E-40:
Ghetto Report Card

Release Date: 14 March 2006

Reviewed By: Brendan Scott

1. Yay Area

2. Tell Me When To Go (ft. Keak da Sneak)

3. Muscle Cars (ft. Keak da Sneak and Turf Talk)

4. Go Hard or Go Home

5. Gouda (ft. B-Legit)

6. Sick Wid It II (ft. Turf Talk)

7. JB Stomp Down (Skit)

8. They Might Be Taping

9. Do Ya Head Like This

10. Block Boi

11. White Gurl (ft. Bun B, Pimp C and Juelz Santana)

12. Getthefunkon.com, Pt.1 (Skit)

13. U and Dat (ft. T-Pain)

14. I’m Da Man (ft. Al Kapone)

15. Yee (ft. Too Short)

16. Getthefunkon.com, Pt.2 (Skit)

17. Just F*ckin’

18. Gimme Head (ft. Al Kapone)

19. She Say She Loves Me (ft. Bun B)

20. Happy to Be Here (ft. D. D. Artis)

Mobb Deep - Blood Money
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*Disclaimer: if you are a Hip Hop purist/traditionalist then you should steer clear of this album – but then you probably already knew that.

With the forewarning out of the way, let’s have a look at the Hyphy movement and, more to the point, E-40’s ‘Ghetto Report Card’. Firstly what is Hyphy, aside from the supposed combination of the words “hype” and “fly”? Well…it goes like this: Hyphy is a culture that began to emerge around 2000 in the Bay Area of the left coast and can, albeit lazily, be explained as the Crunk of Northern California. Although its essence is the music, there are many integral elements, but if you really want to delve deeper then go and do some homework.

Here E-40, the rapper who coined the slang your favourite rappers have a penchant for using, brings Hyphy to the mainstream, to good effect. ‘Yay Area’ sets the stage for this high energy set with its slick Digable Planets’ “We be to rap/what key be to lock” vocal sample alongside deep, bassy kicks, finger snaps and handclaps, heavy synth stabs and sci-fi-esque sound effects.

Next up is the rumbling, Lil’ Jon-produced, ‘Tell Me When To Go’ featuring the Hyphy stalwart Keak Da Sneak. There’s no need to break down this track – if you haven’t heard it yet then get out from under that large sound-proof rock you’ve been living under.

This album continues to power along with much aplomb. The “get money” themed ‘Gouda’, for example, hits hard with its sinister repetitive strings which conjure up an image of Norman Bates wielding that kitchen knife again, but this time to the sound of San Fran’s urban soundtrack. In addition lines like, “When I was comin’ up, there’s certain things we don’t allow/like long fingernails, and men arching their eyebrows,” pronounced in that brogue and warbled cadence set this apart from the works of less idiosyncratic artists.

Just over the halfway mark, ‘Ghetto Report Card’ loses its pace and begins to wane, and in this reviewer’s humble opinion, the 20 cuts featured here should have finished at number 12. However, in terms of the brawn of this album’s first half, it is fair to say that this wind down offers a balance and the chance for the listener to get their breath back.

Overall, 40 Water’s role here is to play the cat’s-paw for the movement by making the rest of America, and the world for that matter, pay their overdue dues to the Bay. However, as with other bastard step-children of Hip Hop, like Crunk and Grime, Hyphy music will have ‘true school’ heads wincing and then furtively dusting down [insert early 90’s classic East Coast album here]. And that’s fine. However, picture this: Hip Hop was once a progressive and efficacious musical force that set new trends instead of recycling those it had previously created and that is the relevance of this sub-culture and, on a commercial scale, ‘Ghetto Report Card’.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Best tracks:
Do Ya Head Like This
Tell Me When To Go
Gouda

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