Born Earl James Stevens, E-40 grew up in Vallejo, CA, where baseball was the main sport played around the neighborhood. He was a decent hooper, too, but eventually got cut from the high school basketball team along with childhood friend Tony Longmire, who went on to play outfield for the Philadelphia Phillies. 40, of course, became synonymous with Bay Area rap, with his third solo album In a Major Way putting him on the map and a never-ending list of mainstream hits coming thereafter.
It took years to earn his courtside seat, but once 40 began rubbing shoulders with the Warrior fan elite in recent seasons (“You gotta be around money to get money,” he explains), he soon became the face—and the voice—of Golden State’s fanbase.
“One thing about me: I love the Bay Area. I love California. I got love for the Kings, too,” he admits. “When Mike Bibby and Peja Stojakovic and all ’em played for the Kings I would go to Kings games, too. I got love for the Kings too, because I’m Northern California, bruh. But I’m a Warrior fan to the heart. I been liking the team since I was a kid, since I was a youngster.
“I go back to Rick Barry and the boy Robert Parish,” says 40, harkening back to an era when the Warriors front office had a tendency to squander its homegrown talent. “Robert Parish, when he left the Warriors, he became a motherfuckin’ Hall of Famer, dude. They was getting rid of people and it was pissing a lot of people off. But now we have a great organization—the powers that be are doing a great job. I salute them and I take my hat off to them.”
Read more at http://www.slamonline.com/the-magazine/features/e-40-warriors-interview/#jWbfv2MWyJaBZodH.99
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