E-40 has been doing his thing for a minute’20 years to be exact. But those who’ve only been hipped to his spittems within the past few years probably unfairly associate him with the recent Bay Area hyphy movement. When ‘Tell Me When to Go’ came out I thought, ‘Good, 40 finally has a hit. He deserves it.’ Then I started to become unsettled with what was happening to one of the game’s more beloved MCs. I noticed that his album was executive produced by Lil Jon, which was like a direct slap in the face. Then I actually began to hear more and more of 40 Water’s new material and I thought, ‘Ok, 40 finally sold out. And it’s all Lil Jon’s fault.’ This was also around the time when other Bay Area artists like The Pack and Keek Da Sneak happened to be racking up bouncy gimmicky dance-hits. E-Feezy caught the wave at its breaking point and became known as the ambassador of the hyphy movement. He’s still riding that wave. Unfortunately it never had much power behind it, and it has since beached the self-proclaimed ballatician on the shores of mediocrity.

This is no fault of his own though, at least not as far as his skills behind the mic. His signature over-anxious gooftastic flow is still intact, and just as sharp as ever. Nowhere is this more evident than on ‘Tell It Like It Is,’ where 40 puts on the mentor cap and sprinkles some cold game in his cryptic I’m-not-rapping-too-fast-y’all-just-listening-too-slow style. Lines like, ‘don’t nothing come to a sleeper but a dream/ a vision without a plan is just a hallucination,’ prove that his hunger for the game is still there. The problem is that once again, his album has been co-executive produced by Lil Jon, and 40’s legendary swagger is reduced to nothing more than a trivial footnote alongside the repetitive production of thumping hyphy dance tracks. Either that or it’s the sleep-inducing radio-friendly sound that results from collaborations with T-Pain and Akon.

Out of the murk of the unimaginative production however, one gem can be found in the J.R. Rotem produced ‘Pain No More.’ The track’s soaring synths are peppered with playfully rhythmic chimes and string plucks, creating an epic forum for 40, Snoop, and the Game to marinate on coming up through hard times. It seems that 40 Fonzarelli will never lose his swagger. It’s the career decisions that he needs to worry about.

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