E-40, G-Eazy, Too $hort, + more - Songwriting Royalties

Twenty years after these records came out of Vallejo and Sacramento, people are still playing them every day. The anchor is E-40's "Yay Area," and it earned more in the last twelve months than it did in the twelve before. The fourteen smaller titles behind the top five together grew 31%. These songs found their audience a long time ago, and they kept it.

Streaming is 78% of the last twelve months. A streaming royalty gets paid every time someone plays the song, so this catalog earns a little every day. 91% of the money is earned in the US. The rest comes from 46 countries, led by Germany, Canada, the UK, France, and Australia. Then there is the tail that only an old catalog builds. Satellite radio pays. Jukeboxes pay. Fitness platforms pay, and that line roughly doubled this year.

One number needs context. The last twelve months came in at $716 against $1,164 the year before. The prior year included a single television performance of "Hyphy" that paid about $533 in one statement. It was a one-time event. Take television out of both years, and the catalog earned about 14% more in the last twelve months than in the twelve before.

What deserves a closer look is concentration. "Yay Area" is 33% of earnings and the top five songs are 76%, so this is a focused position. The two newest recordings are also the two that are softening. G-Eazy's "Now & Later," from 2021, is off about 26% and has softened two years running. That is the normal path for a song moving past its release window. The twenty-year-old songs are doing the opposite.

For an investor, the risky earnings trend is over. These songs survived the steep drop-off that catches every new release, and they kept paying for two decades. Streaming has raised the floor under them ever since. You’re buying a catalog that has already proven it will not go away.

These nineteen songs sit at the center of hyphy, the Bay Area rap movement that broke nationally in the mid-2000s.

E-40 is the biggest presence, with seven recordings here. He is one of the most durable figures in West Coast rap, an independent label founder three decades into his career. "Yay Area," "Go Hard or Go Home" featuring The Federation, "Gouda" featuring B-Legit, and "Block Boi" featuring Miko all come from My Ghetto Report Card (March 2006), which hit No. 3 on the Billboard 200 and is still his highest-charting album. "One Night Stand" featuring DJ Kay Slay goes back to 2003, and "Knockin' at the Light" and "Over the Stove" came later.

The Federation, the Sacramento group produced start to finish by Rick Rock, brings seven titles. "Hyphy" featuring E-40 and "Go Dumb" were the two singles from Federation: The Album (October 2004), and "Hyphy" is widely credited with naming the movement. "Hoes in Here" is from that same record. "18 Dummy," "Get Naked You Beezy" and "My Rimz" come from the 2007 follow-up It's Whateva, which reached No. 23 on Top Rap Albums.

Three collaborations finish the catalog. "Now & Later" is from G-Eazy's These Things Happen Too (2021), featuring E-40, DaBoii and ShooterGang Kony. "This Shit Pound" comes from E-40 and Too $hort's joint album History: Function Music (2012). "Dat Baby" is a Shawty Putt record featuring Lil Jon and Too $hort.

Earnings Note. The 1Q2-025 spike of approximately $500 is from a one-time local cable television performance payment on "Hyphy". Any similar payments in the future will be payable to the buyer.