Before Los Angeles and New York became his stage, Tupac’s career began on the north side of the San Francisco Bay. In 1988 he moved to Marin City with his family. That is where it all started, with Leila Steinberg, Digital Underground and a local scene that also included Earl Stevens, better known as E-40. According to Ambrosia for Heads, the two got to know each other after Tupac moved to the Bay.
An institution from Vallejo
Earl Stevens was born on November 15, 1967, in Vallejo, California. In 1989 he founded his own label, Sick Wid It Records, and formed the group The Click with members of his family. His slang went on to shape generations of rappers over the following decades. E-40 often appears only in lists of artists Tupac worked with, but the connection runs deeper.
From the Bay Area to Death Row
Their first official collaboration came out on March 14, 1995, on E-40’s album In a Major Way. Dusted ‘n’ Disgusted features Spice 1, Mac Mall and the singer Levitti; the track is about loyalty to your own crew, no matter what has happened. Tupac’s Me Against the World hit stores the same week, while he was already in prison. Both albums went platinum.
A year later Tupac returned the favor. For Ain’t Hard 2 Find on All Eyez on Me (1996) he gathered E-40, B-Legit and D-Shot of The Click, C-Bo from Sacramento and Richie Rich from Oakland. It was a deliberate salute to the Bay Area in the middle of a Death Row production. Mike Mosley co-produced both of their joint tracks. At the end of October 1996, a few weeks after Tupac’s death, another feature followed: Million Dollar Spot, with B-Legit, on E-40’s album Tha Hall of Game.
Memories of 1996
In early 2017 E-40 told the talk show The Real about spending time with Tupac in 1996 on the set of the video for his song Rapper’s Ball. On Tupac’s way of working he said: “Tupac would go into the studio and make like six or seven songs in one day. That’s how he operated.”