40 water is back at it once again with two new excellent albums full of vintage mob tales and entertaining production.
Its hard for rappers and musicians in general to stay relevant for as long as E-40 has been in the game. How many rappers from the late 80's are still spitting great lyrics with ridicolous flows like 40?
While I enjoyed the last two E-40 albums that he did on Lil Johns Label, they where probably my least favorite of his overall. Not to say the last two albums where bad, because they where still better then most the stuff out at the time, its just that E-40 has had some amazing albums over last 20 odd years and hasn't dropped what I would call a bad one.
Uncle 40 Water takes it back to the mobb shit on this album for old school fans like myself that have been listening since the late 80s or early 90's. The whole album is E-40 spitting nothing but game with tons of new slang for rappers to bite off of and its just amazing how he manages to still do stuff that no one has done before.
The Production is mostly handled by his son Droope and his partner in crime the underrated Rick Rock, and while 40's spits are the highlight of the album, the production is still very good and will have your car or house shaking from the bass and instense drums. At first I thought a few of the beats where a little basic but after letting both albums soak in for awhile I started to appreciate the beats alot more. Its more old school production mixed with a new aged mobb sound and it fits perfectly with E-40's unique flow and lyrics.
Day Shift has some amazing songs such as "Undastandz Me" which will have your head nodding non stop and have you rewinding lines or putting it on repeat numerous times. E-40 spits extremely hard gangsta/mobb lyrics on this song over a crazy slapping beat and an addicting hook. Not only one of the albums best songs but my personal favorite rap song this year.
The Art Of Storytellin is like a modern day tribute to Slick Rick, but with E-40 merking the mic on some real life mobb shit. The beat is another crazy beat that fits E-40's unorthadoxed flows. Its really a thing of beauty listening to this song as E-40 spits: "What you think we outta do?/We gotta out think them ni**as/See it takes a fool to catch a fool,Anybody got any pictures?/ Go to there myspace page bet you one of em rap/".
The Weedman is a track dedicated to those of us who get our weed from the canibus store and has a ridicolous beat that fits the lyrics very well. But its E-40s lyrics that make this song what it is, with tons of quotables such as: "I got that white widow, that sour diesel, the northern lights, that kush, that afghanie, that champagne, that purple haze I push, Indoor, outdoor either or it don't matter/Smoking weed is therapeutic/Inhaling Weed is a muscle relaxer/Its more right then wrong, it helped me write this song/You might get the munchies and eat a mothafuck out there house and home/Alot of us smoke da hooka, alot of us smoke the bong".
Everyday Is A Weekend features The Jacka and is classic bay shit from the start. E-40's starts it off with with a classic verse and then its another fantastic hook from The Jacka. Another one of my favorite songs on the album no doubt.
I Get Down is more mobb shit that features mobb vet B-Legit who rips the mic apart with his classic voice and flow and of course him and E-40 sound great together as always (Can we get another Click already with these two and Suga T?).
Dont get it twisted though its not just mobb/gangsta tracks on here, E-40 has been known to get really deep on some real life shit (Anyone remember Things'll Never Change? I wanna Thank You?), and he spits some great real life lyrics on Its Gotta Get Betta. Its songs like this that really show E-40s diversity on the mic, also Mike Marshall rocks a ridicolous hook that is classic Mike Meezy and will have you wanting to put on I Got 5 On It.
Night Shift isnt quite as consistent as Day Shift is, but its still a very good cd and worth your money aswell. Pick the best 15 songs on each album and then you have 30 extremely good songs, but for me I enjoy 99% of these albums.
Night Shift starts off with two slappers in "Over The Stove" which is the second song at the end of the "Bitch" video with Too $hort and the extremely hard "Nice Guy". One of my favorite tracks on NIGHT SHIFT is "Nice Guy", with its hard production and nothing but game being spit from 40 water on the mic. A video was just released for this track today, so hop online to check the music video out.
I was really feeling "Hes A Gangsta" Which has a super intense beat and has Messy Marv in on the song as well. As E-40 spits with passsion "Funk Master like Flex, Heavy metal weponry/Knock you out ya sucks, put ya out your misery/Homicide tryin to holla they wanna question me/ Cuz Im always into beef and smoke brocoli". This is that classic E-40 that we love right here, over a ill of a beat. Not to mention that The Boy Boy Young Mess spits a hot fucking verse as well that makes the song ever better.
Trained To Go with Laroo is another dope ass track that had me singing along to the hook and lighting up some sticky. The beat is Eiry as fuck and fits the lyrics extremely well, as E-40 murders the first verse he spits: "He trained to Go/Never judge a book by the cover, ya never know that sucker will stab you in the jugalure and your kidney or your bladder/Some of these n****s that you think is real is really fuckin not".
Stillettos and Jeans is one of the few tracks on here that is strictly for the ladies but its still a blapper no doubt. Bobby V is featured on the song and does a very pimpin job on the hook, I could see this song with a video in the future as well. Not my favorite song on the album but still a good track that is really how more radio friendly songs should be like. The other radio friendly song to me is Cant Stop The Boss which features Too $hort, Snoop Dogg and Jazze Pha dropping by to spit some of that playa shit. Its also got a summer time type of 90's vibe to it as well, why cant we get more radio songs like this?
Prepared is another hard ass mobb track with a beat that will have you wanting to whoop some ass. Its just amazing to me how E-40 rocks this track, as the beat gets going he just rides the beat to perfection with his own style and game.
Ahhh Shit is another highlight to me on Night Shift as E-40 rocks a ridicolous hook that will have you saying in an E-40 influenced voice "Shiiiiiat, ohh shiiiiiat". This track brings more of the mobb/street game from E-40, along with new slang and his unique flow.
How Im Feelin is another track that has a nice beat that will have your whole house shaking and neighbours calling the cops. Another of the better beats on the album is Spend The Night, that samples BJORK and is done to perfection. Laroo, Droope, The DBz and B-Slimm all join The Ambassador of the bay for this one.
Overall both albums are very very well put together, but like any E-40 album it takes some time to digest and soak in. But give the albums some time and smoke a bunch of your favorite green and you will be putting this cd on for hours on end over and over again. If you can only get one of the two albums then I suggest getting Day Shift, but I definatly have to advice people to buy both of them! There really are amazing tracks on both of these albums and I know for me that my top 10 favorite songs are spread out between both albums, I just think that Day Shift is a little more consistent, overall both slap though all the way!
E-40 has really outdone himself on this album right here, he shines on every single track. The production, while not the best every for E-40, still fits his style and lyrics perfectly. E-40 is one of the few rappers to still stay relevant after 20 years and hes spitting as good as ever on this cd. Its just amazing that after so man years he can still rip a part a mic like this and drop another mobb classic.
The albums are not perfect, but to me its a great addition to my E-40 collection and my favorite E-40 album in years (definatly his best cd since Grit And Grind). Not only the best album so far this year but up there with In A Major Way, Hall Of Game and Element of Surprise as my favorite E-40 albums. In all honesty, there are 38 songs on this album and Id say there is only one average song and the rest are slaptastic.
SCORES =
DAY SHIFT: 9.5/10
NIGHT SHIFT : 9/10
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