Charlie Hustle: The Blueprint of a Self-Made Millionaire

By 1999 E-40 had achieved legend status, and he was so locked in to his signature sound that it was impossible for him to make a song that missed the mark. Perhaps because rap fans began to take his untamed creativity for granted, *Charlie Hustle* was overlooked upon its release and it remains one of 40’s most underrated efforts. The album shows 40’s taste for fundamental West Coast bass becoming more pronounced as his vocabulary skills become more spectacular. Those two sides of his personality complement each other perfectly. The results are “Ballaholic,” “Earl That’s Yo’ Life,” and “Borrow Yo’ Broad,” which attack as hard as any West Coast gangsta rap songs, but also feature detours like this (from “Ballaholic”): “You play the frog, if you feel froggish n\*\*\*a leap / I neglect my dogs, starving sometimes they don\'t eat / Elroy speak to me about my triple-beam, officer I got proof / Po\'-po\', that\'s for weighing nuts and fruits.” More so than ever before, 40 opens the seams on the English language and gives every track here its own invented word, including “weeples,” “cooning,” “plinayed,” “perking,” and “gangsterous.”

With the 1999 release of his fifth solo effort, E-40 commemorated ten years in the rap music business.