The Mail Man

the take

As an outsider looking in, I've always been intrigued at how E-40's music just captivates me with ease. I've been introduced to E-40 many moons ago, but there used to be a local TV channel that showed music videos all day and "Captain Save a Hoe" was one video that was on damn near every day, as well as "Practice Lookin' Hard". These two songs alone made me want to check out "The Mail Man", though I've never really gave this EP a fair chance until now. From the jump, it's evident that E-40 did an amazing job of painting a picture of how his come up in Vallejo, California, was like by just rapping from his perspective. Sometimes it's about him hustling just to survive; other times, it's being socially conscious all the while being in the environment he came up in. Either way, his unique wordplay/vocabulary and flows definitely set himself apart from every rapper back then and even to this day. "The Mail Man" has that early-90's Bay Area bounce and knock to it, so it's easy to become hypnotized to the music that's on here. While the two songs that introduced me to this EP are still among my top two favorites, "The Mail Man" is a pretty accessible EP to help the listener get into E-40's music.