On Saturday, December 19, the Verzuz battle series—which you can watch right here on Apple Music—hosts a celebration of the Bay Area’s most influential MCs. Putting it down since the ’80s, E-40 and Too $hort have had careers that completely dispel the notion that rap is a young person’s sport. The key to the longevity of each has been originality. We could say that nobody talks like E-40, but the truth is that a lot of people do—the man known as Charlie Hustle has come up with so much unique verbiage over the course of his career that he had to make his own dictionary. Too $hort, on the other hand, renowned for some of the raunchiest sex talk ever laid to record, loves to use some of the same words over and over. (What’s that line about his favorite word in “Blow the Whistle”?) And that’s just late-stage Short Dawg. We’re talking about the author of true player classics like “Freaky Tales,” “Gettin’ It,” and “The Ghetto,” along with a host of trendsetting collaborations like “The World Is Filled...” (with The Notorious B.I.G.), “F*** Faces” (with Scarface, Devin the Dude, Tela), and “Bitch” (with Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz). Which isn’t to say 40 Water doesn’t have wild cards in his bag. Listen to “Tell Me When to Go” (with Keak da Sneak), “U and Dat” (with T-Pain and Kandi Girl), or even “Snap Yo Fingers” (with Lil Jon, Sean Paul, YoungBloodZ) if you wanna hear songs that tore the club down in their respective moments. It’s not an exaggeration to call E-40 and Too $hort living legends, nor is it outlandish to acknowledge their stature as pillars of the Bay Area’s hip-hop industry. Get reacquainted with the decades of game they’ve delivered by way of the official E-40 x Too $hort Cheat Sheet playlist, curated by Apple Music host Lowkey.
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