Songoftheday 8/27/20 - Was i really such a bad child that i deserved to get hit with boards And whooped with extension cords?

 

 

"Things'll Never Change"/"Rappers Ball" - E-40 featuring Bo-Rock/Too Short & K-Ci

from the album Tha Hall Of Game (1996)

Billboard Hot 100 peak: #29 (two weeks)

Weeks in the Top-40: 4

 

Today's song(s) of the day come from rapper Earl Stevens, who records and performs under the nickname E-40. Coming from the Bay Area, he got his start as part of the group The Click with siblings D-Shot and Suga-T along with cousin B-Legit. After releasing an EP in 1990 with them and a solo EP year later that gave them some buzz, their label Sick Wit It was taken on by Jive Records for distribution, where they put out their first full-length album, Down And Dirty, two years later, which hit the R&B Albums Sales chart in Billboard magazine at #87. In 1993, E-40 released both an EP of material in The Mail Man and a full-length solo debut in Federal. The former contained a collaboration with the Click, "Captain Save A Hoe", which scored their first minor pop hit at #94, and first R&B placing at #63, while the Mail Man got his first top-40 R&B album at #13 and his first to make the Billboard 200 main sales chart at #131. 

E-40 returned in the spring of 1995 with his second effort, In A Major Way, which turned out to be his "breakthrough" album. Selling over a million copies, the set went to #2 on the R&B Albums list and #13 on the Billboard 200, while second single "Sprinkle Me" featuring Suga-T, featured a more assured (and quicker) flow that landed their first R&B top-40 hit at #24, while almost making the pop Hot 100 Top-40 at #44. Later that year, the Click released a second album, Game Related, which scored a top-40 R&B hit with cocktail ode "Hurricane" that went to #63 on the Hot 100. The set was the group's biggest, hitting the runner-up spot on the R&B Albums chart and #21 on the Billboard 200. 

In the fall of 1996, E-40 came back with his third album Tha Hall Of Game. Along with his fellow Click members, the guest list on the album featured a who's who of (mostly northern) Californian rappers, including Too Short, 2Pac, Luniz, and more. The lead single was intended to be "Rapper's Ball", a party anthem featuring Too Short and singer K-Ci from the group Jodeci. Written by the trio with producer Ant Banks, the song had enough cojones to call out big fish Notorious B.I.G. (with 2Pac looking on in the video ominously)...

But it turned out to be the more serious "B-side" of the single that started to grab more radio attention. "Things'll Never Change", which featured funk artist Bo-Roc, interpolated the soft-rock #1 hit from Bruce Hornsby and the Range from 1986, "The Way It Is", to paint a bleak and pessimistic picture of life for the homeless population...

 

The combined single of "Things'll Never Change" and "Rapper's Ball" (with the former mostly listed first as getting the bulk of the airplay) became E-40's first top-40 pop hit in March of 1997. And with the latter listed, it gave Too Short his first top-40 hit as well, after coming only two notches away on his own in 1990 with "The Ghetto". The songs also climbed to #19 on Billboard's R&B chart, and #4 on their Rap Singles list. The Hall Of Game album gave E-40 his first top ten album on the Billboard 200 at #4, while stopping just under the top at #2 on the R&B Albums list.

 

Up tomorrow: Southern rapper gets low.