E-40 has taken fans down memory lane and reminded them that he was actually the first man in Hip Hop to have a multi-million dollar distribution deal.
On Saturday (July 29), the Bay Area rap legend took to Instagram and reposted a clip from a recent NO VULTURES podcast episode where rapper Cellski and host Lord Rab discussed the historic move back in 1994.
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“E-40 just signed for $3.5million, my n-gga,” Cellski said, after which Lord Rab recalled the deal being announced in the now-defunct magazine Rap Pages back in 1994.
“E-40 was the first person on the front of the magazine with the multi-million dollar deal,” Lord Rab said. “$3million sounds normal as fuck now — no rapper was gettin’ money like that.”
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E-40 mentioned the distribution deal he received in the early ’90s in his caption. “The 1st artist/CEO with a multi million dollar distribution deal,” he wrote. “I taught the people that taught you! #samesince88 based on a true story via @lordrab @cellski415.”
Check out the clip below:
40 water spoke about the the historic deal he signed alongside his rap group The Click — comprised of himself, B-Legit, D-Shot, and Suga-T — during an interview with NPR back in 2012.
“When we signed with Jive Records in 1994, a lot of people were like, ‘Man, they got a $3million deal! Woo, they got $3million!’ he said at the time. “You don’t get $3million up front just like that. No. As a matter of fact, it was worth way more than that over the years.”
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He added: “But I already had money. I owned a couple houses. Stayed on the golf course, had Lexuses and Rovers. I was already having it. So I didn’t want they advancement like that. I like to see the backend. And that’s what I seen.”
Even though E-40 is the first rapper to sign a multi-million dollar distribution deal, other independent label owners, including J. Prince (Rap-A-Lot Records), Birdman (Cash Money Records), and Master P (No Limit Records), laid the groundwork for huge distribution deals during that time.
Along with revealing his historical distribution deal from the ’90s, E-40 also claimed recently that he’s responsible for reviving West Coast Hip Hop in the 2000s.
When I came out with “Ghetto Report Card,” I was 37, 38 years old,” he told The New York Times earlier this month. “My whole career was just revived. It was amazing. I was part of the crunk movement and the hyphy movement at the same time. ‘U and Dat,’ ‘Snap Yo Fingers’ and so on. We had the South and the West Coast.”
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He continued: “Imagine if there was streaming back then when we had ‘Tell Me When to Go,’ ‘Bitch,’ ‘Choices.’ We would be diamond on each one of those records. I put new life into the West Coast in 2006. And that’s no ifs, ands or buts. Can’t nobody say I didn’t, with the help of Lil Jon. And it’s never stopped since then.”
“That’s my role — they call me the Ambassador of the Bay. And I don’t know nobody else there that represents it like me,” he concluded.
