E-40 Talks About His Favorite Warriors Moments
Earl Stevens uses his full name on the wine label he produces these days, but in just about every other context, the Bay Area's resident hip-hop legend is known simply as E-40. And over a three-decades-and-counting career in music, business, and the voluminous production of slang—seriously, if your favorite rapper said it, there's a decent chance E-40 said it first—the 51-year-old Vallejo native has become a fixture on the sidelines of Northern California's favorite teams, and especially those of his Golden State Warriors. He is, as frequent courtside pal Guy Fieri recently told me, "the king of Bay Area sports."
This as exactly true today, after a run of three titles in four seasons, as it was for the many, many lean years that preceded it, when the franchise was best known for that one time its star player physically assaulted the head coach during practice. "When I had my house in '96, I had a Warriors basketball court built," E-40 says. "You feel me? The colors and everything. A full-size court." He counts among his proudest moments a community barbecue he sponsored at Dan Foley Park in Vallejo, which he capped off with a performance from Thunder, the Warriors' acrobatic, blue-skinned, foam-muscled mascot who was arguably the team's most famous representative. "He set up the court for the kids, and all the tricks he be doing and everything," E-40 remembers. "I had Thunder, man. I had Thunder come out."
With the best stretch of the NBA playoffs calendar upon us, I called up E-40 to talk playing dominoes with Draymond Green, hear about the best Steph Curry courtside punchlines, and reminisce about some of his all-time-favorite Warriors greats. Such as they were.
GQ: What are your earliest memories of Warriors fandom?
E-40: Mine is mostly watching older, older people, you know—the way-back-in-the-day guys. The Chris Mullins, the Rick Barrys. That's how I grew up. Rick Barry always amazed me—he was one of the best free-throw shooters of all time, and he used to throw it underhand. When he shot the ball, he was shooting underhand! He had the most unique shot in the world.
Back then you could have a couple of teams. I might like the Sacramento Kings. One of my favorite players is Dirk Nowitzki. And who's my other guy, the sixth man, he used to play for Dallas? Oh, my God—
Jason Terry?
Yup! Jason Terry. That's my folks right there. I used to watch them sometimes, too.
But like I say, as a kid, it was the Rick Barrys of the world. I seen when [Latrell] Sprewell went off on folks. Run-TMC. [Ed. note: the high-scoring Warriors teams led by Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, and Chris Mullin in the early 1990s] All of them.
Back then it used to kind of bother me—and not just me, but other people from the Bay Area—because the powers that be would always trade our good players. Our best players, man. They would just always get rid of them. [Ed. note: Among the players the Warriors traded away are Chris Webber, Gilbert Arenas, and Vince Carter.]
We was doing bad. Bad, bad, bad, bad. Especially when I was a kid—it was a lot of that. So what I love now is that for the last eight or nine years or so, they've been doing a great job. The owners are an A-plus this time around.
How often do you get games now? How long have you been sitting in those courtside seats?
I've probably been courtside for about five, six years now. When I was younger, I was at the games, but it was regular seats. And then one day—let me tell you when I got my teeth cut in the game, when I first started being Front-Row Forty. It was 2014, and I was at the Giants-Royals World Series, games six and seven. I was behind home plate with [Kansas City's own] Tech N9ne and [Strange Music CEO] Travis [O'Guin]. I'm a baseball fanatic, too—l like baseball. I just love sports. And the feedback I got being behind home plate was like, "Damn, I see you, I see you!" Everybody texting me, "I see you on TV, fam!"
I was like, "Shit. I like this." So I bought tickets at one of the Warriors games. You got AA [the VIP-reserved courtside seats at Oracle Arena], and then BB. I bought two BB seats for me and my wife—that's $6,000, $3,000 apiece. And then I was like, "Okay. I need to get AA." [laughs]
How did you meet Guy Fieri?
I believe our first time meeting was at the All-Star Game, maybe 2013 or 2014. We're both from the 707—he's from the Santa Rosa area, and I'm from Vallejo, from the V. We stayed in contact through his folks, and then me and him locked in each other's numbers. We did the Triple-D, we hit a couple of games. [Ed. note: E-40 appeared on an episode of Diners, Drive-ins and Dives last year] Shit, that's my folks right there. He all good.
I was a chef back in the day, too—at The Commandant's Residence, a now-closed restaurant in Benicia. I started off learning, working in the kitchen and the pantry when I was a teenager, and then they moved me up to being a cook. I used to make escargot. London broil. Chicken cordon bleu. Prime rib. French dip. Pan-fried orange roughy with butter and lemons and almonds. I used to make soups. I used to make all kinds of stuff, man. I made it all. I just knew what I was doing.
Besides you and Guy, who else is in the Warriors' courtside clique?
[Salesforce CEO] Marc Benioff. He's a billionaire. A few billionaires, actually. The entertainers—you can find Mistah F.A.B. behind the scorer's desk. You can see [MC] Hammer on the floor. And I be on the floor, of course.
Your Warriors-themed "Choices" remix. How does that happen?
Yeah, the song was out—the original "Choices" was done already. But my son [Bay Area rapper] Droop-E helped me map it out and make sure it was precise. To make sure we're saying everything right, all the way through.
What's the best game you've seen in person?
[long pause] When Klay hit the 37 points in one quarter. [laughs] Yup. He sure did. Went off.
What about the other side? What's the hardest or the most heartbreaking game you've seen in person?
When we lost against them damn Cleveland Cavaliers—when they came back and got us. I was sitting courtside for it. I was like, "Aw, shit. We really let this shit go. That boy LeBron really came all the way back and got us."
Who do you have relationships with on the team?
Draymond. Boogie [Cousins]. Steph. Them the main ones. [Shaun] Livingston is cool. All of them cool, though. I talked to Draymond more than anybody. We're domino heads. We play dominoes, we sit back, we eat, we drink, we kick it. He might come to my place, or I go to his house. It's all love. That's my partner. [laughs]
What's been your most memorable interaction with a player during a game?
I don't want to distract them—we're sitting right by them, and Oracle Arena security don't want you to really be talking to them unless they talk to you. So I mostly kick back, you know.
But we do chop it up. One time, Steph had just came off from hitting a three-pointer or some shit. He got hot real quick. He was going off. And when he sat down, he gave me a no-fingerprints backwards handshake and said, "That's what I call flamboastin'." [laughs] Those were his exact words to me. He hit me with that, bruh. Now that's what you call flamboastin'.
What does losing the Warriors after this season mean to Oakland? What do you think about the move to San Francisco?
Of course, everybody's going to be sad. It's just like when the Raiders moved to go to Vegas—and I'm not even a Raiders fan, but I know how all the fans feel. Wherever you stay at in the Bay, you know, you can get [to the Oakland Coliseum] in an hour. Vallejo, 30 minutes. Frisco, 30 minutes—everything's 30 minutes apart from Oakland, you know? It's the same with Warriors games. It's a longer drive for most of us. For some of them, it's not. But it's just a new fresh start. It is what it is.
Give me some sentimental favorites from the past. Who do you miss?
Baron Davis. Let me think—there's lots of them. Chris Webber. Chris Mullin. And who's my other guy? He played with BD—oh, my God, it's on the tip of my tongue—
J-Rich? Stephen Jackson?
Stephen Jackson! That's my guy. Stephen motherfuckin' Jackson.
Every time he shot a pull-up three, I swore it was going in.
Man, I remember—it cracked me up when them dudes made the playoffs [in 2008, upsetting the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks in the first round, 4-2]. They was in there playing streetball.
When Baron Davis dunked on Andrei Kirilenko, I lost my mind for like half an hour.
Aw, that was the sickest dunk ever, right? [laughs]
Do we beat the Rockets?
Yep. I think we gonna breeze through the Rockets.
How do you think the off-season plays out? Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant are unrestricted free agents, and there are a lot of rumors about what Durant might do next. What pitch do you make to those guys to keep it in the Bay?
Man. I hope they stay, man. I don't know. I would love for all of them to stay.
You think we can convince Boogie to stay for one more season, though?
Yeah. Boogie's gonna be straight. I think he's gonna stay. Mmmmm-hm.
