SXSW 2015 Hip-Hop: E-40

In an interview during last year’s SXSW, California bay area rapper G-Eazy likened E-40’s influence in the bay area to Jay-Z’s in New York City. In terms of originality, innovation, longevity, relevance through several eras of hip-hop, and business prowess, it’s hard to argue 47-year-old E-40’s importance in hip-hop. This influence even includes E-40’s 27-year-old son Droop-E, who has been successfully producing for a bevy of west coast artists since 2004. One of my favorite revelations about E-40 came in 2014 when it was discovered that E-40 used more unique words in his work than Shakespeare in a side by side comparison of the first 35,000 words used in each artist’s work (he wasn’t the only rapper who out did Shakespeare, but definitely the only rapper in his genre of hip-hop). E-40 has been putting out a minimum of two albums per year since 2010 with his most recent album including guest spots from Dej Loaf, Ty Dolla $ign, Kirko Bangz, and others. And we all heard E-40’s verse on Big Sean’s break up anthem from 2014 “IDFWU”. E-40’s presence at SXSW is a huge deal and should not be missed. He’s scheduled to perform at The Roosevelt Room on Friday, March 20, 1:20 a.m.-1:50 a.m. E-40’s “Tell Me When To Go” from the height of the Hyphy movement is below.

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