E-40 is a vet in the game, and he's more prolific than ever. The Bay Area legend has released three albums this year alone, and 12 since 2010. Throughout his career, he's kept an emphasis on narrative. In an interview with XXL earlier this month, he spoke of his feelings of an absence in proper-storytelling in the current rap climate, comments he chose to clarify in an exclusive sit down with HNHH.
The rapper began with some background on his musical upbringing. "I love what I do. Rapping is my heart." he said. "You could tell I had a passion for music when I was a young moustache. I played drums from 4th grade all the way to 12th. That's my destiny. I got on that microphone. There you go E-40 the best that ever did it and got away with it."
40 then got into the conversation of narrative in rap, revealing that his comments were not meant to be directed at all current rappers. "Let me clear something up. When I say you can't teach me nothin'. I'm talking about a lot of cats can't teach me about the foundation of the streets," he said. "When I say ain't nobody telling stories no more, i'm not talking about everybody. There's hella-story tellers, but a lot don't. like in the late 80s and 90s we were telling a lot of stories in our lyrics."
The rapper said that he got a lot of flack for the misunderstood quotes on Twitter, particularly from Kendrick stans. "Niggas hit me on Twitter. 'What about Kendrick Lamar? he tells stories?' I said 'I know that!' I was just saying a lot of people don't tell no stories no more, but there's a lot of rappers that do."
Watch the full interview below.