With both of his new Revenue Retrievin albums selling like crazy across the country, E-40 seems to have again solidified his place in hip hop history with another successful independent release. As one of the few West Coast artists to no have never been “under Dr. Dre” at one point or another, E-40 continues to defy the boundaries of what how MC’s rhyme. Hitting the game with different cadences, subject matter, and slang for over 20 years, E-40 has the respect of the streets, gangsters, prison inmates, females, older hip hop heads and the youth. Take a look at how E-40 ranks his Top 5 Dead or Alive. Its West Coast heavy, but the man has a few surprises, check out his reasoning.AllHipHop.com: AllHipHop.com has a feature called Top 5 Dead or Alive. Can you discuss your Top 5?E-40: I can’t say myself on there huh? Ahhhh (Sigh) let me think this out then. (Pause) Hmmm….. Ahhh…. Hmmm…. I think I am the dopest in the world. I honestly do. I think that I covered every part of the game. I think there may be some mother f**kas that don’t agree as far as my rap style but I am talking about uniqueness, I’m talking word play, I’m talking subject matter, the whole kit a caboodle, you smell me? I’m talking about the whole s**t. I’m talking about beat-wise, I’m talking about relevance, longevity. I’m talking about coming in the game with a prayer wish hope and a dream. I’m talking about coming in the game with nothing.What I mean by that is that, I didn’t have a crutch, nobody threw me and my family a bone. They didn’t throw us a bone. We didn’t come up like that, no disrespect, we didn’t come up under Dre. I look up to Dr. Dre, but we are one of the few people to come up successfully without coming up under Dr. Dre or being Dr. Dre affiliated. Just keeping it 1000%. Which ain’t nothing wrong with that, I would have definitely loved it to have come up under him back in the day, but fortunately I didn’t and I made it without an executive producer or anyone putting money into our s**t, no nothing. It was all grassroots, and I consider all that and consider myself the greatest, dead or alive in real life because for one I did something that rappers today have a hard time doing, and that’s sell units with no radio airplay or none of that. Like we sold a lot of records. I was one of the first rappers out here with a big deal out here in 1993 or 1994. Back then every label in the world wanted the Click and E-40. We signed to Jive Records in 1994. That’s the group that I rapped with, you know, E-40 broke barriers man. I did something that the average rapper and rappers today couldn’t do back then. It’s because the streets really f**k with me and they do til’ this day. This is real man, this is street s**t. So any motha f**kas out there that be thinking a n***a corny they got me f**ked up. Its just over they head because they just gang groupies. (Laughs)AllHipHop.com: Ok, next? E-40: Tupac. See one thing about him is that he could get on some gangster s**t with his raps or he could get on some super uplifting s**t. That’s why females and males loved Pac. He spit that uplifting s**t like, “Brenda’s got a Baby”, “Keep Ya Head Up” and “Dear Mama”. Songs like that, ya see what I’m saying? These are classic songs and he did that all day. He could get on some gangsta s**t then some party s**t. Then he could get on some real life issues, it was incredible s**t man.AllHipHop.com: OkE-40: Ice Cube. Cube said some of the most like…. I’m a 80’s cat so I grew up during the crack epidemic. When that white girl first hit the streets of the inner cities in the 80’s, this man still had heat even after he wrote a lot of lyrics for Eazy-E, this ain’t taking nothing away from Eazy-E, I feel like Eazy-E was definitely one of the greats and everything the brought to hip hop. The only reason I brought that up is because for him to utilize his lyrics way back then and still have lyrics, to take it to another page. This man had songs about going to Minnesota, setting up shop and all other soils. That’s what people really did. Go out there with a sac and sell it for double or triple what they sell it for out here on the West Coast. He had that yola game pretty much down pat. Now it wasn’t just that he was about though. I mean he had some of the coldest lyrics. Like “Once Upon a Time in the Projects”, covering all parts of the game. He was a political dude too, like he could get on some controversial political s**t and the man still have longevity today. He is still in the game today. He will sell out the Coliseum on your ass. This man got a real dedicated fan-base man. He just recently had a Gold Record. He’s been in the game forever, since the 80’s.E-40: Too $hort started off in the game as a youngster. Real young, one of the first rappers making tapes for hood dudes, dudes from the soil, from the hood. Like customized cassettes where he might take a Rappin Duke instrumental and rap over that and make it customized for one of his homeboys. So if you are hot rapper and I’m just a street hustler, and you that dude. I would definitely break bread with you too. Like, “$hort make me a song bro, a customized song about myself.” You gonna feel ya self man. You gonna think you’re a baller. He made songs for people in the hood, he spit that slick s**t about the b**ches, and he covered all parts of the game as well. Uniqueness, He coined the word “b**ch”. This man got Platinum and Gold records. Got more Platinum and Gold records than me.AllHipHop.com: Last one…E-40: Scarface. He spit that s**t. He’s a great storyteller. He’s in his own lane, his voice, the s**t he talks about, his deliverance. He can get on some MC s**t if he wants to. Some MC lyrical s**t if he wants to, or some super hood s**t. One thing about him is that he has always stayed the same throughout his whole career. Some people its good for them to stay in their own lane. You see the thing about me is that I am a character so I can do all different types of flows and different s**t. But I take my hat off to Scarface for his longevity, his storytelling and his lyrical delivery. The whole s**t. So…AllHipHop.com: Solid Top 5 man.
