The hyphy rap of the Bay Area, with its penchant for slang and West Coast claim to T Pac, owes much of its national appeal to rapper E-40. The Vallejo native was among the first round of Bay Area rappers to ink a record deal with a major label, along with Spice I, Too Short and Ant Banks. But prior to his Jive release in 1995, E-40 exercised his entrepreneurial spirit with his own label Sick Wid' It, which released Let's Side, a four-track EP from the Click, composed of E-40, his brother D-Shot, his sister Suga T and his cousin B-Legit in 1990. Although the rapper only achieved regional success throughout the ‘90s, their influence in the Bay Area spread to the South when Master P (who started his label No Limit Records on the West Cost) relocated to New Orleans and championed E-40 there.

The new millennium brought a new record contract for E-40, this time with the Atlanta-based label of rapper/producer Lil Jon, Warner Brothers imprint BME Recordings. When 2006's My Ghetto Report Card dropped it was E-40's most successful to date and it proved that the hyphy rap style was branching out from the Bay, also thanks to E-40's son producer Droop-E. Born Earl Stevens, the rapper christened E-40 returned to the Top 40 after a stint in the mid-90s with 1995's In a Major Way and 1996's Tha Hall of Game, with his first hits in nearly a decade, "U and Dat" featuring T-Pain and "Tell Me When to Go" featuring Keak da Sneak. After years remaining in the shadow of more mainstream rappers, E-40 has proclaimed himself at be at the forefront of the Bay Area rap influence that has slowly but surely influenced the rest of the rap scene.