Yay! E-40 Speaks On San Francisco Giants' World Series Win
E-40 isn't jumping on the San Francisco Giants bandwagon now that they won the first Major League Baseball World Series in city history. In fact, 40 Water's been riding with the Giants for years now. He followed the team during the late '70s and early '80s when third baseman Darrell Evans and first baseman Jack Clark patrolled the diamond up through the 2000s, when Barry Bonds, his all-time favorite Giants player, broke Hank Aaron's home run record by hitting the most deep balls in MLB history.
It's safe to say that no Bay Area rapper is happier to see the Giants bring the city of San Francisco its first major sports championship since the NFL's 49ers in 1994. To help him celebrate, VIBE.com caught up with 40 to talk about what the victory means to his town.
I love the hell out of baseball. When I get a chance to watch TV, that's what I watch. I actually like the Giants and the [Oakland] A's because they're both Bay Area teams, but I've followed the Giants a little more closely.
This year was pretty special because, to be honest with you, I didn't know the Giants were as good as they turned out to be this season. I knew they had potential and I know they turned their whole organization over with a fresh new team a couple years ago. But this was—I'm not going to say it was a shocker—but it definitely had everybody out here like, 'Wow.' You know? They walked through the World Series like it was nothing.
The win gives a lot of hope to the city. As far as the rap scene, we've always been trendsetters out here so we like to be recognized. We like to feel like we matter out here. So anything that brings national attention to us like the Giants, we cheer for it. Anything from the Bay that gets national attention, we all got our thumbs up like, 'Okay!'
The Giants win gives us all a lot of faith. You can do anything if you just believe. They didn't have any super-duper superstars. They didn't have Alex Rodriguez. There are no players like that. But they're all humble and they make a great team. That's San Francisco for you. —As told to Chris Yuscavage
→E-40 just wrapped up the Independent Grind Tour alongside Tech N9ne, Glasses Malone, Jay Rock and Kutt Calhoun. He's currently putting the finishing touches on next two solo projects, Revenue Retrievin': Overtime Shift and Revenue Retrievin': Graveyard Shift, both set to be released in early 2011 as well as a forthcoming collaborative album, The History Channel, with Too $hort due out sometime next year.
