One of E-40's best albums -- and along with Tha Hall of Game (1996), perhaps his best overall -- In a Major Way features the Bay Area rapper early in his career, when he was at his most inspired and focused. His previous solo releases (Federal, 1993;The Mail Man, 1993), as well as his work withthe Click(Down and Dirty, 1994), had been formative and low-budget, released independently by his Sick Wid' It label in association with a regional distributor. Sure, some of that prior work was great, particularlyThe Mail Manand its breakout hit, "Captain Save a Hoe," but none of it compares to In a Major Way in terms of scale and consistency. Over the course of 16 tracks,