Happy 50th Birthday, E-40: The King Of Slang

Rapping is a young man's game, which makes E-40's accomplishments all the more significant. Today is his 50th birthday; he is an ageless wonder, the rap game Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who has been schooling youngbloods for the better part of three decades. Indeed, it is not a stretch to say that your favorite rapper was probably conceived to the dulcet tones of E-40's deep-bellied locution. ("Oooo!")

Despite E-40's vast body of work, his most important contributions to American culture have arguably been his wondrous slang inventions. It takes but a quick look at his aliases — Forty Fonzarelli, Fonzariggerdale, Charlie Hustle, E-Feezy, E-Feezable Belefonte Balogiono Bellwether — to realize that the man is a linguistic Willy Wonka: experimental, daring, crazy like a fox. E-40 is nothing short of a god of slanguistics, with his effortless steez required to invent, and the clout to popularize, his weird words.

"Some people out there think I'm overrated, because they don't understand me. Because my game is over their head like a shower nozzle," he told Power 106. "Every rapper, guaranteed, has said something that I have coined... I done have my ups and downs in this industry, but I will never gripe, I hold on like a hub cap in the fast lane."

Though E-40 never released his "E-40's Dictionary Book of Slang," his wordplay lives on in part through in his esteemed line of alcoholic beverages: Mangoscato, a fortified wine and redux of Moscato that a wine critic described to Complex as "syrupy sweet, not unlike canned peaches, and has a burning alcohol sensation on the finish resembling NyQuil," and Sluricane, a 18% typhoon of flavor (“Hurricane, but you can call me sluricane. Sluricane, strong enough to start an engine, mane") guaranteed to induce a hangover, in the best way.

Celebrate E-40's 50th birthday with our brief overview of E-40's rubberized view on language. Below is a non-comprehensive list of words he has coined and/or popularized.

Variants: spinach, okra, lettuce

In 2016, Kodak Black accused D.R.A.M. and Lil Yachty of being “square” and stealing the term “broccoli” from his song “No Flockin.” E-40 was forced to step in and remind the youngin’ that he referred to marijuana as broccoli as early as 1993 — four years before Kodak was born.

“I don't need no doctor, I don't need no shrink
All I need is broccoli and a 40-oh to drink”

- “Broccoli,” 1998

Captain Save a Hoe is a guy who goes out of his ways to buy designer clothes and other expensive goods for a certain class of women, oblivious to the fact that they are using him for his supply of cash. E-40, who promises to “fuck a ho and hit the throttle,” is diametrically opposed to CSAH in every way.

“Look up in the sky it's a bird it's a plane
What's that nigga's name?
Captain save a ho, mane!”

- “Captain Save a Hoe,” 1993

Though Fonzarelli began referring to the Bay as the “Yay” as early as the mid-’90s, he formally introduced Yay Area to the Bay’s slang lexicon on "Yay Area," from his 2006 opus My Ghetto Report Card.

“Fat ass royalty checks, fat ass cribs
Smokin' blunts and drinkin' brew on the balcony, barbecuin' ribs
The more scrilla, the merrier
I represent the Yay Area”

-”Rapper’s Ball” feat. Too Short and K-Ci & Jo Jo, 1996

Variants: fo’ shiggedy,’ fo’ shiggadough, fo’ shiggadale

For sure → for shizzle → FOSHEEZY. “I told Jay-Z after he used it on his record, I said, ‘That’s a Bay Area word, man,’” E-40 told Vice in 2002. “That’s from the land where they pop they collars and jack they slacks.”

“We off the heezy fa sheezy baby
Off the heezy I thought you theezy
Niggas ain't havin' no cheesy”

-”Rapper’s Ball” feat. Too Short and K-Ci & Jo Jo, 1996

Police go by many names, none more flavorful than PO PO.

"Tryin' to put a stop on my revenues
The po po I dislike em (hate em) 
Crooked ass cops will make you vital
But you know that I know the po po"

-"Outsmart the Po Po," 1992

To get to dusted is to get smoked, to become deceased. With his 1995 song "Dusted 'n' Disgusted," E-40 played with that term in a way that didn't make 100% sense and required the listener to play along to a certain extent. This is wordplay for wordplay's sake.

“Back to fucking work, one of the homies just got dusted
Whacha'll wanna do, I never trusted them bustas”

“Dusted ‘n’ Disgusted,” 1995

Flamboyant was a common Bay slang term in the early ‘90s; E-40 simply elevated it, making a portmanteau out of flamboyant and boasting. FLAMBOASTIN’.

“Through your neighborhood on Zenith spokes ‘n’ flamboastin”

-“Flamboastin,” 2000

E-40 helped popularize the now-ubiquitous “You feel me” in the early ‘90s. Then, when the rest of the country was becoming hip to “you feel me,” he had already evolved the phrase to “you smell me.” Light years ahead.

“Can you feel me mane?”

-“Ballin Out Of Control,” 1998

Variants: cheese, gouda

In the old country, they measured a man's wealth in sheep. In the new country, they measure a man's wealth in Jarlsberg.

"I bet you she into me, her cheddar, she giving me,
I'll make a bitch stand outside forever, like the Statue of Liberty"

-"I Don't Fuck With You," 2015

Fetty Wap and “Fetti,” the song by Da$h, Maxo Kream, and Playboi Carti, are the most recent iterations of fetti in pop culture. But like The Simpsons, E-40 did it first.

“I got the gift of gab, I’m off the choo choo track
I want the fetti, fuck the fame, y'all can have that”

-“Earl That’s Yo Life,” 1999