E-40's Son, Issue, Makes an Album About Tea

'Liquid Wisdom' celebrates the world's second most popular beverage

Nineteen-year-old Emari Stevens grew up in a musical family; his father is multi-platinum selling rapper E-40 and his brother Droop-E is an acclaimed producer. Between aunts, uncles and cousins, there are many albums in the Stevens clan.

But Emari Stevens, recording under the name Issue (and hiding his face behind a mask), is the first one to dedicate a full-length to the subject of tea. There's little to no reference to his father's slanguistics, tales of street life or his signature "start-stop-and-go-scoot" delivery flow, as E-40 describes it. Instead, Issue's beats are blissed out and his rhymes are reflective of a dreamer's optimism. He doesn't care when he doesn't keep in time with the music, in fact he even points it out with humor.

The irony of the son of a rapper named after his ability to consume 40-ounce bottles of liquor (and who has recently launched a wine line) being a teetotaler is not lost on us.

Listen to Liquid Wisdom on Soundcloud.

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