E-40 Defends His Reluctance To Leak Singles

Exclusive: Live from his "Plush" video shoot, E-40 details why he went retro with his trademark slang for the lead single from his new "Block Brochure" serires of albums.

By his own admission, E-40 prefers to keep his new material under wraps as he leads up to an album release. While other artists opt for blogs, vlogs, behind the scenes clips and mixtapes, Earl Stevens has a penchant for what he calls “going left when everybody else is going right,” as evidenced by his habit for releasing his material in two- and three-album sets. It’s a strategy that has paid dividends, as E-40 saw his Block Brochure: Welcome To The Soil trilogy went on to sell over 72,000 copies during its first week of release, good for a SoundScan Top 200 debut.

“We’ve got a few weeks until the album dropped, and I just wanted it to be a little surprise,” E-40 said during an exclusive interview with HipHopDX on the set of his “Plush” video. “Once somebody hears just a little bit of something, then they’ll go, ‘Aw, I already heard that,’ because everybody’s attention span is hella short nowadays."

Fellow Bay area emcees Laroo, Roach Gigz and Cousin Fik were among those on hand as 40 crafted the visual for his lead single at Film City in Canoga Park, California.

As for the single’s title, E-40 explained that he’s revisiting a phrase from a few decades ago.

“‘Plush’ is just bringing it back to when I was a youngster—like ‘83, ‘84, ’85—up in that era,” E-40 said. “A dude slide through on some Vogues or with some candy paint and tremendous slap in the trunk, we’d say, ‘That boy over there plush!’ It’s just doing it big.”

The latest installment of E-40’s Block Brochure: Welcome To The Soil 4, 5 & 6 is scheduled for release December 10 via his Heavy On The Grind Ent. Imprint.