Born Earl Stevens in the San Francisco suburb of Vallejo, musician E-40 virtually invented the subgenres of West Coast and Dirty South rap. In the beginning, he attained his broadest reputation and fan base as a regional performer, via his single-handed establishment of the Sick Wid' It label; his recording efforts, both as a solo performer and with his group the Click, also hit big. But it was Stevens' self-promotional force that struck everyone as truly remarkable. In fact, his tirelessness yielded no less than three efforts in 1994 -- a hit single, the EP {^The Mail Man}, and two albums: the E-40 solo outing {^Federal} and the Click's {^Down and Dirty}. Stevens' success solicited the attention of the infamous Jive Records, who distributed Sick Wid' It's whole backlog of material and two new albums, E-40's {^In a Major Way} and the Click's {^Game Related}. Many additional albums followed, though E-40 didn't begin to transcend regional acclaim until 2006, with his Warner Bros. album {^My Ghetto Report Card}. The "hyphy" in E-40's home-video release, E-40 and the Hype on Hyphy is a derivative of "hyperactive," which refers to a West Coast rap movement recently promulgated by the rapper -- a crazy, wild, slightly anarchic, and party-happy mindset -- a state of being. This program, a documentary originally seen on BET, carries viewers inside of the "hyphy" movement, as it is celebrated by E-40, the Federation, and many other San Francisco-based rap artists and will be promulgated by much of their forthcoming music. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi