My Ghetto Report Card (studio album) by E-40

If I recall correctly (I 'm pretty sure I do) E-40 - My Ghetto Report Card happened to be the first of his albums that I listened to, so this is the sound I've associated him with the most. Simple yet super catchy ("I don't bump mainstream, I knock underground All that other shit, sugarcoated and watered down I'm from the Bay where we hyphy and go dumb From the soil where them rappers be getting their lingo from"), its feverish energy makes for a great party/club soundtrack, it puts you in the mood before you even notice . E-40 proves that he still has it, few rappers can match his presence behind the mic, instantly recognizable style, impossible to confuse him for someone else. The lyrics are defintely not the focus of the album, there are some cool/funny lines ("40 an ounce of space, ain't even had time to wash my face I been in the traffic tryin to get it, I ain't got time to fuckin waste My money's short like I'm slippin, I'm tryin to smack it up and flip it I'm tryin to turn this thousand dollars into a quarter of a mill' ticket Some of you suckers be lyin to kick it, but that ain't the fuckin way Niggaz be sellin mo' wolf tickets than fake autographs on eBay"), no particularly profound themes are being explored (mainly women and partying) and they can be embarassingly bad at times (simply check out Gimme Head) just don't take them seriously or ignore them and you' ll be fine. Now, unlike the two 2000 albums, for both of which there's a case to be made for being longer than they should but I didn't mind at all, in this case it totally felt like the album didn't justify its length, towards the end it started getting somewhat repetitive and made me lose interest, were it 10-15 minutes shorter and I can imagine rating this much higher. Tell Me When To Go was in my opinion the clear highlight of the album, almost a no-contest to be honest.
To sum it up, slightly flawed yet highly enjoyable.