E-40: Hell yeah––he was a nigga spitting straight shit that I could relate to during my becoming-man-ish phase. I was an observer of the game, that fly on the wall who would talk to the OGs. I was comedy too at the same time; I had a sneaky comedy to me. [But] your life starts getting serious around 14, 15 years old. My cousin and them came down from Oakland. Oakland, Richmond, Frisco, were always ahead of Vallejo. But Vallejo had the best of all worlds, because everybody had family from those places. I was living a life, and that [Too Short music] was right up my alley.
Short, what were your first impressions of 40?
Too Short: When I first met E-40 we were the dudes in the crew with a bunch of thug-type dudes, drug dealer-type dudes. 40 had a reputation for getting his hands dirty, and he had the blood relatives, like his cousin, B-Legit. They was known for getting money in the game. We were allies, so to speak––but not in a hip-hop way. That was the ‘80s. Way down the line, in the ‘90s, that’s when we started acknowledging the hip-hop connection and getting closer on those terms.
Right––you didn’t make a record together until [1996’s] “Rapper’s Ball.”
Too Short: From the time we met until “Rapper’s Ball,” you’ve got a seven, eight, nine-year period of… look, I never thought of making a song with Mac Dre. We ended up on a song together back in the day, but it wasn’t because of me and him, it was because of [longtime KMEL DJ] Chuy Gomez or someone at the radio station, you know what I mean?
But, 40, you had already sampled Short on [“Rat Heads,” from the 1993 album] Federal, right?
E-40: [Laughs] You know too much! Yeah, I sampled Short’s shit, and he never sat back and was like, ‘Man, fuck that nigga? I had my own thing, he had his thing, and it happened like it was supposed to happen.
Too Short: It was all game, though. The common link was always upholding the game. That’s a whole different course there. If you don’t know what the game is I’ve gotta sit you down for a while and teach you the meaning of what the game is. But once you get the meaning of what the game is and you start absorbing it, then you get what we doing. The whole time, this whole thing has been educational. It’s not just entertainment, it’s not just funky beats. It’s really school.
That’s something I wanted to ask: your styles hinge in large part on giving listeners game, but what’s some advice you wish you had back in ‘85?
E-40: I would say, if you’re a hustler, you get in and get out. Don’t try to make that a permanent occupation. You can ball for three years and fuck around and have to do 30 in the penitentiary. The numbers don’t add up. Play the white man’s game: get in and get out. Everybody’s got some type of stepping stone to get where they’re at, whether it was legal or illegal. Get some legitimate cash coming in. If you sitting on ten thou-wow, you can put that shit in a barber shop, then that barber shop’s gonna pay for itself.
Too Short: Short: I think it’s all part of the process. Young and dumb is something you gotta go through, but you’ve got to be a student. Don’t get to the point where you think, ‘I learned everything last week,’ or, ‘I learned everything last year.’ You’ll never learn everything. Wake up every day and try to learn something new. And if you do learn something, pass it on to people you think deserve the game. I had to go through a lot of dumbass young shit to get this smart. While I was young, getting money, a hustler, I was sharp. But I never thought I was too smart to learn something new. Keep your receptors open, and don’t get too egotistical to think you know more than everybody else in the room. You’ve gotta be real manish, but you’ve also gotta know when to be humble. I had fun being young and dumb. I don’t wanna go back and be too smart, because it wouldn’t be as much fun.