Hail to the King

Bay Area hyphy pioneer E-40 hits Scottsdale

Comments (0) Thursday, Feb 26 2009

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Hyphy sure has faded quite a bit in popularity over the past couple years. The rambunctious and uptempo Bay Area hip-hop subgenre, which helped introduce "ghost riddin' the whip" into the national consciousness, blew up massively in 2006 thanks in part to E-40 and his Lil' John-produced hit single "Tell Me When to Go." Both the track and the album from whence it sprang, My Ghetto Report Card, rocketed up the Billboard charts and gave E-40 his biggest level of success since he entered the rap game in the early '90s. As for the rotund rap star's follow-up, last year's The Ball Street Journal? Eh, not so much. Since dropping in November, Ball Street has only sold around 125,000 copies and illustrates how hyphy's star has been falling. Still, we’re expecting that the scene at the Venue of Scottsdale on Saturday is gonna off the hook when E-40 takes over the joint. We're expecting plenty of slick rhymes from the "King of Slang," as well as the myriad local hip-hop artists that are also on the bill, including Rocadolla, Young Phee, and Hannibal Leq.
Sat., Feb. 28, 8 p.m., 2009