Nardwuar The Human Serviette vs Nardwuar vs. E-40
Nardwuar: Who are you?
E-40: I go by the name a’ E-Feasible-Bellafonte-Bearweather-Bellagiano, y’understand me?
Nardwuar: E-40, welcome to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
E-40: Right on, thank you for having me, man.
Nardwuar: E-40, what’s the importance of the Beverly Food Center?
E-40: Beverly Food Center? That’s in my neighborhood, that’s on the hillside, that’s not there no more, it’s another, it’s called something else, but yeah, that man do, that’s one of them days when, shoot, I’m thinkin’ three thou-wow-wow with you, y’understand me. Mums, mums used to make me go get like, when I was a kid, I had to go… go pick up embarrassing stuff for her cos we had a credit over there, like, “Go down to Mr Jimmy’s and get…,” y’understand me, “go get me um… uh… some tampons or something,” you know what I mean. I was a kid so I had to go do it! But you, you’re pride in a way, but I say, “But mum, I don’t wanna do that,” but I had to do it, you know what I mean, stuff like that, I mean… shoot man, Beverly Food Center was… it was the hood, man, that’s the soil, you know, and Mr Jimmy and his hot tamales, that’s what he had down there.
Nardwuar: Some of the Macks hang out down there too, right?
E-40: Yeah, yeah, a lot of people hang out there. Some of the, you know, all the OGs, you know, used to hang out there, you know, when I started, y’understand me, drinking, kids, don’t do this, but I used to slide, y’understand me, a OG little bread there, give me 40 ounce, y’understand me, when I was under-age, little bit, but don’t do that dow, don’t do dat, don’t do dat.
Nardwuar: E-40, Bay Area Old School, what can you tell the people about Calvin T and Magic Mike?
E-40: Oh, whee, the rawest rappers you never heard of, ever in life, from Richmond, California, yeah, you dig. And man, I went and psyched Calvin T, probably ’96, something like that, and um, my partner, y’understand me, he got caught up y’understand, he had to do some time, but I got a little form to this day, man, you know, that dude was… he still got gas, y’understand me. You can find him on the block where sure four, five, or six albums that I’ve come with in March two-thou-wow-thirteen, y’understand me, so… man, c’mon man, it was the people I grew up on, Calvin T and Magic Mike, Too Short, Freddie B, Ice T, KRS-1, Run DMC…
Nardwuar: UTFO?
E-40: UTFO, Kangol, UTFO, all of ‘em man, I pay homage man, y’understand me, and a shout out to er, y’understand me, Cool Hurt just for creating this thing, man.
Nardwuar: E-40, another Bay Area Old School person I’d like to ask you about is Hugh EMC.
[Nardwuar hands E-40 a cassette tape]
E-40: Hugh EMC? Hugh EMC from, from Frisco?
Nardwuar: From the Outta Control Project.
E-40: Yeah, yeah, that’s classic right here, man. [E-40 holds up cassette tape to camera] Hugh EMC, shout out to Hugh EMC, man, he ask dem, he was way ahead of his time too. Yessir. What you know about dis, man?
Nardwuar: Well E-40, we gotta know about this!
E-40: Real game involved with this pimp style, man! You see that?
[Cassette tape shown to camera]
Nardwuar: E-40, on your brand new record, you’ve a song called ‘Let’s…’
E-40: ‘Let’s…’ oh, ‘Let’s Fuck.’
Nardwuar: Yeah, ‘Let’s Fuck’!
E-40: Got so many damn songs, bro, ‘Let’s Fuck,’ with Gangsta Boo?
Nardwuar: With Gangsta Boo, that’s incredible that Boo is back!
E-40: Yeah, she gassin’ on that thang, she raw as fuck, that’s the home girl right there. Yeah, Gangsta Boo, raw, she whippin’, she whippin’ on the current females, y’understand me, for as gas wise, she gassin’ ‘em, man. You know, and it’s game with her, you see.
Nardwuar: Back to the Bay Area, the Conscious Daughters, Rest in Peace, Special One, what can you tell people about the Conscious Daughters?
E-40: Sad, man, Special One passed, man. You know, they was… they was doing they thing out in the Bay Area, you know, it was to the point where you know even Nice, he even recognized back then, he so, he’s so conscious about the way, of the way we raise our daughters, you know, Conscious Daughters, man, you dig, you know. So we gonna, she’s truly gonna be missed, you know. Man, females miss a lot of great talent out there for females. A lot of females don’t get recognized, but they was definitely some Bay Area legends. Still is.
Nardwuar: Con Funk…?
[Record sleeve shown to camera]
E-40: Con Funk Shun, man, Michael Cooper, Felton Pilate, y’understand me.
Nardwuar: They’re from Vallejo.
[E-40 holds Con Funk Shun Record]
E-40: And these were, they was before me, man. This is, these was, them, I’m one of the biggest things that ever came out of Vallejo, me and CC Sabathia and Jeff Gordon, but this dude, these people right here? They was… Sly Stone, them and Sly Stone, c’mon man. You go see these people right here make a Funk Shun, dude.
Nardwuar: And you record at Fel-Star Studios.
E-40: Our first album…
Nardwuar: MVP.
E-40: Our first, yeah, MVP, that first project was done, that’s the first time ever on wax we made, you know, that’s when it was just vinyl back then. We recorded it Felton Pilate Studios, [E-40 points to person on Con Funk Shun record cover] this was Felton Pilate right here, Felton Pilate Studio, 1987, and it came out in ’88.
Nardwuar: What was MC Hammer like back then? Did you meet him in the studio?
E-40: On my way… on my way leaving the studio, I would always see Hammer coming in, and Hammer was big back then, he was, he had the thrills going and all, he was comin’, you know, he was that guy!
Nardwuar: What did he look like?
E-40: He had regular clothes on at that time, you know. He still… he still, you know, he, there was his little outfit on when he go on stage, do his videos, but you know, he had Troop, Troop jackets and stuff like that, you know what I mean, that was in, you know. He had the whole, you know, ‘80s apparel, you know. But Hammer always kept everyone up, you know, real with me from day one, still to this day. I get Hammer on the phone, he pick that thang up, he a real one.
Nardwuar: And you also phone up 2 Chainz too, don’t you, just to check in on him?
E-40: Yeah, I always, I had 2 Chainz, I called him up probably about three weeks, no, about a month ago, I say, he say, “Wassup Fonzarelli?” you know, and I say, “Wassup, you big headed yet?” He laugh for about five minutes! But he say, “Nah, man, Fonzy, I ain’t like that man, I ain’t big headed man,” you know. But I like, I like humble, humble cats like that, y’understand me. 2 Chainz is a raw rapper, man, and he getting’ his just his due now, man. Age ain’t nothin’ but mind over matter. He’s young, I’m super OG, y’understand me, but he OG too, don’t get it twisted, but he, that’s why he’s so ganged up like that, you know what I mean.
Nardwuar: E-40, here’s an OG number for you: 707*******.
E-40: That’s uh, I believe that’s, shoot, was that uh, was that or Rush Force Records, was that…?
Nardwuar: Yes, it was Rush Force Records!
E-40: Yeah, Rush Force Records, that was my Uncle Saint Charles. Had a lot to do with independent music, laying it, you know, making a path for independent artists such as myself, y’understand me. Master P, JT the Bigga Figga, many more rappers, you know what I mean. We learned together, you know what I mean, we learned together just be experimenting in this thang, you know, especially me and Saint Charles.
Nardwuar: It’s amazing you remember that phone number! It’s right on the back of the MVP record.
E-40: It’s right on the back. [E-40 speaks directly to camera] Let me tell y’all somethin’, he just throwing these questions at me, Jesus, I just walked in here just now, he didn’t, this, ain’t none of this, ain’t nothin’, he didn’t prep me for this, and he dig deep, this is real spill, man!
Nardwuar: Oh thank you, E-40!
E-40: Yeah.
Nardwuar: And we’re gonna dig a bit deeper right now. Frankie Smith, did he develop izzle first?
[Frankie Smith album cover shown to camera; E-40 then holds Frankie Smith record]
E-40: Well, I can’t say he developed izzle first, but he, Frankie Smith, the Double Dutch Bus was the one. What it was, we was up in the studio and uh, my um, my brother…
Nardwuar: D-Shot.
E-40: D-Shot, that’s right, that’s right, D-Shot. D-Shot was like, we were trying to come up with a hook for ‘Captain Save-a-Ho,’ and D-Shot just got, I say man, D-Shot just got the “iz-a-iz-a should I save her?” and yes, damn me, there was like them Suga-T, “I don’t wanna be saying…”, we just put it all together, we all collabed, you know what I’m saying? But no, it all came, you know, “izzle-dizzle-izzle-sizzle,” you know how, you know on the Double Dutch Bus like he was gassin’ it, you know what I mean.
Nardwuar: So D-Shot kinda referenced Frankie Smith there.
E-40: Right, without using any a’ his material, but kinda, you know, the flavor and the melodies, you know, kinda like, you know what I’m saying. So it came, it came, I say, well, it became a classic. That’s back, that’s one, that… when we made ‘Captain Save-a-Ho,’ them was the days when people used to, rappers used to go into the studio and just make music from their heart. We didn’t give a damn, and that’s what I’ve been doing, you know what I mean. We don’t give a damn about radio until they ask for it, and so that’s what happened. It was a-buzzin’ on the street so tough that the DJs were like, man, “Y’all got a clean version of this?” I’ll say, “No, but we can make one,” and I had it to him with the hurry-up-mister the next day, you hear me.
Nardwuar: So we have E-40, we have Frankie Smith with izzle, and I was wondering, E-40, is this gentleman right here responsible as well for some izzle-ing as you open it up there, E-40?
[Hands E-40 a Mac Dre figure wrapped in a cloth]
E-40: Mack Dre. Mac Dre, definitely Bay Area legend, from my city, Vallejo, California, y’understand me. He from another side of town, from the Crest side, and I’m from the Hill side. Mack Dre had game, Mack Dre grew up on the same people I grew up. People don’t know Mack Dre grew up on Calvin T, Magic Mike, Too Short, Freddie B, you see what I’m saying. So we would say sort of things that people think that he made up, well, or that people think that I made up, but a lot of times it came from the people that was before us – Magic Mike, Calvin T, Too Short, Freddie B, you hear what I’m saying. True legend. RIP Mack Dre.
Nardwuar: So very important too in the izzle development as well.
E-40: He was on the case. Mack Dre had game, he was gamed up. You know, 707, say it backwards.
Nardwuar: E-40, growing up in Vallejo…
E-40: Wait, let me say something, let me set the record straight too, man. [E-40 speaks directly to camera] Me and Mack Dre didn’t have no problem, we had problems when we was young and that was, he had problems and it really wasn’t nothing, we was just speaking up for our neighborhoods, that’s all. Wasn’t nothing personal. Me and his men never got in a fight, never man. This dude was all right with me, we was on some grown man time before he passed, so git that shit out the way, everybody trying to, you know, act like me and Dre wasn’t cool. Tear that shit off, man, y’understand me. We didn’t have, we wasn’t the best of friends, but we wasn’t, we wasn’t, we didn’t hate each other. We had respect for one another, and we was trying to put some stuff together, y’understand me, so there the is.
Nardwuar: E-40, the Bay Area, Vallejo, growing up. Were you affected at all by the Zodiac killer?
E-40: I was scared. I was scared, I was a little boy, ‘specially trick-or-treating, y’understand, “Man, the Zodiac gonna get you!” And we used to trick-or-treat over there by Somerset, and that was in some of the area like Columbus Priory way and up in that way, y’understand me, and… There used to be a spot called Gravity Hill where, you know, sometime we’d get in the car and uh, it’s still there too, Gravity Hill, and we’d get in the car and at Gravity Hill goes, like you put the car in neutral and it’d go up the hill. I think it was on this incredible one time, or something, it was on something, and I saw, it wasn’t on, I know it was on something, it was on some television show, you understand me, it made it national TV. But yeah, the Zodiac man, you know, when the movie came out I was like, “OK, they made a move about the Zodiac, wow.” I never put him in my raps, you know what I mean, because I just don’t condone, you know, just killing up people for nothin’, y’understand me, so I never just dapped him up.
Nardwuar: Lastly here, E-40, I would like to ask you a little bit about ‘yak butter’. What is ‘yak butter’?
E-40: Yak butter?
Nardwuar: Yak butter.
E-40: I ain’t up on that one.
Nardwuar: Bay Area slang.
E-40: I ain’t up on that one, I’m serious, for real, for real. I ain’t up on that one. Yak butter?
Nardwuar: I thought it was pussy!
E-40: I don’t know who made that one! n. I ain’t ever heard of that one though.
Nardwuar: What are your words for pussy?
E-40: Crevice.
Nardwuar: Well, thanks so much E-40. Anything else you want to add to the people out there at all?
E-40: [Speaks direct to camera] Man, if y’all end up on E-40 man, go snatch my music, go pull up my catalog, y’all gonna see that I am the rawest that ever did this thang, man, y’understand me. You got some cats out there that think 40 don’t go. I got cats that I feel like you’re favorite rapper don’t go, y’understand me. And I make music for my fans and my soon-to-be fans, y’understand me, so have a open mind, man, and getcha game up man.
Nardwuar: Well, thanks for your time, E-40. Keep on rockin’ in the free world, and do-doodle-oo-do-…
E-40: Oo-oo.