The 1980s saw the rise to fame of rapper E-40 thanks to his body of work. Earl Stevens, as he is officially named, has remade himself as an entrepreneur while no longer being active in the entertainment world as he was in the 1980s.
He has created a commercial empire that includes the restaurant and the alcoholic beverage brands “Earl Stevens Selections” and “Goon With The Spoon.” Prior to that, he served as a brand ambassador for Landy Cognac to support their American visibility campaign.
He launched Earl Stevens Selections, a wine company he named after himself, in 2013. The brand’s launch would subsequently serve as the impetus for his aim of creating an empire in the spirits industry, acquiring complete ownership of all brands and actively participating in every stage of production, from tasting to billing.
Following a successful marketing campaign, the wine brand became viral, and E-40 knew it was time to start talking to distributors. Later, he created more wines including Mangoscato and Moscato, and he succeeded in getting his bottles distributed to more retailers across the US, 21 pallets at a time.
“It felt great to see that first truckload go out,” he told Forbes when he secured a distribution deal. “I was like, I’m on my way. I’m on my way.”
In addition, he expanded his selection of tequila, cocktail mixes, and wines in order to benefit from the expansion of his brand. Forbes claims that his music frequently foretells the names he gives to each bottle. For instance, he based the name of his 1995 song “Hurricane” with The Click on the Sluricane Hurricane cocktail.
Also, his songs inspire the labels on his bottles, such as Tycoon Cognacs. “The name tycoon is a name that I actually coined in the hip-hop community,” he said. “Of course, it has always been in the dictionary, but nobody was screaming tycoon until I was screaming tycoon on numerous records.”
He runs a restaurant named California Lumpia Restaurant in addition to his spirits companies and has aspirations to expand. He discussed his achievements in music and business in an interview with KTVU.
“We did what we had to do to survive,” E-40 said, “I had paper routes when I was young. Vallejo VIP. Times Herald.”
E-40 began his musical career as an underground rap artist in the Bay Area’s ghettos and rose to fame. He was raised by his parents in Vallejo, California, until their divorce.
“When my momma and daddy split, my daddy moved to one part of Vallejo, and we moved to the Hillside of Vallejo,” E-40 said. “When they separated, things got hard for us; she had to get two jobs.”
He established his own record label, “Sick Wid It Records,” after relocating to the Bay Area. In 1993, Jive Records helped him to release “Federal,” his debut solo album. He has released more albums after then.