In a new interview with HipHopDX, E-40 opened up about his admiration for Kendrick Lamar.
The legendary California MC, who said he’s known Lamar for over a decade, mentioned that it meant a lot for K. Dot to shout him out on “Money Trees.” He added that Lamar will be “going down in history as one of the best that ever did it.
“Just to hear somebody like that saying one of his favorite albums of all time, his top 25 albums, one of them was mine, Charlie Hustle: The Blueprint of a Self-Made Millionaire. It’s a beautiful thing,” E-40 said. “It make me feel good. That quote was so raw … ‘Living life like rappers do, bump that new E-40 after school.’ He said Earl Stevens, the whole woo-ha. That was one of the biggest shout-outs, ever. I love Kendrick, man.”
E-40 also spoke on some of his earliest encounters with the Compton rapper, one of them being on a 2010 tour alongside Jay Rock and MixedByAli.
“I think it was called the Independent Tour,” he said. “It was Strange Music then, so it was me, Tech N9ne, Big Scoob, Glasses Malone. Who else was on that thing? Of course, Kendrick, Jay Rock, Ali. You know, Krizz Kaliko, just everybody you can name. We was all one big [family] for two and a half months … Just every day, I would open up the studio. After we perform or before and after, I had a portable studio, so I have it on my tour bus. I’d have it in the room, so I’d get a suite. Kendrick can hang out with me, him and Jay Rock. All of us, we really hung real tough, and this was 2010. You feel me? Just showing love.”
That love between Lamar and his label, Top Dawg Entertainment, E-40 said, is part of the reason why they’re now succeeding today. He also mentioned his first impressions of Lamar.
“He was cold on that microphone,” he said. “He might seem quiet, but that muthafucka’s got hella character to him. He knew how to act and all. You seen him in Power, when he played the dope fiend dude. He was woke. He was ganged up. You know what I’m saying?”
Check out more of E-40’s chat with HipHopDX here.
