-40 has a very distinct style and is known for his slightly offbeat flow. The North California pioneer brought something different to hip-hop and stood out when he first arrived in the 1980s. During the 1990s, while the G-Funk revolution was taking place in LA, in Vallejo, E-40 was churning out some strange yet original songs.
The emcee (real name Earl Tyrone Stevens Sr), as part of The Click (comprised of B-Legit, D-Shot and Suga-T), had a massive impact on America’s view of California. He showcased the depth, diversity and variety of music the state could produce outside of just LA.
The lyricist has been in the culture for over three decades. That said, in an interview with Complex, Stevens broke down the meaning and creation of some of his most iconic songs.
Highlighting his 1993 Studio Ton-produced track, ‘Bring the Yellow Tape’ from his EP The Mail Man, Stevens explained, “I say, ‘Studio Ton, gimme one of those sinister mob, something just like a movie theme, like I’m telling a story.’ Back then, storytelling was really in effect. That’s what it was about, and when you paint a picture, it’s always classic music—and that’s why I went back to telling my stories.”
Speaking about the meaning behind the song title, the Vallejo native added, “So basically, ‘Bring the Yellow Tape’ was a way of saying something went down on the block, and the streets is blocked off. Yellow tape, they got the white chalk, the body outline, all that, you know it’s a crime scene. I was just imagining that, and I turned it into a story.”
Another song that E-40 named was ‘Mr Flamboyant’ from his group’s debut album Down and Dirty. According to Stevens, the story behind the song title was quite simple, as he recalled, “How the song came about was, first of all, [flamboyant] was a word that we always used to say in the neighbourhood and around Vallejo, and throughout the Bay. You know…flamboyant means somebody that’s flashy, love to showboat, ya understand? Lightweight arrogant, but at the same time—ya understand me?—solid.”
However, the Bay Area legend admitted that Death Row legend Snoop Dogg influenced the way he rappe don it a bit as he concluded, “But you know the style that I used on it, I wanted to do one of the most ignorantest styles of all time, and I did that. That was 22 years ago. Basically, that’s how it came about, man. I did that start, stop-and-go, Snoop-type delivery flow.”
You can listen to ‘Mr Flamboyant’ in the video below.