BOSSES WILL BOSS
WORDS: N. ALI EARLY

E-40’s been in the game a long damn time. He’s sold millions of albums, an anthem or three on every one; been major and taught most of your favorite rappers how to get down independently – by observation of course, cause we all know the game is to be sold, not told.

He’s a self made millionaire and an example of what to do & how to do it. He’s initiated an energy about slang that had never been seen or heard of before him – even in the Yay. He’s hands down the most charismatic rapper in Hip Hop and has more born swag than your favorite emcee could ever dream. He’s done laps around dozens of one hit wonders and is signed to his son’s label, whose beats he now spits over.

Still he wants more.

“It’s gon’ be a marathon, not a sprint,” says 40, confident and ready for his second turn at full independence. “I’m in it for the long run and it’s going to be nonstop.”

If it wasn’t for his departure from Warner Brothers, which proved to be a great short term fit with Lil Jon and Co., we might not know 40 still had it in him. But here he is; back in the thick of it, handlin’ his alongside the youngstas.

“It’s independent’s day,” he says with an obvious smile. “It’s like, fuck double platinum. I’m tryna go double profit. It ain’t about first week sales or none of that. When I was independent if I had sold 12,000 the first week, I was happy. And we just kept milkin’ it until it became 100,000 and from a 100,000 to 150,000. That’s why I say, ‘the grit don’t quit.’”

In cutting out the middle man 40 is living carefree with the prospect of having no liaison to negotiate his contracts, or promotion, or marketing, or video shoots or interviews. He still owns the rights to Sickwidit Records and parlayed his own distribution deal with EMI. E1/ Koch, who’s known to favor the independent dollar, picked up the rights to his most recent album – Revenue Retrievin’: Night & Day Shift and he dipped his pen in the family ink, signing to Droop-E’s Heavy On The Grind Entertainment.

That said, Warner had an option to pick up 40’s contract but decided not to – a choice he’s decidedly thrilled about.

“I was glad they didn’t,” he says. “I take my hat off to ‘em. The last album, Ball Street Journal, was a great album, but it didn’t perform the way we both expected [it to] business wise. So we went our separate ways.”

40 is clearly not upset about the severed relationship. In the months and weeks leading up to his 13 & 14th album release(s), he leaked a slew of videos and songs to the Internet. In the process he earned millions of impressions on popular sites such as worldstarhiphop.com, dopeboyz.com and XXL, among others.

If history has a way of repeating itself, the new booties better watch out. 40 might rap fast, but his wind is up to snuff. His energy is 18 dummy and his intellect is incalculable. He’s back, poised to re-master the game he started and won’t stop until he’s done.

“It feels good man,” he says of joining independent ranks once more. “A lot of these majors, they don’t do a lot of stuff in house like they used to. They hire indies to do everything – radio, marketing, everything. Now it’s too many major labels out there. And if they are a major they want you to sign a 360 deal. Being independent again is a beautiful thing to me because it’s more freedom.

“It ain’t like I’m not used to working harder. The problem a lot of people have is when they get with a major they think they can sit back and not do anything. You gotta go out there and act like you’re independent still. I’m already used to having an independent spirit so our campaign is strong. We on the case and it’s going to be a marathon, not a sprint!”