This Black Music Month, Tiny Desk honors the anniversaries of landmark albums that have shaped the course of music and culture.

Bay Area ambassador E-40 moves with the energy of an up-and-coming emcee, but he’s been around a minute. To put it 40 Water’s way: “I’ve been doing this since Kermit the Frog was a pollywog!” Our biggest hurdle to clear was packing in three decades of music at the Tiny Desk, but 40 Fonzarelli and his band clocked weeks of rehearsal to make sure this office was rockin’.

E-40’s sophomore solo album In a Major Way dropped in 1995, one of the most competitive years in hip-hop history, with certified classics dropping weekly by the likes of 2Pac, Mobb Deep, Goodie Mob, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Raekwon and GZA. Straightforward and plain has never been E-40’s nature, and that left-of-center spit has been the thing that has sustained his illustrious entertainment career.

At the Desk, Charlie Hustle sets things off with “Da Bumble” from In a Major Way and continues to bounce through a catalog of big hits sprinkled with nods to his day ones. Producer Lil Jon brought him back to the mainstream in the early 2000s with “Tell Me When to Go,” “U and Dat” and “Snap Yo Fingers,” while TikTok injected new life in “Choices (Yup)” and introduced him to Gen Z. “I’m on my fourth wind!” 40 tells us. No lies told.

SET LIST

• “Da Bumble”
• “Yay Area” 
• “Sprinkle Me”
• “Captain Save a Hoe”
• “Snap Yo Fingers”
• “U and Dat” 
• “Choices (Yup)”
• “Hope I Don’t Go Back”
• “1-Luv” 
• “Function”
• “Tell Me When to Go”

MUSICIANS

• E-40: vocals
• Kev Choice: music director, keys
• Bosko Kante: music director, background vocals
• Martin Luther: guitar, background vocals
• Howard Wiley: saxophone, EWI
• Marcus Phillips: bass, keys
• Dame Drummer: drums, background vocals
• Silk-E The People’s Champ aka Sherri Stack-A-Grip: background vocals
• DJ KMP: DJ, background vocals

TINY DESK TEAM

• Producer: Bobby Carter
• Director/Editor:  Joshua Bryant
• Audio Technical Director: Josh Newell
• Videographers: Joshua Bryant, Maia Stern, Kara Frame, Mitra I. Arthur
• Audio Engineer: Andie Huether
• Production Assistants: Dora Levite, Ashley Pointer
• Photographer: Zayrha Rodriguez
• Tiny Desk Series Editor: Lars Gotrich
• Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
• Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson
• VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins