The Next Spot: E-40–”My Ghetto Report Card”
The Next Spot is a recurring series dedicated to the albums that could’ve, would’ve, should’ve made the Decade Top 50.
Forget the lackluster back end, My Ghetto Report Card is all about the high energy first half that brought 40 Water back to MTV and put the Bay back in the National spotlight for a minute. While Hyphy always worked better as an adjective than as an awkward name-tag for Bay Area Hip-Hop, 40 and producer Lil Jon somehow make the reductive “West Coast Crunk” description the genre got stuck with work.
“Tell Me When To Go” is the big hit, an incredibly sparse post-Grindin stomper that reworks RUN DMC’s “Dumb Girl” into a dancefloor call-to-arms. But the album’s real strength lies in Bay Area legend Rick Rock’s contribution: “Go Hard or Go home” is an anthemic stadium sized banger, while opening salvo “Yay Area” features a Digable Planet flip and lyrics so dope that even the East couldn’t ignore it.–Sach O
Download:
MP3: E-40-”Go Hard or Go Home”
MP3: E-40-”Yay Area”
Stumble It!
August 21st, 2009 at 5:15 am
yeh im sorry since that memory man tape was completely ridiculous but come on E40 is everything that has been wrong with hip hop in the last decade or so
August 21st, 2009 at 11:23 am
It was great to see 40 (and the Bay in general) get some national attention again, but My Ghetto Report Card is not even close to among 40’s best albums. What really should have put him back on the map was Grit and Grind. That shit was Bay Area as fuck, without riding trends or jocking the South. Rick Rock was all over it, so were Bay legends like Tone Capone, Mike Moseley, Bosko, Studio Ton, etc., and Lil’ Jon (thankfully) only had one beat. And it knocks all the way through. Anyway My Ghetto Report Card is a decent album but even I gotta admit it has a a lot of filler. It may have seemed like a good idea in the short term (and it did increase 40’s sales), but in the long run I think signing with Lil’ Jon was a mistake. Can’t knock 40’s rapping though; he’s as sharp as ever.