Thug Life Army

Known as the "Ambassador of the Bay," the platinum-selling rap / hip-hop artist E-40, gears up for his 12th CD release, "My Ghetto Report Card," in March 2006 by teaming up with BME head Lil'' Jon, who executive produced the CD, and Warner Bros. Records.

Joining forces with hip-hop’s Lil'' Jon was a natural progression for E-40. "We met through Too Short in 1998. We immediately began working together from that point," says E-40.

"I produced ''Rep Your City'' for his album ''Grit and Grind'' and later put the song on one of my albums," states Lil'' Jon.

"After my contract with Jive was up, we thought that we couldn''t lose by working together as a team," says E-40. "There is a huge fan base for me in the South. In fact, Greg Street was influential in breaking my first major release in Atlanta in 1994, with ''Captain Save A Hoe.''"

The video for the first single from "My Ghetto Report Card," "Tell Me When," which features Keak the Sneak, was recently shot by Lil'' Jon and Director Bernard Gourley (Lyfe Jennings, Three 6 Mafia, Beanie Sigel). The video introduces the world to the Hyphy movement in the Bay. "Hyphy music is like Crunk, but in a more up-tempo way. The culture is a way of life for Bay kids. We got the side shows, the muscle cars, we ghost ride the whip, we got the invisible driving, the music, the go dumb get stupid dances, we just actin'' a fool expressing ourselves," explains E-40. "You''ve got to see it to believe it."

Thousands of people showed up at the shoot including just about every rapper in the Bay and members of The BME Click including Lil'' Jon, Lil'' Scrappy, and Bohagon. "We were smokin'' up the block, turning donuts and figure 8's. We had the hyphy train crackin.'' Just imagine 300 cars riding back to back after a party with every car, van, camper or truck with all they doors open, shakin'' their dreads, showing their grill, sporting stunna shade glasses, dancing on top of the roofs and hoods of the whip, campaigning like the president, like a big parade. It's just a whole bunch of super energy. You gotta see it!," continues E-40.

A documentary of the Hyphy movement is being produced by Warner Bros. and will be added value with the sale of "My Ghetto Report Card."

"My Ghetto Report Card" features production by Lil'' Jon, Kanye West, Rick Rock, E-40's son Droop-e of the Pharmasuticles, mainstay Bosko, and Studio Tone with guest features by Lil'' Scrappy, Bohagon, Mike Jones, Juelz Santana, Turf Talk, B-Legit, The Federation, 8Ball, and UGK.

E-40 established his family of crew, The Click, in 1988 with his Sik Wid It Records. He quickly rose to the top of the independent rap game in the Bay Area by spitting slang and being the most innovative wordsmith the rap genre has ever seen. Creative terminology like "pop ya collar," "it's all good," "fo'' shezzy, fo'' shizzle" and "what's up pimpin''" all came from E-40. "We in the Bay Area are oftentimes ahead of our time. Our game can go over your head if you''re tardy," states E-40.

The Bay’s hip-hop / rap legend E-40 was one of the forefathers of the true independent label campaigns with his "Mob Style" sound selling thousands of records on his, solo-own. Soon thereafter, Jive Records took notice and signed E-40 to a deal which E-40 concluded totally recouped, "free" of debt, something that is hardly heard of in the music industry. With the Jive deal E-40 garnered three (3) gold and one (1) platinum album. E-40 explains the sound, "Too Short, Ant Banks, and Studio Tone created that sound, which is a heavy bass line with a swing percussion, and I named it. It worked for us. Now there is a new sound in the Bay called Hyphy. I plan to help take it to the forefront."

E-40, the imminent business and family man, besides making music, has started building his chain of Fat Burgers in the Bay with plans to bring ten to the area. He also has a radio show on top radio station KMEL on Sundays @ 3 p.m. called "E-Freezy." In addition to this, E-40 invests heavily in real estate in the Bay Area. He has his own brand of liquor called Cloud 9 that will be hitting stores soon. And to educate the masses on his diverse lingo, E-40 has a book of slang called "E-40's Dictionary Book of Slang, Vol. 1" that will hit stores around the time of the album release on Warner Books.

Constantly guiding the entertainment careers of his family (i.e. Brother D-Shot, Sister Suga T, Cousin B-Legit, etc...) E-40's son, Droop-e, has graced a couple of his tracks over the years and is becoming a major producer in the Hyphy movement in the Bay.

"My Ghetto Report Card," drops in March 2006